Acting Lessons vs School & Alternatives to Financial Aid

[epiks]

First question, does anyone here have any acting experience? Acting is the only thing I've ever wanted to do thats stuck all these years. So I'm finally going to try and make this dream happen. I want to move to NYC and take some classes. I'm not sure if I should take acting lessons (few thousand dollars tops) then start applying for any job I can get. Or if I should apply for a school of arts?

Secondly, unfortunately for me, it doesn't ask household income as part of the application, it asks for parents income. My dad makes way too much for me to ever be accepted into financial aid. He has offered to lend me the money for school at a community college here in WA, but I have no desire to go to a CC and definitely not in WA. I want to be in NY or CA and I want to go into the acting field. He doesn't want me to move to NY/CA so he won't pay. He doesn't think anything will come from acting and doesn't consider it a "real career" just a hobby so even if I went to a Seattle school of arts he would not pay. I have the worst credit imaginable so a regular loan is far out of the question as well.

I doubt I can get any type of scholarship. My high school GPA is shit (Not stupid, incredibly smart in fact. I just didn't care about school enough to focus)

So it looks to me like I either have to save up 40-50k for an AA at a School of Arts. Or I have to take regular acting lessons/workshops while getting jobs as extras and eventually some small acting gigs.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or possibly advice on school vs classes?

 

[L2R]

take your time. acting is one of the hardest things to crack, and even if you do, "90% of actors are out of work at any given moment" is a perpetual fact of life. get used to supplementing your income with a day job.

so my advice is to find a day job you are comfortable with, and work with a local theatre company. volunteer on some plays in order to build up skills, experience and credits.

extras work is meaningless, but it does help you meet people and learn how to work with an agent.

 

[K-Dazed]

Moving to NY/LA is probably the stupidest thing you could do off a whim. They're both expensive as fuck, and if you think that you'll just mysteriously find an acting job, it's not like that. You need to network. If you want your dad to pay for your college, don't go into an art if he won't allow you. If you want to go into an art, pay for school yourself.

If becoming an actor (stage or screen) is truely what you want to do, start out in your area first and work slowly. Like L2R said, get a side-job. Two of my friends are actors, and one of them does law on the side (well, I guess you could say he acts on the side and "does" law) while the other is a printer salesmen when he's not acting. It won't be easy, but good luck.