Expert: Peter Messaline - 9/1/2006

Question
Dear Peter,

What a lovely resource this is! Thanks in advance for your help.

I am a British (theatre) actress, soon to receive Canadian citizenship and hoping to move to Toronto early next year. I have an agent here, as well as lots of classical experience, plus I trained at a good theatre school here. I hope to audition for summer seasons and the Stratford Festival Conservatory next year.

I want to start making contact with good Toronto-based agencies. Over here we have a book called 'Contacts' that is a listing of all agents, casting directors and theatre producers in the UK. We also have a casting workbook called 'Spotlight' which allows our profiles to be viewed online. This also allows you to search actors and find out who their agents are - which is the way many English actors go about searching for the better agents. I'm struggling to work out who the reputable Toronto agents are because although I am researching some of your most talented actors, I cannot seem to find out who represents them. Plus it doesn't look to me like many Canadian agents have websites up and running. Are there any equivalent resources to the above in Canada?

I would also like to join Candian equity out there but am not sure how to do this. Will equity take me if I have only worked in the UK? I am a member of equity here.

Finally, headshots in the UK are supposed to be neutral and we are often told that they do not function in a US market because they are not glamorous enough. How do you feel this fits with the Canadian market? I don't know whether or not mine will work.

Best wishes,

Helen

Answer
Helen:
I like you already!

www.actratoronto.com has a listing of reputable agents in Toronto. TAMAC members are considered to be the more established. ENT and Oscars Abram Zimmel are I suppose top of the line.

The website has a rolling rotation of member headshots, which may give you a feeling for the Canadian media style. The LA 'smile until you burst' style is not so universal here, and theatre headshots certainly are much more interesting. There is frequently a three-quarter or full-length shot used. I don't like it, but I'm a traditionalist and think you shouldn't waste the space unless your body is in itself a selling point.

Much casting here is done through Casting WorkBook
www.castingworkbook.com
This takes the place of Spotlight, and plugs into the "Production / Casting Director / Agent" machinery that is universal in mainstream media and increasingly common in theatre work.

Listings of photographers and agents are found in two books:
Theatrebooks will send you a copy of their Organiser, a daybook coming out soon. They're at www.theatrebooks.com

Theatre Ontario publishes a listing and advisory book called The Agents Book which I think they'll send you. www.theatreontario.org

I remember both Spotlight and Contacts. Cary Ellison, long an editor there, was a mentor of mine for many years, and is part of the reason I'm on this board!

It's a very good idea to hit as many Toronto agents as you can, at least a couple of times before you arrive. You will have the advantage of novelty and of prestige gigs on your résumé, which should mean you get to talk to good agents, but you have the disadvantage of your accent.
The English accent is a great problem in media and even theatre casting. Even in historical pieces, everyone has a North American accent.
I still have my English accent, after thirty years, and it means I get the European baddie, but rarely an ordinary non-specific guy.
If you can find someone to teach you a nonspecific North American voice, and then boast of it in your promo material, and be prepared to interview in it, that will make you more money than any other learned skill.

UK Equity has a reciprocal agreement with ACTRA, the film and television union (separate juridictions here!), which gets you in as a member with a reduced initiation fee, and that gets you into Canadian Equity so that you can get first crack at Equity casting.

Stay in touch as your research progresses. I'm delighted to have had the chance to talk to you!

Peter Messaline