NBC’s ‘Law & Order: Los Angeles’ could be a boon to local stage actors
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It’s not every TV series that can count itself a close friend of struggling theater actors.
During its 20-year run, NBC’s “Law & Order” provided countless New York stage actors with a paycheck, employing them in bit parts, supporting roles and guest appearances.
The series came to be regarded among stage thespians as a rite of passage: spend years building up your theater credentials, get cast in an episode of “Law & Order” and finally be able to pay your rent on time.
The recent launch of “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” which starts airing on NBC in late September, means that Southern California theater actors will have a shot at working in the popular TV franchise for the first time. But in a city filled with TV veterans, will stage performers be able to compete for space on the show’s casting couch?
Although it’s still early — shooting for the first season began in August — some of the show’s top brass have said that they intend to continue the “Law & Order” tradition of tapping into the theater community to populate the series’ supporting ranks. They said local stage talent offers them something they can’t get elsewhere — fresh faces that viewers haven’t seen in umpteen other series.
Read the full story on ‘Law & Order: Los Angeles.’
-- David Ng
