The standard reference for actors, singers, and dancers, The Back Stage Handbook for Performing Artists has been totally updated to guide tomorrow's stage, radio, TV, and film personalities to employment and success. This thoroughly rewritten, improved edition is the first to focus upon job-hunting and employment opportunities in a wide range of performance fields. The reader will harvest essential information and vital tips on jobs in summer stock, regional theatre, children's theatre, and more; expanding career possibilities in non-broadcast media such as audiotapes and CD-ROM; working in soap opera, radio, industrial shows, and student films; areas of interest for singers, such as cabaret and performing commercial jingles; opportunities for stand-up comics and other solo performers; sources of income, such as voice-overs, that can develop into lucrative careers; and employment at theme parks, in museums, and on cruise ships. These performance fields - some of them explored here for the first time in any book - are examined in essays originally prepared for the performance arts weekly Back Stage. In each essay, show-biz experts share their knowledge on how to find a break and nurture a career with confidence. Their advice is supplemented by resource listings of names, addresses, and phone numbers of agents, managers, union offices, and producing organizations - the people who hire, promote, and foster the careers of performers. There is even advice on how talented people can avoid being taken advantage of in the rough-and-tumble business side of the performing arts.