How to get into show business? Please read?

Question

I am 20 years old college student study and live in New York City. I have done some acting in high school. I can sing and dance, both which I am still learning. I love to listen to Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Dean Martin. I also love Broadway and MGM musicals. My style of singing is jazz, rock & roll, and crooning.

My major in college is business administration (particularly in the concentration of international trade, marketing, and finance). I can sing and I can sing good, but I don't have any background in music, whether playing music or reading notes. Now I want to start off as a singer/dancer or actor on Broadway, then may be later on to the movie industry. What college courses should I study? Where should I start, would you say Broadway or some small theater? Who should I contact or look for to have myself and my talent to be discover? How should I market myself?

Answer 1

Fill up all the electives you can with music, dance and acting. Try to get an agent, and apply to everything you find out about. Network with other people you meet at open auditions.

Good luck with Broadway, you will probably have better luck at an audition for off-Broadway. Develop a thick skin, you are going to need it.

You may also need to get an agent, and take some acting courses. See how many electives you can use from school to take acting, dancing and music. For singing, YOU REALLY need to know how to read music and how to blend harmonies.

Answer 2

If you want to pursue acting, you need to be really serious about it. Going half-assed would just mean that you waste your time and end up discouraged. That being said, take acting classes in school. Acting classes, improv classes, singing classes, and dance classes will all help, especially if you're interested in broadway.

You need to get headshots and build a resume. Start auditioning for student productions at your school. Look into internships at local theaters. Find out if any friends of friends are interested in the business. If you don't have a musical background then take a LOT of music classes and get one. Maybe take private lessons from a voice tutor.

As annoying as this sounds, buy a book about establishing yourself in New York and READ IT. You can probably go to the theater department at your school and check out their required reading list and find a good one.

Don't give up. Once you're ready to start, remember that there is no role too small. Be ready to wait for hours at open auditions, crash auditions, subscribe to lists of upcoming auditions... You have to start somewhere. Eventually, you have to start sending your headshot/resume to agents, invite agents to come see your productions, and try to land one, but even then you need to market yourself.

The biggest thing you need to do is take the step.

Break a leg!

Answer 3

It sounds as though you are very well rounded with regards to the arts and having your bases covered.

But remember,Talent that shines and shines well takes
hard work even when given many gifts to sing or dance or act.

Choose one thing.Choose your greatest gift and pursue it madly with reckless abandon.

It is good to be fluid and diverse as you are,but

think of it like this;Sinatra was a voice,a music genius,
an arranger,a producer,a poet,a storyteller.
All of these gifts he had served his primary passion,
music.Yes,Sinatra had an acting career,but it was
a mere sideline to where his genius shined the brightest,his voice and those wonderful songs.

Answer 4

As Simon Cowell would say:

You do not have the X factor.

Don't give up your day job