South Campus students may like to joke that upon graduation, North Campus students will be stuck waiting tables or stocking retail shelves, but theater majors need not fear this fate, for Los Angeles’ enormous theater industry provides a variety of opportunities to recent graduates.
Whether it’s joining an already-established theater company or starting one’s own, the proliferation and popularity of theater across Los Angeles may seem intimidating, but with the right mix of connections and assertiveness, attempts to break into the business don’t have to end with donning a McDonald’s uniform.
“It’s always a good idea in Los Angeles to be a part of a theater company because it connects you to a community of actors, and it can seem like a pretty wild, strange place out there in the world,” said Catherine Olivieri, a visiting associate professor in the School of Theater, Film and Television.
“(Working in a theater company) also gives students experience with working with other actors of different caliber, different disciplines and different types of acting skills.”
These experiences, however, do not come to the student but rather the student must seek them out.
“You learn about auditions through the trade papers or else you would go online and look at the equity auditions if you’re part of the union,” said Olivieri. “Prepare a bunch of monologues, sign up for an audition and audition for that company and they’ll call you back if you’re right for a specific part.”
Upon graduating from a conservatory, Olivieri, however, decided to found her own theater company with peers, just as UCLA alumnus from the class of 1991, Brian Kite, the president and founder of theater company Buffalo Nights, started his own company with his peers in the UCLA theater program.
“When we graduated, we wanted to keep doing what we were doing. On day one of rehearsal, we were already way ahead of where you’d probably be in the rehearsal process without a company made up of people that you know,” said Kite.
This advantage afforded Kite and his peers the opportunity to establish their own program of shows and have full freedom and flexibility over which parts they wanted both on and off stage. Jeff Maynard, another founding member of Buffalo Nights and UCLA alumnus, enjoyed the opportunities to explore different roles in the theater.
“The first play we did, everyone did everything. Somebody stage managed, somebody did lighting, somebody did all of those different things and eventually we began to do less and less on our own and we began to bring other people in to do those things,” said Maynard.
The founding members of Buffalo Nights tried to establish a niche for their company by choosing alternative plays to produce.
“All of our material is a little bit quirky. We try to find something a little more stylistic and theatrical about our work that makes it a little more appropriate for the stage than for film and television,” Kite said. Buffalo Nights really got its start, however, when the Los Angeles Times reviewed the company’s first shows and it received a “Critics’ Choice.”
“It’s hard to get (press) to take notice of a new company because anybody can say they have a company, and I think a lot of companies start and die out mid-way, and they’re not a company anymore,” said Maynard.
While working with one’s friends proves a viable route for recent theater graduates, the task is not easy.
“You need some start-up capital, and often your creative ideas are not going to generate revenue,” said Maynard. “A lot of companies are due-paying companies where actors will pay dues to be part of the company, but that’s a thing at Buffalo Nights that we’re against.”
Olivieri also warns against the monetary difficulties of an acting career.
“If you want to be in theater and be paid in the 99-seat theater, there really aren’t any paid positions. The idea behind 99-seat theaters is that you are giving back to the community by doing theater. Until you can make a living as a person in entertainment, you’ve got to get any kind of job you can get that’s flexible,” she said.
In spite of this, Olivieri urges students in her theater classes not to give up what they want to do.
“Just keeping going and getting out there and getting up each day and knowing that someone will need your particular personality to be with them and work with them. It’s really important for everyone to realize that there’s no one else out there like them,” said Olivieri.
Kite agrees that gaining support may be a challenge, but in the end, contributing to the theater community does not have to be an onerous process.
“There’s money, there’s taxes, and tax returns and legal documents and non-profit status and marketing and PR stuff and all these other things, but you can’t let that get in the way of your main purpose, which is working together and putting on great theater,” Kite said.
Becoming overwhelmed by business should not be a challenge for those who truly pursue their desired goals.
“Focus on what you want to do. Don’t lose sight of that,” he said.