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Betty Aberlin

"I got my precious card in l954 in SANDHOG, a folk-opera which played a theater at 12th Street & Second Avenue, NYC,(now a multi-plex). It was 5 blocks away from Manhattan General... more...

F. Murray Abraham

"My grandfather, Bruno Stello, was a coal miner before there was a union. He worked on his hands and knees 14 hours a day, six days a week for $12. My father-in-law, Edmund D. Hannan, was the first president of The Society of Motion Picture Film Editors (SMPFE). more...

Jane Alexander

"An Equity card was worth its weight in gold to an actor in the early 1960s, as it still is today. But getting into the union was a "catch 22": you had to have your card to get a job and you couldn't get the job unless you had a card. more...

George Lee Andrews

My first job ever was in 1960, a $16 week (non-union local jobber), in SONG OF NORWAY, which was at a small professional theater in Milwaukee... more...

Lucie Arnaz

"I was about twenty-one years old, and was appearing as Kim Carter on the television series HERE’S LUCY. It was several years into our six-year run, and Vivian Vance was making her second guest-star... more...

Bob Balaban

"The year I graduated high school, I apprenticed in summer stock at Guy Little Junior’s Theatre on the Square in Sullivan, Illinois. I acted, painted floors, sang, built scenery, danced and cleaned... more...

Alec Baldwin

"I got my Equity Card in a “Six-Degrees-of Kevin-Bacon” way. Kevin appeared in Joe Orton’s LOOT at Manhattan Theatre Club and was unable to go to Broadway. So I auditioned for Joey Tillinger... more...

P.J. Benjamin

"I was a Polish kid who grew up in the back of our family tavern “Airway Liquors” on the southwest side of Chicago. I played a lot of baseball and hung out with the guys in the neighborhood. I was attending an all boys high school, St. Lawrence, when a few of my friends told me that needed guys for a production of CAROUSEL at Lourdes, the all girls high school. more...

Michael Berresse

"After I graduated high, school, a bunch of my friends are going to the Chicago open call for performers at the Disney theme parks and managed to convince me to come along. I had never taken a real audition and was totally unprepared. more...

Theodore Bikel

"I got my Equity card in 1954, when I was offered a job in a Broadway show, TONIGHT IN SAMARKAND starring Louis Jourdan. Actors’ Equity was seldom inclined to admit foreign actors without good and sufficient proof that all avenues to cast an American had been exhausted. more...

Kelly Bishop

"I arrived in New York in the fall of 1962, fresh out of high school and ballet trained. My first job was in the corps de ballet at radio City Music Hal, which was under AGVA (American guild of Variety Artists) jurisdiction. My next jobs, at the 1964 World’s Fair and in nightclubs in Vegas... more...

Tom Bosley

"I was doing summer stock in and around Chicago, my home town, when a production of DETECTIVE STORY was being cast and we were offered Equity Contracts. It was very exciting because it came at a time where I felt acting was where I was headed for." more...

Carol Burnett

"I received my Equity card in 1959 when I was cast by George Abbot as Princess Winnifred in ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. I was 25 when rehearsals began and turned 26 when performances began. At the time there were white cards for senior performers and pink cards for juniors, just beginning. more...

Ellen Burstyn

"I'm originally from Detroit, MI and started as a model in the mid-50's, then worked as a chorus dancer as one of the sixteen "Gleason Girls" on The Jackie Gleason Show. I landed my first Broadway show and earned my Equity card in the 1957 comedy, FAIR GAME more...

Stephanie Pope Caffey

"I am a Harlem, New York native. Born and bred. I began my dance studies at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, uptown and later on scholarship at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center with the legendary Frank Hatchett, downtown. It was then that I discovered Broadway!! more...

Marilyn Caskey

"During my summer vacation at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco, I was a member of Donavan Marley's PCPA 1976 summer company in Santa Maria, CA. The cast was mostly students with some Equity guest artists... more...

Michael Cerveris

"I spent my first year or two out of university doing the usual showcase and non-Equity work in places like the old Cubiculo (essentially a dank basement) and wayyyy off Broadway (i.e. Brooklyn), gathering knowledge and experience, but not much else. more...

Kristin Chenoweth

"I had just graduated from Oklahoma City University and was headed to the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia to become an opera singer. I decided to make a pit stop in New York. more...

Thom Christopher

"It was late spring and I was close to completing my first as an acting student at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse. Reading in “show Business” about auditions for a new Equity Summer Theatre in Poultney, Vermont, I skipped class... more...

Patti Cohenour

"It was the late seventies and I was living in Los Angeles, working as a backup singer for Perry Como. It had been a great job, but I made the difficult decision... more...

John Cullum

"In the spring of 1959, after a couple of wonderful, wild years in the Big Apple, I found myself in Texas -- a member of the Dallas Regertory Theatre. I got a call from director Philip Lawrence... more...

Stephanie D'Abruzzo

"Because I have been a Muppet Performer for more than a decade, I received my AFTRA card in 1993 when I started working on "Sesame Street," and I earned my SAG card... more...

Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis

RUBY: It was December 1943. I was still in college and, as I remember, very busy. Through government programs, I was studying radio techniques at the American Theatre Wing with Arthur Hanna...
OSSIE: I was discharged from the U.S. Army in October of 1945, and returned to my home in Valdosta, Georgia. Dick Campbell, head of the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem... more...

André De Shields

"It was 1969 - the final Summer of Love. I was a dyed-in-the-paisley hippie: sandals on my feet, elephant bell bottoms hugging low on my hips, love beads strung around my neck and flowers in my Jimi Hendrix size Afro." more...

Richard Easton

"When I started in Montreal, Canada, professional acting meant radio. The union then was ACRA – Association of the Canadian Radio Artists – and when I got my first job I automatically became a member of it. more...

Christine Ebersole

"I was waiting tables at the Lion's Rock on 77th, between 1st and 2nd. The year was 1976. It was a cold January night/ after my shift, when I got a call from my agent. When I answered the phone, she said... more...

Raúl E. Esparza

"I had been working in Chicago for a year at Equity theatres under non-Equity contracts. Sometimes the roles were small, sometimes they were extraordinary. The kicker comes when Frank Galati, the great and generous artist, offers me a beautiful role at the Goodman Theatre... more...

Tovah Feldshuh

"I was graduating from Sarah Lawrence College and I won the McKnight Fellowship in Acting to the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. One of the big sponsors of the McKnight was James Binger, who would later found and head Jujamcyn. more...

Harvey Fierstein

"It was 1975 and I’d been a fixture on the Off Off Broadway theater scene for years when director Neil Flanagan offered me the lead roles to be performed in rotating rep out on Cape Cod. They were the classic O.O.B plays... more...

Merwin Foard

"It was early 1982 and I was a voice major at the Manhattan School of Music. Houston Grand Opera was mounting a revival of SHOW BOAT starring Donald O’Connor and they were looking for... more...

Beth Fowler

"I was a grade school music teacher in New Jersey playing the title role in LITTLE MARY SUNSHINE in a community theatre when a producer of an Equity summer stock company came back stage and said, 'You should audition for our chorus next season.' more...

Joanna Gleason

"It was 1972, could have been 1973…could have been 1873…and there were open auditions for equity members for a production of PROMISES, PROMISES... more...

Randy Graff

"The year I graduated college, I picked up Back Stage and started auditioning for non-Equity summer stock. In 1976, I landed my first professional acting job as Louise in GYPSY at the Village Dinner Theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina. A non-Equity, $125 a week plus dinner (of course) theatre job. I was in heaven. more...

Beau Gravitte

"I had been in the city for three months, when I went to my first voice teacher…ever. And after the lesson he said, "Listen, you're tall and you're from Texas... more...

Julie Halston

"When I came to New York City from college in the late 1970’s, I was fortunate enough to book a few commercials right away for soap products. I admit it did help that an aunt of mine was in the advertising business... more...

Blake Hammond

"I grew up in a small town in Texas, of about 1800 people, so when I came to NYC after college, I'll admit I knew very little about the Actors' Equity Association. All I knew was that I wanted to be on stage! more...

Ann Harada

"In the fall of 1987, I had just returned from doing non-Equity summer stock in Glassboro, NJ and was feeling very confident. I don't know why, exactly, because my best reviews all summer came playing Nana the Dog and the Crocodile in PETER PAN. A friend from college more...

Julie Harris

"Soon after World War II, I was at Yale Drama School as a first year student. I managed to get the part of the oldest daughter in Goetz's IT'S A GIFT - on Broadway, no less! I was fired on the fifth day of rehearsal but then re-hired and the show did go on - but closed after six weeks! more...

Ellen Harvey

"I was a junior at Boston University (BFA-Acting) when I was one of 4 students picked by director Sharon Ott to appear in The Huntington Theater Company's production of "A Winter's Tale." more...

Jerry Herman

"When I was asked to tour with an evening of my work in which I would play the piano, sing, and tell the audience anecdotes about my career as a composer/lyricist, I got my Equity card. more...

Polly Holliday

"I started acting long before I knew what I was doing. At age 19 and a junior in college, I joined the cast of a summer outdoor theatre in North Carolina called UNTO THESE HILLS. I was a choir singer, a square dancer and understudied a lead role (that of a 70 year old woman). I played the role once. I came offstage in a blackout... more...

Judith Ivey

"The Goodman Theatre is where I earned my Equity card. William Woodman was the Artistic Director, and was directing a production of THE SEA by Edward Bond. I was cast as a young girl in this East Anglian village... and be funny about it " more...

Anne Jackson

"If the class of ’42 from Franklin K. Lane High School will look in the yearbooks, they’ll discover that their selections of Anne Jackson for Best Actress, and Earl Hyman for Best Actor were doing more than all right. They turned up with 1,026 other hopefuls for the John Golden auditions, and both were among eight finalists. more...

Mark Jacoby

"I was in graduate school at Florida State University in Tallahassee in 1970 studying International Relations (don't ask…), when a friend suggested we drive up to Atlanta to audition for the ensemble of Theatre of the Stars. As we were waiting... more...

Allison Janney

"I was sitting on the floor of my New York City apartment, about to quit acting – again- when the phone rang. Jim Simpson was calling to offer me a part in his production of Howard Fast’s CITIZEN TOM PAINE. more...

Ashley Judd

"I was very proud to become a member of Equity in the late winter of 1994 while I performed the role of Madge in PICNIC at the Roundabout Theatre, having been cast by Scott Ellis while I still had a cast on my leg... more...

Spencer Kayden

"When I was eight years old I was in my first play. I was The Elfen Queen in THE HOBBIT at Fountain Valley Community Center. Twenty-five years later, I got my Equity Card. Hey, sometimes you have to be patient. more...

Judy Kaye

The summer after my freshman year at UCLA, I was hired to do chorus and play some small parts at Melodyland Theater in Anaheim, CA (it’s a church now…). A few months before, I had driven out there from UCLA, my car full of ... more...

Lainie Kazan

"I was a senior in college and I heard through a friend there were auditions for the Westbury Music Fair. I had just changed my name from Lainie Levine to Lainie Kazan (Kazan being my mother’s maiden name). I went to the audition and when they called Ms. Kazan, I did not respond. more...

Richard Kind

"After I got out of Northwestern in 1979, I ended up doing summer stock at the Surflight theatre in Beach Haven, NJ. They did big musicals - Fiddler, Brigadoon, Little Abner - and we put on 14 shows in 15 weeks! The actors worked seven days a week... more...

Colin Lane

"Twenty-five years ago and three years after I graduated from Boston University College of Fine Arts, I went to Chicago because I wanted to be where David Mamet was writing. In those days in Boston... more...

Angela Lansbury

"When I first came to New York City from England in 1940, I was fifteen. With the help of the American Theatre Wing, I got a scholarship to attend the Feagin School of Dramatic Art. I graduated in 1942 and did the round of the NY agents. But as luck would have it... more...

Aaron Lazar

"It was summertime and I was headed to work at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera! I had just finished my first year of graduate school at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music... more...

Beth Leavel

"I had just completed my MFA program from UNC-Greensboro and was trying to find the courage to move to NYC. I auditioned and was accepted for an internship with the Penn. Stage Co. in Allentown, PA. For seven months, I answered phones... more...

Michele Lee

"The first audition I ever went on was in 1960 at the Ivar Theatre in Hollywood. I was accompanied by my mother at the instruction of my father. "You have to learn how to take rejection if you really want to be an actor', he said. He had to eat his own words. I got the job. more...

Rebecca Luker

"I got my Equity Card in 1985, the year I moved to New York from Alabama. I played Jane in LEAVE IT TO JANE at the Goodspeed Opera House. Jane was actually my second summer stock job that year. more...

Karl Malden

"I became a member of Actors' Equity in 1937 when I landed a job in the Group Theater production of GOLDEN BOY. They told me I needed my card, and, of course, I was promised I’d get one. What I didn’t tell them was that I didn’t have enough money. more...

Melissa Manchester

"In 1987, I was given the opportunity to star in the National Tour of SONG & DANCE. For six months, I did eight shows a week, a new city every week, accompanied by my newborn son, husband and parents. I was the only one on stage for the first act! more...

Krisha Marcano

"In the spring of 1999, I had to leave the Alvin Ailey American dance Company and find another job. I wanted to add singing and acting to my career, so Broadway was an obvious choice. The show to be in... more...

Andrea Martin

"I received a B.S. in Speech Theatre from Emerson College in June, 1969, took a bus from Boston to New York, bought a newspaper called Back Stage, and saw that YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN was holding open call auditions that afternoon for the First National Tour. more...

Heather T. McFadden

I was working in Montreal with a dance company while my then boyfriend, Kevin Bernard, was on tour with JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. I came to visit him for a weekend and met the man who played Judas... more...

Howard McGillin

I was majoring in history at UC Santa Barbara, when I heard about auditions for the summer season at the Sacramento Music Circus. I had chosen my major in a futile attempt to appease my mother... more...

Anne Meara

"It was 1948 and I was a summer stock apprentice at a theatre in Southold, Long Island. I believe the Equity rule in those ancient days was that if you appeared in three plays in an Equity company you had to join the Union... more...

Kenita Miller

"It was the week of my graduation from the American Musical & Dramatic Academy (NYC), and the week prior I had went on an audition for the national tour of THE CIVIL WAR and hadn't heard anything. more...

Helen Mirren

"I had always wanted to work on the stage in New York. American Actors were a great inspiration to me and New York was what London must have been to Puss in Boots, or medieval York to a rural serf. Glittering, powerful, dangerous, unattainable. more...

Brian Stokes Mitchell

"In high school in San Diego I had been working “semiprofessionally” in a number of different theatres around town. In my senior year I played the part of “Lamar” in GODSPELL at the Old Globe Theatre. Shortly after graduating... more...

Larry Wayne Morbitt

"When I graduated from college, I began my pursuit of a musical theatre career by participating in the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Musical Theatre workshop. I was 5' 7 ½", weighed 160 lbs. and had this big voice. It wasn't likely that I was going to be cast as the leading man in many shows... more...

Mike Nussbaum

"For many years I worked happily in Chicago community theatres playing major roles in important plays, both classic and avant-garde. In 1967 Bernie Sahlins, Sheldon Patinkin and Paul Sills invited me to join a new company... " more...

Rosie O'Donnell

"I wish I could say it was after years of tap dancing classes, hours and hours of vocal training and many day jobs with an issue of BackStage rolled up in my back pocket... but the truth is - I did a lot of movies... more...

Ken Page

"After three years of tryouts and cracking high notes, I was finally chosen for the singing ensemble of the St. Louis Municipal Opera (The Muny). That season we did South Pacific and Man of La Mancha. I earned one half of my card. more...

Jill Paice

"I received my Equity card in 2000, quite by accident. At the time I was a junior working towards a degree in Musical Theatre at Baldwin Wallace College. I was hired as a non-Equity performer... more...

Joel Peterson

"August 9, 2006 was a wonderfully poignant night for me. At that time, I was in an Off-Broadway production. Seven times a week, at the end of the evening, I said goodnight to my fellow cast and crew more...

Jane Powell

"At that time, the only thing I knew was MGM, where I had worked since I was 14. Unions were not even a part of my vocabulary. SAG meant a gravity problem. Equity meant owning a house. more...

Patrick Quinn

"In May of 1970, I, along with five of my closest school friends, drove from our hometown of Philadelphia to the Music Fair chorus auditions in New York City. This was a summer stock operation that either owned or toured into over a dozen theaters in the round, some hardtops, but mostly tents..." more...

Tony Roberts

"I got my Equity Card because I got a job in a Broadway play a few weeks after I finished college. I was cast as an air cadet who gets handcuffed to Sal Mineo... more...

Lynn Redgrave

"I had just arrived in New York to appear in my first Broadway show, BLACK COMEDY by Peter Shaffer. My father Michael often appeared on Broadway and he would regale us with stories of New York theatre folk and great musicals. He loved it. He loved the American theatre. I shared his love and in 1974... more...

Chita Rivera

I was studying ballet in Washington, DC, and along with another student, was chosen to audition for a scholarship at the School of American Ballet in New York City. We both auditioned and both got a scholarship! Later in New York... more...

Marian Seldes

"In 1947 the brilliant designer Robert Edmond Jones introduced me to John Huntington who was the producer of the Cambridge Summer Theatre in Massachusetts. It was my first job. I cleaned the men's room and did props and ... more...

Martin Sheen

"I began my acting career working for two of the most remarkable people in the American theatre: husband and wife team Julian Beck and Judith Malina, co-founders of The Living Theatre. The Becks, as they were affectionately known... more...

Jennifer Smith

"I got my Equity card at Dallas Summer Musicals playing Ma Templeton in a Stock tour of GEORGE M! with Ken Berry. I had accrued 14 memberships the year before but received my card outright at DSM. Getting his card at the same time was a young man named... more...

Frances Sternhagen

"After teaching dramatics for a year after college, I auditioned for Arena Stage in Washington, DC. When I was politely rejected, after running through five pieces, I signed up for a course at Catholic University in order to be eligible to try out for their productions. I had the good fortune to be in their first two plays of that season... more...

Mary Testa

"I had just moved to New York in September of 1976. I was prepared to allow myself six months to get acclimated, so I wasn’t worried about finding a job right away. One day, I came home and had a message from this casting director. Since I didn’t know any casting directors yet, I was pretty surprised. more...

Leslie Uggams

"In the '60s, I did a lot of television, and was quite well known from 'Sing Along with Mitch' on CBS. I got a call to audition for a new Broadway musical, called HALLELUJAH, BABY! written by Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. more...

Lesley Ann Warren

"I had been studying ballet since I was six years old, jazz beginning at 14, and subsequently, acting and singing for several years! From the time I was nine, I dreamt of being on a Broadway stage. I began going to open calls, and at 14, landed the role in the National Company of BYE, BYE BIRDIE. more...

Fritz Weaver

"When I first came to New York, I heard about a one-minute audition (!) held by the Butler Theatre of Virginia, founded by Robert Porterfield. The theory was that one-minute was long enough for talent to declare itself. Each year, an actor and an actress were chosen and each year the judge was a reigning star of the Broadway stage... more...

Sharon Wheatley

"In 1991, I'd lived in New York City for just over a year when I got a call to come in for a swing position on the tour of Les Miserables. As an overweight actress with Broadway dreams, I knew finding a job was going to be tough-and I'd already had my fair share... more...

Elizabeth Wilson
"The year was 1943 and I was an apprentice at Cape May New Jersey. In the middle of the summer the leading lady left to do a soap opera and T.C. Upom who ran the theatre called me in the box office and said he wanted me to replace her – but he wouldn’t be paying me... more...

Mary Louise Wilson
"I think it was 1959 or 1960, I was going into '3- Penny Opera' at the then theatre de Lys, to play Lucy, the part originated by Bea Arthur. The production had run so long it was like a swinging door... more...

Rita Wilson
"In 1989, after having attended LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) I was in Los Angeles and aching to do some theater. I auditioned for AS YOU LIKE IT for a new company called Shakespeare Festival/LA. They put on... more...

Hattie Winston
"I was a member of The Group Theatre Workshop, an acting school for teenagers located in Chelsea that was founded by Robert Hooks. At the time Robert (Bobby in those days) was starring in HENRY VIII for Joseph Papp... more...

Elisabeth Withers-Mendes
"I'd always hear my "Broadway Baby" actor friends (Duane Moody, Lillias White, et al) talk about Equity, but "my world" was film, T.V. and albums. So the word "Equity", was just "Equity" to me, UNTIL I got a call from good friends... more...

Joanne Worley

"I started in show business, in the theatre here in Hollywood. I was doing burlesque sketches with Joey Fay and Jack Albertson. I played the Talking Woman in the famous Pass-The-Poison sketch... more...

Nick Wyman

"It is the fall of 1974. I have graduated from college. I have graduated from acting school. I am a professional actor. Or I would be a professional actor if I had ever gotten a union job. I get up early on Thursday mornings to read "Backstage." I join the other cattle at the non-union calls. more...

Judith Knight Young

"I was auditioning for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. My ample figure didn’t resemble the tall, slender Maudie in the movie version. When I told the director I wore glasses... more...

John Lloyd Young

"The summer after graduating from Brown University, I did stock in Maine. I met Director Gary John La Rosa, who was opening his show, as I was beginning rehearsals for mine. That fall, I moved to New York. My first audition was for the... more...

Harris Yulin

"I received my Equity Card (I believe) in the summer of 1963 at the Coring NY Summer Theatre playing Cassio to James Earl Jones’ Othello. Later that year, I had my first New York production NEXT TIME I’LL SING TO YOU at the Old Phoenix Theatre again... more...

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