Newly arrived in Los Angeles, Cara Quici opened her welcome packet for Oakwood Corporate Housing and found a prominently placed advertisement for piano lessons. As it happened, that was precisely the type of instruction she was seeking. Quici had been forced to bypass acting and modeling opportunities in Los Angeles when she visited the city in her teens. Returning to L.A. at age 22, after a foray in the financial profession, and settling in at Oakwood's Toluca Hills complex, the actor knew she needed to hone her instrument-playing skills, and the convenience of the training was certainly a draw.
As a result of the ad, she began studying piano with Oksana Kolesnikova, who runs the Oksana School of Music and Acting out of Oakwood. Kolesnikova soon put her pupil together with singing coach Doug Appleoff and with acting coach Ross Mackenzie. And the actor, who played piano during her recent stint on the reality show Momma's Boys, couldn't be more delighted.
"How annoying would it be to wake up every morning to drive through L.A. traffic just to get to your classes," says Quici. "It's so convenient for artists who live here just to wake up and walk across to another apartment and get great schooling."
Indeed it's the one-stop shopping-training-living aspect at Toluca Hills that Oakwood dwellers say draws them to the apartment complex for a long-term stay and that often brings them back to Oakwood every time a new pilot season -- or, these days, a long-term Los Angeles–based casting opportunity -- beckons.
Granted, an actor can't structure his or her entire existence around Oakwood; the auditions and meetings won't typically come to you. But residents say a lot of the necessities are on Oakwood's grounds: deli, dry cleaner, fitness center—all are places where actors can meet and mingle. And the location provides ease of access to the job market, should the newly arrived actor be so lucky: The Warner Bros. and NBC studios are within walking distance down Cahuenga Boulevard, and Disney Studios is not far off.
With this convenience and proximity comes a price tag: $1,100 to $4,000 per month, depending upon the size of the apartment and how it's furnished.
Starter Kits and Kids
Since 1991, Oakwood activities director Rosie Forti has been steadily beefing up the facility's activities and resources for child actors and their parents who have been flooding Oakwood during pilot seasons for years. In the early 1990s, when Oakwood first started gearing programs to young actors and their families, the pilot-season cycle followed a predictable pattern (see "The Evolution of Pilot Season," page 20). Now television is being cast year-round. To assist the actors, Oakwood hosts visits from agents, managers, coaches, and casting director panels; it also holds networking brunches and talent showcases. Adult actors get occasional industry-networking nights and visits from guest speakers.
"Networking is the big word we use," says Forti. "I introduce people, dot the i's and cross the t's. When they first arrive here, I try to make them feel welcome, like it's a community." Oakwood, she hastens to add, is in the apartment business, not the entertainment industry. When a resident -- current or former -- makes a connection, books a gig, or makes a name for himself or herself, Forti and the staff take heart but no credit. "There are no guarantees, no promises. I don't say they're going to meet or get an agent. I can't," she says. "We are not in that business. We're in the apartment business, but a lot of industry people stay here."
They do indeed. Jessica Biel and Jennifer Love Hewitt have been Oakwood residents, as have Raven-Symoné and Friday Night Lights' Jesse Plemons. Quici recalls seeing one of the stars of the vampire film Twilight around the grounds, but he became less visible once the movie became a hit.
Going to Network
It's a Monday a few days before Christmas, and the facility's usually jammed parking lot is noticeably unjammed. The residences will likely empty for the holidays, although those who stay behind will find apartment-arranged holiday cheer. With the arrival of the new calendar year, scheduled networking activities will kick back into gear, and Forti says she plans new industry-targeted events and presentations based on the occupancy demand.
Connections aren't struck up exclusively at structured events. Actors meet each other over a meal at the onsite deli, in the fitness center, or at the business center. Actor-turned-singer Tarah New met her future bandmate for the group Shytown while riding her bike near the clubhouse. "A lot of people come and go, so I'm almost hesitant to make friends with someone who is leaving in a month," says New. "People here are into all kinds of different things, from contortionists to excellent piano players. It's a great networking place if you stick around. Me being a singer, I can team up with a piano player who I met in the clubhouse or at one of the brunches."
New and Quici struck up a friendship when they discovered, during one of Oakwood's twice-yearly talent showcases, that they both hailed from the Corpus Christi area of Texas. The two have become sometime workout partners. New is the Oakwood veteran, having spent three years at Toluca Hills as a teenager for pilot seasons, then returning three years ago, this time to pursue a singing career. "It's definitely home now," she says. "When I was here before with my family, we thought about moving, but we changed our mind. Rosie is like an aunt to me, and a lot of the regulars have become like neighbors."
New has regularly been given a featured slot in the talent showcases -- events she says are typically attended by more than simply friends and admiring parents. "Rosie really tries to make it an opportunity for us to showcase our talent," New says. "They really see that a lot of residents are very talented, and they do everything they can to expose that to anybody and everybody they can."
Quici has been at Toluca Hills for a year and a half, and she's not relocating anytime soon. Arriving from New York with little furniture and little time to devote to non-career-related elements of life, she enjoyed the convenience of having preset voice mail and a working TV already in place. Things like headshots (through an Oakwood-inhabiting photographer), dry cleaning, and those all-important classes quickly came together. "It would have been so much more stressful if Oakwood hadn't been here," she says. "They were so easy to deal with, and then I had everything in the apartment."
And along with the safety and security of living in gated corporate housing, Quici discovered another, decidedly un-L.A. perk about living at Oakwood. "There's deer here," she says. "It's kind of cool. You're crazy busy with day-to-day life, and all of a sudden everything's calm and you see a deer. It kind of makes you remember to calm down.""
A Brief History
For other actors, the facility's short-term offerings are the big draw. When he sojourned at Toluca Hills for the run of The History Boys in fall 2007 at the Ahmanson Theatre, Alex Brightman found himself provided with all the basic amenities of home: pots and pans in the kitchen, a food-delivery service. And he was a 20-minute drive from the Ahmanson. Parking wasn't always plentiful at Oakwood, but he says the place nonetheless felt homier than a standard hotel. "It's either star central or a middle ground for people making the transfer to L.A. It feels like kind of a resort with the pool, the hot tub, and plenty of amenities all spread out," Brightman concluded. "Oakwood by itself needs a documentary written about it."