Theater
Why Every Broadway Actor Needs a Website
The modern entertainment world thrives on digital communications and online marketing, so if you’re a Broadway actor asking yourself whether or not you need a website, the answer is: Absolutely!
A biographical or portfolio website is an invaluable tool for self-marketing, and should be considered a necessary calling card in today’s climate. Through this website, you can manage your own information (or have your agency assist you with managing it), control what prospective employers see, and have a link to provide in your playbill bios.
Why is Having a Website Important?
Pretend for a moment that you’ve just performed in a play or musical, and someone in the crowd has decided that you would be a perfect fit for a role they have in mind.
Like most people do when they first discover someone or something they’re excited about, that person Googles you. When you have a website available, that person can find all the information they need in order to make the decision to reach out. Your website should also have contact information, allowing prospective employers and directors to get in touch with you for interviews and offers.
If you didn’t have a website, that person who would’ve hired you is left with no easy way to get in contact with you and has very limited information about you. Not to mention, they may even think that you’re less professional than your peers who do have a portfolio website. Regardless of your experience, not having your own site as a Broadway actor can really put you behind in terms of opportunity.
What Should Go On a Portfolio Website?
A portfolio website is like an interactive resume for a Broadway actor, allowing those interested to see who you are, the kind of work you’ve done, and how your skills might benefit their own production. As such, you want your site to have all of the same information you would personally hand out at an audition.
Headshot and Bio – These are fairly self-explanatory. Any time you present yourself to potential employers (or even just to the general public), you want to have your best headshot front and center, and that’s exactly where it should be on the homepage of your website.
Your biographical information can go on the homepage or on an “About” page, but make sure to keep your audience in mind when writing it. Keep the tone personal and conversational, using first person perspective and an engaging tone.
Video Samples – If you have them, include a few video clips or reels of your work! Nothing goes farther when advertising your abilities than an actual demonstration–it’s like being able to audition every time someone watches the video. However, if you don’t have any clips available just yet, don’t wait to set up your website. It’s much better to have all of your other information readily available and add videos and updates later on than to have nothing at all.
Printables – Give your visitors the ability to print your headshots and work experience by adding printable PDFs for them to download.
Contact Information – Naturally, you don’t want to give a prospective employer every reason under the sun to want to hire you without giving them a way to reach out to you. Include any contact information you have, including phone number and email address. If you currently work through an agency, include their information here, too.
Blog – It’s wise to keep a sort of blog running on your website to keep track of your career moves. Post regular updates showing what kinds of classes you might be taking, which jobs you’ve landed and/or completed, post-audition selfies, and anything else that might give future employers a better idea of how dedicated you are to your craft.
Things to Keep in Mind
When you’re creating your website, there are a few key things to keep in mind to ensure it’s a successful marketing tool for you and is functional for your viewers.
Ease of Navigation – One of the most important things to do when creating a website is making sure it’s easy to follow. Nothing is more frustrating than going to someone’s page and having difficulty finding the information you need. In order to ensure easy navigation, you can either try a pre-built theme through a content management system like WordPress or just be certain to have visually logical menus and widgets.
Mobile-Friendly Version – Make sure that your website works well on multiple platforms, from desktops or laptops to phones and tablets. Agents and directors are often on-the-go and do a lot of their work from a mobile device, so test out your website to ensure it will appear properly. Testing is easy, thankfully. All you have to do is Google “mobile friendly test” and simply input your URL in the available slot!
Recommended Themes for Broadway Actors / Artists
There are plenty of good portfolio wordpress themes artists or actors can use, including some of the below:
Circle – Circle is an excellent theme for portfolios, particularly for actors and agencies. Its professional appearance and variety of homepage templates will help you impress prospective employers and agents while still maintaining a unique and personal design. A favorite feature in this theme is the “One-Click Demo Installation,” which allows you to instantly install whatever template you’ve chosen, hassle-free.
Formota – For a modern aesthetic, try Formota. It also offers numerous homepage options and one-click demo installation, but has a completely different aesthetic from Circle. The designs manage to remain simplistic while being both modern and edge, and you can easily add videos and slideshows to your pages with Formota’s intuitive editor.
Burbank – If you want a young, fresh, and minimalistic look for your portfolio website, try Burbank! This theme uses the Elementor Page Builder for easy drag-and-drop editing to save you time and headache, and the final result is gorgeous.
Every Broadway actor needs a website if they want to be taken seriously and have the same number of opportunities as their peers. Going without will only hurt your success, so if you haven’t already created a website for yourself, put together the information above and plan out what you want your site to look like. Once you’ve got your portfolio website up and running, attach that link to any playbills, business cards, and email signatures you have and watch your popularity rise!
Broadway
Theatre News: Smash, I Need That, Good Night, Oscar, Funny Girl, This Beautiful Lady and In The Trenches: A Parenting Musical
The NBC television series Smash is coming to Broadway for the 2024-2025 season. Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron and Steven Spielberg will produce. The musical will feature a book co-written by three-time Tony Award nominee Rick Elice and Tony winner Bob Martin. Tony and Grammy winners Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Some Like It Hot). The team earned three Emmy nominations for their songs from the “Smash” series will pen the score, which will feature numbers from the TV show.
Five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman (New York, New York) will direct and Tony nominee and Emmy Award winner Joshua Bergasse will choreograph.
The series was created by Theresa Rebeck and Spielberg, launch the series. Spielberg is also one of the co-producers of Good Night, Oscar, which begins performances at the Belasco Theatre on April 7.
Official dates, theater, creative team and casting for the “Smash” stage musical will be announced at a later date.
Speaking of the Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright Theresa Rebeck, Danny DeVito and Lucy DeVito are set to star in her new play I Need That at the Roundabout. The new comedy will be directed by Tony nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel which will open at the American Airlines Theatre in October. The cast will also include Ray Anthony Thomas. … Also newly announced for Roundabout’s new Broadway season is a spring 2024 revival of Samm-Art Williams’ 1980 Tony-nominated play “Home.” Tony winner Kenny Leon will direct
Speaking of Good Night, Oscar, Doug Wright’s play was named finalist for 2023 new play award by The American Theatre Critics Association. The other six finalists for the 2023 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award include: Born With Teeth by Liz Duffy Adams, the ripple, the wave that carried me home by Christina Anderson, Sally & Tom by Suzan-Lori Parks, Spay by Madison Fiedler and
Swing State by Rebecca Gilman.
Paolo Montalban and Anne L. Nathan are joining Lea Michele in Funny Girl as Florenz Ziegfield and Mrs. Strakosh. Montalban and Nathan will replace original cast members Peter Francis James and Toni DiBuono, who take their final bows on March 26th.
Elizabeth Swados’ This Beautiful Lady will play at La MaMa this May. Previews will begin May 5 for the Off-Broadway run ahead of the May 8 press opening, with performances set through May 28 in the Ellen Stewart Theatre.
In The Trenches: A Parenting Musical, with book, music, and lyrics by Graham & Kristina Fuller, will receive industry readings on Friday, March 24th at 11am & 3pm at Ripley Grier Studios. The readings will be directed by Jen Wineman (Dog Man: The Musical) and will feature music direction by Rebekah Bruce (Mean Girls) and arrangements by Dan Graeber, Graham & Kristina Fuller.
The cast of In The Trenches features Amanda Jane Cooper (Wicked), Jelani Remy (The Lion King, Ain’t Too Proud), Christine Dwyer (Wicked), Caesar Samayoa (Come From Away), Max Crumm (Grease, Disaster!), and Vidushi Goyal.Join two bleary-eyed young parents as they trudge through the trenches and discover their new post-baby identities. In an evening of new-parent greatest hits, a foul-mouthed toddler zeroes in on “the most dangerous thing in the room”, tap dancing towards bleach, knives, and tide pods; a chronically-overlooked younger sibling sings the “second child blues”; a mom trio celebrates yoga pants in an R&B love song to the “official mom uniform”; dad discovers he’s not the “ice-cream and movie-night cool parent” but rather the “do your homework real parent” amid a kiddo sugar-crash; and mom retrieves a sticky, hair-covered pacifier from the floor of a LaGuardia bathroom while her baby screams bloody murder and her flight boards without her.
Events
Jason Robert Brown, Chuck Cooper, Janet Dacal, Sutton Foster, Lillias White and More To Perform at TheaterWorksUSA Spring Gala
TheaterWorksUSA, currently presenting the hit family show Dog Man The Musical at New World Stages, will host its annual Spring Gala on Monday, April 24 (cocktails begin at 6 PM) at The Current at Chelsea Piers.
100% of the net proceeds from the event will support our mission to create exceptional, transformative theatrical experiences that are accessible to young and family audiences in diverse communities across New York City and North America.
This year TWUSA will honor Lisa Chanel (TWUSA Board Chair 2019-2022), Andréa Burns (Award-winning Broadway actress & educator), Peter Flynn (TWUSA alumnus and award-winning director, writer, and educator), and Holly McGhee (Founder and Creator of Pippin Properties, New York Times best selling author). The event will feature appearances by some of Broadway’s biggest stars, including Jason Robert Brown, Chuck Cooper, Janet Dacal, Kevin Del Aguila, Sutton Foster, Lillias White and more.
On behalf of TheaterWorksUSA’s Board of Directors, we are thrilled to celebrate the people who have generously supported our mission, making it possible for us to bring high-quality theater to young audiences of all backgrounds throughout the country. We look forward to recognizing Lisa, Andréa, Peter, and Holly publicly at this very special event. – Tracy A. Stein, Board Chair
It’s a privilege to honor these individuals for playing such an important role in the work we do. Their vision, creativity, and ongoing commitment to our mission is truly something to celebrate. They are very much a part of our TheaterworksUSA family.- Barbara Pasternack, Artistic Director
TheaterWorksUSA (Barbara Pasternack, Artistic Director; Michael Harrington, Executive Director) has led the Theater for Young and Family Audiences movement in New York City and across North America for over half a century. At TWUSA, we believe that access to art—and theater, in particular—is vital for our youth. Since 1961, the 501(c)3 not-for-profit has captured the imaginations of 100 million new and veteran theatergoers with an award-winning repertoire of over 140 original plays and musicals. Acclaimed alumni include Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Disney’s Frozen), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent), Jerry Zaks (The Music Man), Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen), Miguel Cervantes (Hamilton), Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America), and Chuck Cooper (Tony award-winning actor, The Life). WWW.TWUSA.ORG
Kids’ Night on Broadway, is where young people age 18 and under can see a participating Broadway show for free when accompanied by a full-paying adult*. A Kids’ Night on Broadway ticket also includes restaurant discounts, parking discounts, and more. Select shows will offer in-theatre activities for kids including talkbacks and activity books.
Participating shows include:
& Juliet
A Beautiful Noise
Aladdin
Bad Cinderella
Bob Fosse’s Dancin’
Camelot
Chicago
Hadestown
Hamilton
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Kimberly Akimbo
Leopoldstadt
Life of Pi
The Lion King
MJ The Musical
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Shucked
SIX (NOTE: due to show schedules, the Kids’ Night promotion for SIX took place yesterday)
Some Like it Hot
Wicked
If you haven’t gotten your ticket,,,,it is time to do so.
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