I’ll take a stab… FYI: This is MY take on it all; not my son’s and he does not share his day to day with me.
He is 2015 graduate. It helps that he is a dancer.
- Besides NYC, what towns are good places to live for aspiring MTs? I agree with halflokum the challenge is to be where the auditions are. For instance my son was cast in Mary Poppins at TUTS in Houston. Auditions were held in NYC but they did have local auditions and some of the cast was made up of those who were local. A friend’s daughter has been auditioning in and working continually in Chicago.
- What sorts of “survival” jobs did you find? Right now my son is playing a waiting game. He is cast in a show scheduled to go to Broadway but they are one show in a long list of shows are waiting for a theater. That wait is now longer than anyone anticipated. He continues to audition because he has to. He might have to make a hard decision. In the mean time he has been cobbling together work... choreographing, cabarets, a dance video. He also has a roommate who schedules live promotional-type things... he can pick and choose the ones he is interested in.
- Did you continue to train/take classes? He has a dance card at Broadway Dance and Steps on Broadway. For his birthday he asked for refills on those. Thinking about a vocal coach now that he has been out of school and “out of work” for a while now.
- How many auditions do you typically go to? I don’t hear about them all. It seems to me he is going on 2 - 4 a week with additional time needed for callbacks.
- How important is it to have an agent when you first get to the city? He got his agent from Senior Showcase. He is very happy with them. I don’t think he has gone on any open calls. If there is something he is interested in, he asks his agent to try and get an appt. That is not always possible.
- If you don’t already have an agent, how do you go about getting considered by agents? Again, he got an agent at Senior Showcase.
- What sorts of jobs are not good for the resume? No idea. Again agree with halflokum. No one has every asked where he got his equity card. Perhaps it is clear from his resume.
- What do you think of cruise ship jobs? A friend’s daughter had a nine month contract on a cruise line mostly in Europe. She socked away a TON of money and saw the world. She has a boyfriend and it was very hard to be that far away. Also, she had to do some non-performing duties like dance classes or something.
- What do you think of amusement park jobs?
- What about traveling shows for youth? No clue...
- Are there good social media or websites for post grads to get help with finding auditions, finding work, finding housing, etc.? Nothing additional to add.
I will add that we had a big discussion on whether he should take his equity card freshman year as it would prohibit him from taking non-eq jobs. It was a moot point because he would have had to take it before graduating based on his other employment. It is another decision that has to be made in this crazy business.
If anyone has any specific question please feel free to ask.