NETC for actors

College Majors Theater/Drama Majors
1

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone had any insight on how useful NETC is for straight actors.

I looked at the list of last year’s theaters, and it seems that more than half are musicals only and that the remaining straight theater opportunities include quite a few “pay for play” situations. Has anyone on this board ever booked non-musical work from NETC? My S is a pretty good singer and dancer, but since he’s got an acting slot, I’m assuming he will not be considered by those theaters.

Thanks for any help. It’s going to cost a few hundred dollars, just curious whether it’s worth it or not.

2

I have the same question!

3

Here’s last year’s list. I have a version of this with the straight theaters (or theaters that do some straight theater) highlighted, but the formattiing doesn’t show up in messages:

Arcadia Repertory Theatre, American Stage Festival, Arundel Barn Playhouse, Barnstormers, Barrington Stage, Berkshire Theatre group (pay-to-play), Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre, Buckskin Joe Frontier Town and Railroad, Busch Gardens WIlliamsburg, Carousel Music Theater, Chamber Theatre Productions (TYA), Children’s Stage Adventures, Circle in the Square Theatre, Encore at the Point, Fiddlehead Theatre, Glove Theatre, Hackmatack Playhouse, Hampstead Stage Company, Hangar Theatre, Inter-Lakes Region Summer Theatre, Lost Nation Theatre, Mass MOCA, Matt Davenport Productions, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Missoula Children’s Theatre (TYA), Mt. Washington Valley Theatre Co., New Bedford Festival Theatre, New London Barn Playhouse, New York Film Academy, North Country Center for the Arts, Ogunquit Playhouse, Papermill Theatre, Peterborough Players, Plimoth Plantation Players, Powerhouse Theatre Traing Program at Vassar College ($5000), Prescott Park Arts Festival, RWS and Associates Entertainment, Inc., Shakespeare Productions, Inc., Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Sterling Renaissance Festival, Summer Repertory Theatre, Texas Family Musicals, The Theatre At Monmouth, Theatre IV, Theatre West Virginia / MSU, Walnut Street Theatre, Weathervane Theatre Players.

4

I am always a year or two behind you ladies… What is NETC?

5

New England Theater Conference. It’s one of those combined auditions. It’s in Boston. My S has a slot this year for the first time, and as usual, I am worrying and second-guessing everything. Never stops, right?

6

I have had students boom paying work at NETC from the acting only room. No guarantees, of course.

Generally, the musical companies are not in the acting only room unless they have representitives in both rooms.

7

Thanks @KatMT. I think I need to get a life.

8

“book” paying work…

@jkellynh17 :smile:

9

Okay, so just to close the circle, I am thinking that I would not especially recommend NETC to acting majors (or MTs who get acting slots.) Especially if your kid is in a major theater city and able to audition there.

10

Not many acting roles jkellynh17?

11

Well, I don’t know really, but my S got an acting only slot and specified that he wasn’t interested in internships (so no pay for play) and he ended up getting zero callbacks. He’s been getting callbacks for straight theater in Chicago. It’s possible he just had a terrible audition, too. It seemed slanted to MT to me.

12

I did get to meet up with @halflokum and @calliene so that was fun.

13

There are paid internships as well as non-paid. I usually tell my students to say “yes” to everything on the form. No decisions to make until an offer is made, and you never know what kinds of opportunities there will be.

There are generally more MT theatres at NETC, but what is nice for actors is that there is a room specifically for theatres looking to hire actors. They are the only conference that does that, to my knowledge.

Zero callbacks could mean an audition that did not go super well… but just as likely that it did go well and the auditionee was not right for particular seasons, availability didn’t match contract dates, etc… I used to cast for a theatre out of NETC, Strawhat, and other conferences. Very often there were people who gave terrific auditions who I could not call back because they would not work for the season.

All that being said… sorry NETC was not a great experience for your son. :frowning: It is disappointing and frustrating to put the time, energy, and money into an audition trip and feel like it was a waste. :frowning:

14

Thanks @KatMT. I think the “no” to internships probably hurt him, but he felt like if he was going to do an internship he wanted it to be in Chicago where he could continue to connect with local theater professionals. A lot of really good things have been happening for him lately, so I want to focus on that rather than this one negative thing. He’s got a staged reading next month with an equity theater in Chicago and a lot of upcoming auditions there and one pretty warm prospect, so I think something good will happen for him, but not here. I do appreciate your insight, as always. Thank you for the “other side of the table” perspective.

15

Sounds like he has terrific opportunities in Chicago! Such a great town for theatre!! :slight_smile:

16

What I’ve learned this year is that interns/apprentices just might work. There are acting internships/apprenticeships so like @KatMT‌ said, say yes to everything. He can sort it out later.

17

He actually just got a pretty good apprentice company gig in Chicago today, so yeah, I agree, that was a mistake, but it came out okay in the end.