Acting Answers is a compilation of articles that discuss the art and commerce of acting, whether on-camera, on-stage or on-mic. Questions are answered in many categories of acting, from the craft and skill of performance to the business of running your acting career.

We discuss acting, casting, talent agencies, headshots, resumes, the performing arts in general, voiceover, acting schools, workshops, acting classes (what to look for and what to avoid), what you’ll encounter on set and in the studio when you act for film and television, the terminology of acting and more.

Acting Answers is a work in progress, an exhaustive repository of all things acting. We’d love your feedback via the comments on each article’s page. Do review the You page to get ideas on how to get the most out of Acting Answers by participating in the process, asking questions not yet answered here, and being generous in answering questions with which you have knowledge.

I want this site to be as useful to all actors as is humanly possible. How you use this site will vary based on where you are in your acting career. But wherever you… find yourself, I do want you to be a part of the site – active in the discussion, generous with advice to your fellow Acting Answer reader, and pleasant to deal with. Most of what we do as actors is extremely satisfying, and rarely do we deal with angst when we’re working. Getting the gig/chasing the dream is a different emotional story, of course, but even then, playing nice with others here is really important to me.

If there is a particular topic you’d like to have me cover, please let me know via email at davidlawrence@gmail.com. If there is something you want to discuss, take issue with, disagree with, agree with, get clarification on, correct me on or the like, use the comment feature at the bottom of every page. I’d love nothing more than a vigorous discussion on the topics presented here. Acting is an art, a craft and a business. Few things in acting are absolute, but how we feel about our individual approach to acting sometimes feels that way.

Please be nice to one another here, and please be nice to me. I will promise to do my best to do the same.

If a correction is warranted, I’ll update the page in-line, meaning you won’t be reading an article, get the information you need, then have that information be countermanded in an “Update!” or 7 at the bottom of the post. I’ll just re-write the naughty nits that need correcting.

Also, remember, acting is a world wide profession, with acting production centers, classes, workshops and resources here in LA, in New York and other places in the US, in London, Sydney, Tokyo, Prague, and every place in between. I usually write from the perspective of a Los Angeles based actor, so your mileage may vary. I absolutely welcome information on the state of affairs in other parts of the world and will attempt to be as inclusive in my journaling about my profession as I can. Help me out, but don’t take me to task about not knowing what the best schools for Noh are in Tokyo. I’d love to find out, but I don’t live there.

Finally, when I say “he” or “she” (I’ll usually say “he” but not out of sexist or misogynistic tendencies) when referring to a fictional character or industry figure, please know that I mean no disrespect to the opposite sex.