Breaking and Entering

November 28, 2016
Carlson, an accomplished manager and talent agent for a number of successful actors, explains the critical choices and challenges of the drama student seeking a career in his new guide. The author lists many triumphs on his roster, including Claire Danes, Idris Elba, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Carlson explains how achieve professional success: keeping competitive, choosing the right training, preparing for roles, attending acting school and workshops, and selecting a good audition monologue. He reveals that most actors don’t earn big salaries, with half of Screen Actors Guild members making less than $10,000 per year from acting. His comments are quite like a great theater seminar, giving the inside dope on auditions on both coasts, cold readings, packaging oneself, talent agencies, and unions. Carlson’s refreshing, informative look into American theater, film, and TV offers major lessons about acting, career decisions, and the cutthroat business of entertainment.