Posted: 9/22/17 at 3:02pm
Anyone know how one would go about applying for jobs as a Broadway/off-Broadway/off-off-Broadway PA? I never see any postings for PAs on the usual theatre job sites. Does anyone here have experience working as a PA?
Posted: 9/22/17 at 3:17pm
Get to know NYC stage managers--they generally hire their own PAs. Also, sometimes, by cold dropping resumes at Off/Off-Off Broadway companies, or sending resumes to Broadway GMs.
Posted: 9/22/17 at 10:29pm
It helps to be young, cute and--male or female--easy*.
(Well, it does! Why should we lie to the kids?)
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* If you're clever, you don't have to actually sleep around; you just have to give the impression that you might.
Updated On: 9/22/17 at 10:29 PM
Posted: 9/22/17 at 10:54pm
I haven't PA'd on Broadway/Off-Broadway in years, but I don't think I ever once got a job from an online posting. I went to school for stage management where I met my mentor and she hooked me up with jobs with both herself and people she knew, then I got into theatres and got to know people there and continued working.
Posted: 9/22/17 at 11:09pm
Ashley's experience is the same as mine: every theater job I ever had came from somebody I knew or somebody who knew somebody I knew. (I was half-kidding about the sleeping around part.) One exception comes to mind, but that was in a small town where there were few people with PA experience.
The solution is to do whatever theater job you can get: volunteer to PA for free for an off-off-Broadway production that isn't expecting to have a PA because they have no money. Just show up and say, "Do you need any extra help?"
But find a way to support yourself while you do. For most people, it's a long process.
