Below are additional resources to help guide students as they enter the world of professional theatre.
University/Resident Theatre Association (URTA)
URTA holds the National Unified Auditions and Interviews (NUAIs) each winter in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco, with hundreds of candidates participating from around the world. Students interested in acting, design, directing, theatre technology, stage management and theatre management are provided the opportunity to audition and interview for numerous positions with a variety of graduate training programs.
Actor's Equity Association (AEA)
Actors' Equity Association (“Equity"), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 50,000 Actors and Stage Managers. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors' Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions.
Screen Actor's Guild (SAG/AFTRA)
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. With national offices in Los Angeles and New York, and local offices nationwide, SAG-AFTRA members work together to secure the strongest protections for media artists into the 21st century and beyond.
League of Resident Theatres (LORT)
LORT is the largest professional theatre association of its kind in the United States, with 71 member Theatres located in every major market in the U.S., including 29 states and the District of Columbia. LORT Theatres collectively issue more Equity contracts to actors than Broadway and commercial tours combined. LORT administers the primary national not-for-profit collective bargaining agreements with Actors' Equity Association (AEA), the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and United Scenic Artists (USA). They also deal directly with personnel and management issues involving Theatre staff, artists, and craftspeople.
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC)
SDC is the theatrical union that unites, empowers, and protects professional Stage Directors and Choreographers throughout the United States. Our mission is to foster a national community of professional stage Directors and Choreographers by protecting the rights, health and livelihoods of all our Members; to facilitate the exchange of ideas, information and opportunities, while educating the current and future generations about the role of Directors and Choreographers; and to provide effective administrative, negotiating and contractual support.
United Scenic Artists (USA)
United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, is a labor union and professional association of Designers, Artists and Craftspeople, many who are world famous, organized to protect craft standards, working conditions and wages for the entertainment and decorative arts industries. The members of Local USA 829 are Artists and Designers working in film, theatre, opera, ballet, television, industrial shows, commercials and exhibitions. The current active membership totals just over 4,300.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG/Artsearch)
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, was founded in 1961 with a grant from the Ford Foundation to foster communication among professional, community and university theatres. Today, TCG's constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 Member Theatres and Affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through our conferences, events, research and communications; grants approximately $2 million per year to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level and serves as the U.S. Center of the International Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is the nation's largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 13 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on our booklist; it also publishes the award-winning American Theatre magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre.