<p>Great article about living on an actors salary.</p>
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ASK PLAYBILL.COM: Chorus Salary
By Zachary Pincus-Roth
30 Aug 2007 </p>
<p>The feasibility of living in Manhattan on a chorus member's salary. </p>
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<p>This week's question comes from Adam Schwab of Morris Plains, NJ.</p>
<p>Question: I was curious what the typical salary is for a typical Broadway actor/dancer in NYC…(not your mega-bucks Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Hugh Jackman sort). Can you become financially successful enough to afford a Manhattan apartment?</p>
<p>Answer: Each performer who is in a Broadway show — or a Broadway show that's on an Equity (union) tour — must be paid at least $1,509 a week, according to the contract between Actors' Equity and the Broadway producers. Some chorus members make exactly that much. Others — especially if they're more seasoned, have a good agent or manager, and/or are in a show with more lenient producers — might make more.........
<p>Ha -- that's the key question! Rents can vary of course, but right now a student of mine is renting a one-bedroom, walk-up on the upper East Side(good neighborhood) for $1900 a month. Many young people find they cannot afford Manhattan, and end up renting in the outer boroughs or Jersey.</p>
<p>Very few actors in NYC live in Manhattan, and also most actors have roommates. Very few have their own place. Cost of living in the city is high, for everything. While $6000 a month sounds pretty good, and would be if this were a job that once you were hired, you had steady work, the reality is that most actors do not have steady work, and a very small percentage ever get a Broadway show. As the article says, even if every Broadway theatre was filled with a cast of 20 (never happens), that would employ approximately 800 actors. This is 800 out of approximately 17,000 Equity members in the city, and countless thousands more of non-union actors.</p>
<p>It truly is so discouraging for so many of these kids who flock to the city initially with no concept of the odds against them. I know too many of them! And it's not only the thousands of unemployed actors IN the city that they're competing with for jobs. Actors outside the city routinely audition and are considered for Broadway, off-Broadway and touring shows. I know of two just in the past couple of weeks who have been cast, a Canadian in Spring Awakening and a South African in Rent. If I think about this too much, it gives me a headache. :)</p>
<p>I'm just saying, some people end up lucky. There could be a 35 year old actor who struggles for years with no professional gigs, and all of a sudden a kid is cast in Spring Awakening from the open calls. Statistics aren't everything. There isn't a set deal.</p>
<p>yes JG6970 and everyweek SOMEONE wins the lottery, but I wouldnt count on it. Statistics have a way of smacking you between the eyes when your facing that your NYC rent is due and you have just fininshed your run (Ive been there) This is why its important to NOT take on any debt while you are in school and when your are out to keep a 6month living expense cushion in the bank.</p>
<p>I completely understand what you're saying, musicamusica. Don't get me wrong, I know how difficult it is, I'm not trying to start a fight. But not all 17,000 people are the same gender, type, and on the same talent level. True, that still leaves A LOT of competition. But it's not impossible, someone has to get the part.</p>
<p>And I cant resist (this comes from having two generations of my family in the entertainment industry) ---gender,type and talent level tend to narrow your
chances not increase them.</p>