One thing you will want to consider is where to live. Do you want to move to LA, NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, stay in Orlando or move elsewhere? The Theatre Careers packet shows some information on how to begin making that choice. Here is a link of Best Cities to live in for the Movie Business 2016 from MovieMaker online magazine.

Here are some question you will want to get answered when thinking of which city to move to:

FILM TV

How many films, commercials and TV series are being filmed in that city or area? (Does this state give incentives to movies and series that film there? This is a big deal and tends to make cities grow in the movie business). Do an internet search for:

film in the city or state
state film incentives. Here is a link to the Film Production Capital's list of Best States for Film incentives.
SAG/AFTRA resources for the city - Here is a the SAG/AFTRA Atlanta website. Atlanta is home of popular television series Drop Dead Diva, The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries, features like Anchorman 2, The Blind Side and the Hunger Games series, plus commercial, corporate industrial, music video, interactive and new media productions.

Here is a map of the Local offices for SAG/AFTRA. This is a good indication of cities large enough to support actors in film. There is a section on each of these on the SAGAFTRA.COM website.

SAG:AFTRA Offices.png

STAGE

How many professional theaters are in the area? What type of work do they do? What do they pay? (To live as a stage actor in a city, there need to be at least 3-6 AEA theaters producing regularly to retain a pool of talent in that city. If you can get to 10 or more, your odds are really getting there). Otherwise, most of the talent will be visiting artists from somewhere else. How many AEA actors live there?

AEA's Website lists the following cities on their website where you can look at the total number of AEA theatre's in the city/area. This is a pretty good guide of places large enough to support and actor living in the area.

AEA Cities to work in.png

VOICEOVER/THEME ATTRACTIONS/CORPORATE WORK

What other type of work might support you while you live there? How much of it is in the city?

AGENTS

How many agents are in that city? Talking to them might give you a good idea of the work there. Do an internet search for:

'Talent agent Atlanta' or
'theatrical agent Atlanta'

or whatever city you are looking at. Try calling a couple of them and ask if they think it might be a good city for you?

FRIENDS AND ALUMNI

Talking to any actor who lives there is huge help and can give you good inside information. The following page, Cities to Live In Videos, is a series of videos made by UCF alumni about a number of cities to live in. Each one was asked to answer a 10 questions about their city. To reach any of them to talk more, all of them are on the UCF Theatre Careers Facebook page and you can direct message them, or put our any question on any city to the page and let's see what answers alumni have. Please view the videos, then take the quiz.

JIM'S PERSONAL ADVICE

If I was starting again as an actor, these would be my first thoughts on places to investigate:

Stage:
- Musical Theatre: NYC, Washington DC
- New Plays: Washington DC
- Stage: Chicago, Washington DC., Phildelphia, San Francisco
- Classical Plays: London, Washington DC, Philadelphia, West Coast:San Francisco-Oregon
- Improv/Sketch Comedy: Chicago, NYC
- Work in regional theatres across the country: NYC
Film: LA, NYC, Atlanta, Austin, Chicago
Theme Park/Cruise Ship: Orlando