If you want to be cast on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, the best place to start is by talking to a New York casting director. The easiest way to do that is to take an all-day class at Actors Connection with Kevin Kuffa, head casting director. Coincidentally, there’s an all-day New York acting seminar with Kevin tomorrow (Saturday). Click here to learn more about the class.

Wouldn’t you love to see your name in the opening credits? Or simply any of the credits?

Roz Coleman, who will be teaching “inTreatment,” an on-camera New York City acting class, beginning April 26, recently offered some observations on “A-listers” she has worked with in film, stage and television. Here is one observation that she shared about the stars:

Another thing about the stars, they are in much better shape than the rest of us. Touching Tom Cruise, for example, is like touching stone and it makes you feel so unfit. The best I can compare them to is elite olympiads/athletes — but applied to the craft of acting.

They are completely fit: vocally, physically, mentally. It’s very humbling to work with them. These people are really good and I didnt’ realize they were going to be so good. At the same time, they are very human, very down to earth…

Click here to learn more about Roz’s class.

For a list of acting classes in New York City, check out the tabs at the top of this page.

Now You Can Always be a LOCAL!

by Tony Nation

As a working actor performing in NYC, it’s important that agents and New York casting directors ALWAYS recognize your contact phone number as a local number.  You don’t want to lose work because the industry thinks you’re either out of town or too far away to get in for a last minute audition!

Now for FREE, you can get a Google Voice local phone number for incoming calls which is currently available only for users in the United States.
Users may select a single US phone number from various area codes. Incoming calls to the number may ring simultaneously any of the user’s configured phones or the account’s Google Talk feature. Based on the calling number, or contact group (e.g., Family, Friends, Work), or on time of day, e.g., disabling a home phone during business hours and routing calls to mobile or business number, individual numbers may be configured to ring. The service also features voicemail with indexable automated voicemail transcription, accessible via a web browser, e-mail, or by phone. The number of rings before voicemail takes over is preset, however, and cannot be changed by the user. Google Voice provides automatic blocking of known numbers, e.g., telemarketers, the ability to switch lines in mid-call, differentiated voice mail greetings based on caller, SMS forwarding, and call recording.

Follow this link for more information on Google Voice, it’s features and how to get set up.

Now whether you’re in NY or LA or Chicago, you can now always have a local number for your business of acting!

All My Children has been on the air for 40 years and, come September, Erica Kane will no longer be a part of the television landscape.

One Life to Live also has been cancelled. Very soon, there will only be 4 daytime soap operas left on t.v.

According to the Chicago Sun Times,

….the demise of daytime soaps also endangers their cherished conventions: evil twins, reversible deaths and commercials signaled by actors with frozen expressions.

They’re also boot camp for stars such as Kim Delaney, Kelly Ripa, Josh Duhamel, Sarah Michelle Gellar and recent Oscar winner Melissa Leo (all seen on “All My Children”), and Dixie Carter, Laurence Fishburne, Tommy Lee Jones and Mario Van Peebles (“One Life to Live”).

The soaps are being replaced by talk shows. Has anyone out there reading this been on one of these daytime dramas? If you do, are there any stories you would be willing to share about how working on soap operas helped you as an actor pursue your dream of acting in New York City?

Remember the hit t.v. show Three’s Company? Well guess who’s going to be teaching a 4-week class about comedy for film and television at Actors Connection starting this Sunday?

Richard Kline, who played the  sleazy neighbor and used car salesman, Larry Dallas, on the sitcom, Three’s Company. What you may not know is that Richard is a professional Broadway/TV actor and award-winning theater director who was most recently seen as the Wizard of Oz in Wicked (1st National Tour), November on Broadway and in the feature film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry starring Adam Sandler.

If you are interested in comedy, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn from a master. So come and knock on our door this Sunday at noon!

Click here to learn more about the class.

Reading this blog too late and missed Richard’s class? Click on the Classes tab at the top of this page to explore our other great NY acting classes.