Acting as a Business 101

10:00–11:00 A.M. – 4th Floor, Class B
There's more to launching a performing career than majoring in drama and getting on the bus for New York or L.A. Industry professionals offer advice on treating your acting career as a business and starting and maintaining your life as a working actor. Moderated by Suzy Evans, Associate Web Editor, Back Stage.

Speakers
-- Erin Cronican, Founder and Coach, The Actors' Enterprise
-- Tom Miller, Director of Outreach and Career Development, Actors' Equity Association
-- Roger Hendricks Simon, Director, Actor, and Teacher, The Simon Studio

SPEAKER BIOS

Erin Cronican, Founder and Coach, The Actors' Enterprise
Erin Cronican is the founder of the Actors' Enterprise (TAE), a one-on-one coaching service that provides affordable business training to actors who want to feel more fulfilled and in control of their careers.

With an approach that is hands-on and customized for each person, it helps actors set goals, organize their business, and create a plan of action with easy tools that can propel them to the next level. The focus includes coaching on marketing, branding, business skills, and audition techniques that help actors work smarter, not harder.

Erin is a professional actor (SAG/AFTRA/AEA) and continues to work steadily in film, TV, and theater. Visit www.theactorsenterprise.org or www.erincronican.com.

Tom Miller, Director of Outreach and Career Development, Actors' Equity Association
Prior to joining the staff of Actors' Equity, Tom Miller was an actor for over 25 years, performing in national tours, regional theater, Off-Broadway, and Europe. Additionally, he performed with the Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Florida, the Carl Ratcliff Dance Theatre, and at Opryland USA.

He can be seen in the documentary "Show Business: The Road to Broadway" hosting a Broadway opening-night Gypsy Robe presentation. For over a decade, Tom was honored to serve as a voter for the annual Tony Awards. Recently, he has served as a judge for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival's Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships.

Tom is a graduate of Indiana University with a degree in education. He has been an Equity member since 1983.

Roger Hendricks Simon, Director, Actor, and Teacher, The Simon Studio
Roger Hendricks Simon is the founding artistic director and principal teacher of the Simon Studio, now in its 34th year as a training and production center for actors, playwrights-screenwriters, and directors in NYC.

He appears in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street 2" opposite Michael Douglas and Josh Brolin, recently received critical acclaim as the star of the award-winning feature film "The Sublet," and is featured in the Simon Studio's current film series "Bread Today," for which he is also co-producer and director with Sarah Levine Simon and Dan Simon.

A graduate of the Yale School of Drama and founding member of Yale Repertory Company, he has directed, produced, and acted for Yale, the New York Shakespeare Festival, London's Royal Court Theatre, Dublin's Abbey Theatre, the Edinburgh Festival, Lincoln Center Theater, BAM, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Theatre Company, La MaMa, the Folger, the Great Lakes and Colorado Shakespeare festivals, PBS, Metromedia, BBC-TV, Time Warner Cable TV, and National Public Radio Playhouse (for which he was awarded NPR and NEA grants).

He is an associate member of and most recently directed a critically acclaimed "Seven Stories" for the Half Moon Theatre in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Elected to Notable Names in American Theatre, Roger has directed London, New York City, and international premieres, including those of Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard, David Hare, Michael Weller, and John Guare, and actors John Lithgow, James Earl Jones, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, and Tovah Feldshuh, among others.

Along with his Simon Studio in NYC, he is the founding artistic director of Classical Theatre Lab, now in its 21st year in Los Angeles. He has taught and directed in India, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, South Africa, and throughout Western Europe for the U.S. State Department and USIA. Commissioned by the city of Poughkeepsie, he and the Simon Studio have recently produced and directed a series of site-specific historical pageant dramas about the city.

MODERATOR

Suzy Evans, Associate Web Editor, Back Stage
Suzy Evans joined Back Stage in April 2011. In addition to helping manage all the digital platforms, she writes profiles, news, and trend pieces on theater, film, and television. She is also a theater critic for the publication.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, American Theatre magazine, Theatre Bay Area, The Brooklyn Rail, and Fast Company. She has a degree in English and theater from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University.