questions about a gap year in LA

lesliek
Sat, 03 May 2014 07:00:47 +0000

Hi. This is my first time posting on this forum, although I (like many others, I’m sure) have been lurking and silently reading the wonderfully helpful posts on here for quite a while. I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who posts here, especially the people who post regularly and continue to contribute even after they are done with their own audition process. I also want to say that the parents on this forum are specially inspiring; as my parents are not very supportive of my decision to pursue an acting career and don’t want to be involved in my college applications, I truly appreciate that there are people out there who go out of their way to support their kids and increase their odds of success.

As for my actual questions:
I am a HS senior, graduating this month, and have decided to take a gap year. I thought a lot about this, and had it somewhat figured out since last summer; I live in a small town and could not afford to hire a private coach, but I was going to continue to take acting classes and remain active in the community theatre scene, seeking as many performance opportunities as I could, while preparing more intensively for auditions and working/saving money.
However, in a strange (and sudden) turn of events, my dad’s job is transferring him (and, by extension, me) to Los Angeles the day after I graduate. I know this is technically a good thing because there are a lot more opportunities in LA, but it has also been a bit overwhelming.

Because there are SO many places to find training, I can’t be sure of which ones are good and which ones are a scam; I am also not super experienced (one of the reasons I’m taking the gap year), so I don’t know which classes would be appropriate for my level and which ones are more advanced. I’ve been researching and asking the few people I know who live/have lived in LA, and what I’ve gathered is that a good option would be to do the Meisner program taught by one of the teachers who were approved by Meisner himself or William Esper, since that would give me more of a structure and is appropriate for beginners. But it’s a two-year program, and I was planning on applying to schools next year, so would it benefit me to do just the first year or is a bad idea?

Also, due to other strange circumstances, I now can afford to hire a private coach, but have the same problem I did when looking for classes; how do I know who is good or not? Plus, most coaches there focus on helping actors with professional - not college - auditions. Does anyone here live in or around the LA area and can give me recommendations (privately, if you don’t want to share it in this thread)?

Does anyone have any other advice, general or specific, about gap years, or LA, or anything like that?

I’m not expecting people here to give me all the answers, but I appreciate any help you can give me. Thank you very much, and sorry for the length; I’m just really confused.