Places to gold auditions in L.A.

[Joe Riggs]

I am not familiar with the L.A. area but I will be holding an audition there. I have spoken to various places and they are rather expensive $50 an hour. Can anyone recommend a specific place to hold the audition for relatively cheap or better yet free? Libraries?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Lori Starfelt]

If you call the Actor's Network in Studio City, they have a space that they will allow producers to use free of charge on Friday afternoons. I do a lot of casting at Debbie Reynold's Rehearsal Hall in North Hollywood - it's fairly convenient to Hollywood, has off street parking and a really great vibe. Their small room is under $20 an hour. I cast one project at Royal Grounds Coffee Shop in Atwater Village. They have a small patio in the back that I used.

What I would encourage you to do is pay much more attention to the resume than the headshot and that way you can cut down the number of actors you see dramatically and save money and time while seeing better actors. Focus on actors with a fair amount of theatre to their name. Give your preference to Actor's Equity members. UCLA theatre grads are usually superb - if you're looking at locals. Avoid models at all costs. Someone who only has a lot of commercials and unknown films and no theatre to their name is probably terrible - not always, but too often.

I could go on but I won't. Best of luck. I'm always interested in hearing about good actors.

[Joe Riggs]

Great Advice Lori, thanks.