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Acting is a profession that still does not receive its due amount of respect. It is a profession that is difficult to make a worthwhile living in unless you hit it at the very top of the form. Since the world of acting can sometimes be divided between those who are famous and those who are highly skilled, this doesn't necessarily mean that you are actually a good actor or not. You can hit the high marks, make vast amounts of money and also have no talent.

There is acting in film and television and acting in theatre. Acting in one of these arenas does not always mean that you can act in the other. One can be a competent theatre actor and be completely unable to come across on camera. Likewise one can be beautiful on film and end up stiff as a board on the stage.

The paychecks between theatre and film are also very different. Salaries in theatre are not nearly what they are in film. Theatre would never reach the masses of audience members that film does so an actor's worth is not considered as great. It has become a practice of late to land a well-known film actor for the Broadway run of a play. For the play this actor will be a supposed box office draw; for the film actor the job represents a way of "legitimizing" their acting ability. Despite the lesser commodification of theatre it is still seen as the more prestigious of the two mediums.

A few years ago I heard a very well known theatre maker speak at a university. This is someone who has a long history of artistic directorship and important contribution to American theatre behind him. He was speaking that evening for a crowd of young student actors. He suggested that all actors get a day job and work in small community, or what I call volunteer, theatres. He said these smaller unprofessional theatres are doing a greater amount of artistic work and if actors really wanted to be artists this is where they would find enough interesting work to satisfy them. Professional theatre is too difficult to maintain continuum in, he said, and actors get caught up in taking work for work's sake that may not have any merit to it.

The crowd for whom this person spoke was not very happy to hear this news. They had imagined that with all his experience he would give them the magic formula to go out and be successful and had no intention of assuming they wouldn't make it in professional theatre. His news was a jolt but it is something worthwhile to remember.

Salaries in professional regional theatres across the country are typically not enough to sustain a normal life. They don't reach a level such that an adult actor, unless they are subsidized elsewhere, can raise a family, buy a home or build a savings on. Jobs are sporadic and in between an actor goes on Unemployment Compensation. It is a very sad fact that with the not for profit business model, where theatres have to account for their budgetary demands as they go begging for money, to pay actors a living wage looks bad on the books. Acting still does not sustain enough respect from Boards of Directors and donors to accept that actors should to be paid well enough to live like anyone else. If you learn nothing else about acting, this is something you need to know.

Learn more about this author, Jean Sidden.
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