Please address how an actor handles signing across the board within a single agency as opposed to signing in different departments at different agencies. What are the pros and cons of each situation in terms of an actor's representation and relationships with agents?
Many aspects factor into the decision of finding the right fit between actor and agency. Actors seek the best representation from agents in terms of their talent, experience, and marketability. Agents look for talent to enhance the prestige and financial livelihood of the agency. What follows is a discussion of the structure of agencies, and how this influences the types of representation offered to actors, plus guidelines for what to look for when choosing the agency to represent you.
When signing with an agent:
1.) Know the structure of the agency. Do all the agents represent the clients as a team or does each agent have a separate list? If the agents work as a team, find out which agent handles what areas. In legit agencies, which agent covers musical theatre submissions, regional theatre, Broadway, Off-Broadway, TV/film, daytime drama? Perhaps the workload is divvied up on the basis of casting director. If so, learn which agent speaks to which casting directors. In commercial agencies, find out who handles on-camera commercials, voice-overs, promos, daytime drama. (Yes, there usually is an agent in a commercial agency making daytime-drama submissions.) Knowing this information will help you particularize your communications with the office, so that when you have specific questions on certain projects, you can get to the right person quickly.
2.) If one agent brings you into an agency, establish relationships with the other agents so you can maximize the efforts of the agency in representing you. Personalized correspondence, telephone conversations, coffee or lunch meetings—these are some methods to develop relationships. Of course, any opportunity to see your work is always preferred. Offer to do monologues or songs in the office, bring in cassettes or CDs of your singing, demo reels of any TV/film work.
3.) The agent who brings you into an agency—is he or she a keeper, or has the agent made a career of agency hopping? Is he or she on the brink of retirement? I know an actress who signed with an agent right after graduate school and, shortly after that, the agent moved to Los Angeles, leaving the New York actress high and dry, as the other agents in the office didn't really know her. Another actor was represented for years by one agent who merged with another agency and then retired. The actor struggled for a time trying to continue the association, but the connection was never the same after his longtime agent retired. He eventually had to find an entirely new office.
4.) Many agencies owe their day-to-day existence to revenues coming in from their lucrative commercial department. The policy of signing talent across the board (both to the commercial and legit departments) secures an agency's livelihood. Depending on how an actor gets along with the agents in both departments, he will choose to sign there or not. He might feel very happy with the legit department, but have better relationships with agents in a commercial department at another agency. This would influence his decision.
5.) Not every large agency signs talent across the board. In some agencies the different departments function very separately, with their own client lists. I know for a fact that the commercial department of one of the large agencies in New York regularly sends its clients to legit departments at other agencies when they are seeking legit representation.
6.) If you sign across the board at an agency, be aware that the department in which you are most successful will many times control your career opportunities. For example, let's say you book three national commercials in three months. The agents in the commercial department will be hard-pressed to keep you from going out of town to do regional theatre jobs. That experience might be just what you need to get your TV and film career rolling. If an actor doesn't build the legit side of his resume, he might not get the chance to work in the New York projects that offer the exposure necessary to move up the legit ladder.
7.) Signing across the board with an agency can give actors a sense of security in knowing that one organization is handling all of their business. Being "chosen" by one of the big agencies in town is impressive and can offer opportunities not forthcoming in smaller agencies. Perhaps an agent will piggyback you on the coattails of one of her celebrity clients, opening a door that wouldn't even have been in the picture at a smaller agency. However, an actor can fall through the cracks at a big agency and be easily forgotten when auditions don't turn into jobs.
8.) Most large agencies aren't interested in building the careers of start-up talent. They become interested in that talent once a career is established (usually after a smaller agency has put in the "building" time with little financial remuneration). SPT and LOA contracts mean little to these agencies, which would rather keep a client close to home for that "big" audition than out in the field getting experience acting in plays. Actors must choose which career path suits their current status and goal orientation.
9.) Many actors sign with separate agencies for commercial and legit representation. They sign with a big commercial agency specializing in commercials for greater coverage and choose a smaller agency that offers more personal attention for legit representation. The theory is that keeping the two separate maximizes the efforts and minimizes conflicts of interest among all agents on the actor's behalf. This choice reflects the difference in the nature of business in each area. The commercial arena, though competitive, is vast and full of opportunities. It makes sense for actors to have an agency that does only commercials representing them in this area. They stand the chance of being submitted five times daily by the many different agents. The legit world is highly selective and very competitive, and any kind of career-building effort requires the exclusive personal attention of a few dedicated agents, which is more often found in a smaller agency.
Actors must look for representation with agents who will seek the best and most opportunities for them to get work and build careers. The existence of different signing possibilities will hopefully enable actors to come up with happy combinations of excited business partners.