On the Road Again
By Sheila Hageman, N2Arts Correspondent
Getting your acting start by going on tour
 

reak into the New York City acting scene by leaving the city as soon as you arrive! That’s how it happened for me - a few months after moving from the suburbs, after struggling to find an “affordable” apartment, I was leaving to tour the country.

I landed the role of Mandy Middleton in Periwinkle National Theatre’s production of “Halfway There” - a teen drama. This show is part of a group of productions known as TYA, Theatre for Young Audiences. 

The Audition

I entered the studio to discover a cattle call, meaning there are no set audition times - everyone just shows up, signs in and waits for their number to be called. There were about 50 other young, blonde, girl-next-door actresses sipping water nervously, obviously there to audition for the same role as me.

After the fourth and final callback I knew I cinched the job when I broke down into tears during my character’s breakdown scene. 

The Contract

My first acting contract! Make sure you read through the whole thing. It will spell out all the good stuff, like what your salary and per diem (a daily allowance for food) will be. And as one actor on my tour found out, there are also usually a few lines about not radically changing your hairstyle while under contract.

The Rehearsal

“Halfway There” had been touring for many years with only minor script updates to keep the teen-lingo sounding hip. New actors were added as needed by simply dropping them into the pre-blocked scenes. After only about 3 weeks of rehearsal - we hit the road.

The Road

This particular touring company was low-budget - no luxurious buses with fold down seats for us. The eight of us traveled in a van, which we donned “The Winkle Wagon.” I found out quickly how exhausting it is moving from one state to another, sometimes night after night.

We stayed at your basic one-step-down from Holiday Inn type hotels. We dined at fast food restaurants and buffets. (Some actors actually snuck in Tupperware and made those buffets really worth their price!)

Social Experience

The quickest way to really get to know others is to travel across the country with them...work with them, eat with them, date them. It’s like living in a college dorm on wheels.

The Show

Depending on the production company, you may either have no responsibilities except acting, or you may also be a “stage hand.”

In my show, the actors loaded in all the equipment, built our set, performed, and then broke everything down again. Sometimes we would do that 3 times a day, performing in a high school in the morning, a school for troubled teens in the afternoon, and a college at night.

How do you keep a role fresh when you’re performing that often? There are no easy answers. There were days when I would forget how lucky I was to be working as an actor, days when my understudy was 1,000 miles away and I knew I was going to have to perform with a 100-degree fever. I learned flexibility and perseverance. 

Touring is a great way to learn a lot about acting (and life) fast. You’ll never feel more like a star (until you actually are one) then you will on tour - be welcomed into small towns as straight off of Broadway. Be hounded for autographs. Get paid for what you love to do. See the country on someone else’s dime.

And best of all...be who and what you are, an actor, everyday. 

Sheila Hageman is a certified and registered yoga teacher. She graduated as valedictorian from Hunter College in January 2002 with a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing. A freelance writer, she is published in magazines such as Salon.com, Moxie, Fate, Science of Mind and New York City Voices. Sheila also has a background in theatre having performed both locally and nationally.