Your Face Looks Familiar--: How to Get Ahead as a Working Actor

Front Cover
ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2006 - Education - 156 pages
"If you are crazy enough to want to be an actor, at least be smart enough to read this book."
- Martin Mull "Actors need to start to make connections between themselves and the enormity of the possibilities out there. When you begin making connections to people with experience that have made it, it gives you a connection to the world you want to get into. Here actors can read about ways to maintain their integrity while in the embattlements of time and pressure."
- Richard Schiff, Emmy Award Winning Actor, "The West Wing" "Who better to tell our tale than one of our number. Thank you Michael for writing this book."
- John P. Connolly, President, AFTRA "Your Face Looks Familiar should be required reading for anyone who is thinking about acting as a career choice."
- Marcia R. Smith, Executive Director, Screen Actors Guild Foundation You've probably imagined your star on the Walk of Fame, but you've probably also realized there's only so much sidewalk. In a field as competitive as acting, you need sound advice grounded in the reality of show business, not another voice telling you to reach for the stars. In "Your Face Looks Familiar," you'll come face to face with working actors and find out how they earn a good living while satisfying their artistic impulse.

"Your Face Looks Familiar" details the ins and outs of the business of acting, demystifying the process of building a career for new actors and veterans alike. Michael Bofshever not only shares his experiences as a thirty-year performer and acting teacher, but through interviews reveals the successful strategies of over fifty screen, stage, and television actors for maintaining a happy, healthy working life. You'll learn proven techniques for auditioning, coping skills for both success and rejection, methods for transitioning from stage to screen, and much more. Bofshever even includes helpful hints like the Actor's To-Do List to help make acting work for you.

With literally hundreds of years of acting experience behind it, "Your Face Looks Familiar" is an ideal resource for any actor who is serious about finding a foothold in Los Angeles or New York, on the stage or on the screen. Read it and be ready to play a part that's right for you: successful working actor.

From inside the book

Contents

Ready Set Go
11
Passion Process and Perseverance
25
Audition KnowHow
38
Copyright

5 other sections not shown

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2006)

Michael Bofshever has been a working actor, acting teacher, and director for thirty years on stage, on television, and in film. He has been a series regular with countless guest-star appearances on episodic television, has appeared in fifteen motion pictures, and performed in hundreds of commercials. He has taught acting at UCLA extension, the Michael Howard Studio, and Theater for the Forgotten and continues to teach privately. He is well-known around Los Angeles for his scene-study class as well as for Journey of the Working Actor, a seminar which he regularly conducts for the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. He frequently speaks about building an acting career at the American Film Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and universities throughout the country. Please visit his website at www.michaelbofshever.com.

Bibliographic information