It’s that time of year again when actors graduating from undergraduate and graduate acting programs are preparing to perform showcases to acquire representation and become known to the casting communities in both New York and Los Angeles. In most cases, the students will perform a scene or two, or in the case of musical theater programs, the students will often perform a song as well as a scene. Usually, but not always, the selections will be made by the students in conjunction with the faculty advisor or showcase director.
As it is not possible for any school to be aware of what students from other schools will be performing, and because those in academia are not present at many showcases, they are often in the dark about works that industry people sometimes consider “overdone.” There are two camps in this regard: those who feel they’ve seen certain things and they really would like to see fresher material, and those who are more concerned with what the actor is bringing to the scene he or she has chosen. However, as I glance through over 100 programs I have from showcases I have seen, it seems that a more creative search on the part of students and their teachers might bring the two
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