AIP022 | How to Strategize Workshops with Casting Directors, Agents, and Managers to Achieve Your Acting Goals – with Gianmarco Soresi

Gianmarco Soresi
Gianmarco Soresi

Actor Gianmarco Soresi talks with host Ben Hauck about his incredible year of paying for workshops with casting directors, agents, and managers.

In the interview, Gianmarco shares what strategies he used as he spent a large amount of money on workshops and how those strategies evolved as he figured out their function in his acting career.  His goals evolved too, and Gianmarco walks Ben through his evolution from focusing on legit theatrical work to focusing on commercials, and from focusing on casting directors to focusing on agents and managers.

Gianmarco gives great insight on choosing and researching workshops, finding package deals to make your dollar go farther, working as a reader in these workshops, keeping in touch with industry professionals, and handling schedule conflicts on days you have a workshop.  He even covers some of the ethical issues that surround workshops.  All in all, Gianmarco offers up the lessons he learned from his year-long experience in workshops with casting directors, agents, and managers so that you can spend less money and better strategize your approach to them.

Ben concludes the episode with a plug for The Infinite Need, a 2012 fully improvised web series which satirizes casting director workshops.

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☞ Mentions in This Episode

Episode Sponsor

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Gianmarco Soresi’s Bio
Gianmarco Soresi
Gianmarco Soresi

Gianmarco Soresi is an actor, stand-up comedian, and playwright.  Recent credits include CBS’s Blue Bloods, ABC’s What Would You Do?, Investigation Discovery’s A Crime to Remember, Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 35th Marathon of One-Act Plays, and That Bachelorette Show Off-Broadway. His play, <50%, premiered in 2014’s New York International Fringe Festival and was selected for the Encore Series where it was optioned for an Off-Broadway revival later in 2015. His award-winning web series, An Actor Unprepared, can be seen in full at AnActorUnprepared.com. Gianmarco currently writes and performs sketches for Soresi&Sass and Uncle Function, and he does stand-up all around New York City.

Workshop Businesses Mentioned in This Episode

This episode focuses on New York City businesses that offer workshops with casting directors, agents, and managers.  Not every business that offers these workshops is mentioned in the episode.  Do crosscheck any characterizations of the prices, admission, cancellation, or other policies made in this episode, as those policies may change at any time.

Episode 2 of The Acting Income Podcast

Episode 2 is mentioned in the episode, and it deals with the difference between rules and principles as explained in detail in Ben’s book Long-Form Improv.

IMDbPro

Signing up for an Internet Movie Database Pro account gets you access to information not publicly available on the Internet Movie Database.  In particular, a Pro account can point you to agents and managers and the clients whom they represent.

Using their lists of clients, you can gauge whether they represent actors of your calibre or type — or whether their rosters may have too many of your calibre or type.

There are lots of additional benefits to having an IMDbPro account.

Casting Websites

On the following websites mentioned in the episode, casting directors post projects for which you can submit as an actor.

Liz Lewis Casting Partners

In the interview, Gianmarco mentions that Liz Lewis Casting casts many commercials and short films.

The Infinite Need Web Series

In 2012, Ben Hauck and Mandy May Cheetham produced the fully improvised web series The Infinite Need, which satirizes casting workshops.

Promos for The Infinite Need

The Ten-Episode Series

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To sponsor a future episode of The Acting Income Podcast, get in touch here.

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☞ Conclusion

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