Customer Reviews

An Actor Prepares...To Live in New York City: How to Live Like a Star Before You Become One

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a gold mine! This book isn't just for actors--it is a meticulously-researched, up-to-date and readable guide to living well in Manhattan without watching money flow through your fingers--it covers everything from haircuts and clothes to great deals at the opera. I'm recommending it to all newcomers, regardless of profession. If I had to find one small flaw, it's that I'm not quite confident about his recommendations for women, as--and he freely admits this--they rely on the judgment of his female friends, and the reader can't gauge whether these women share the author's ability to find the best, the least expensive and the most hard-to-find secrets of New York. Regardless, a minor detail in a worthwhile book.

Okay, I've read a lot of guide books for actors. I've read lots of guides to New York. This writer actually blended the two together to create the best and most practical New York/Actor "how to" on the market. This is great for anyone setting out to conquer New York. I read this cover to cover the day it arrived, and now carry it with me wherever I go. Best purchase I've made in a long time.

This book is good, but even better if you plan on living in Hell's Kitchen (midtown west). As the author refers to that area often. Overall, i liked it though. I'd say it helps speed up the process of getting comfortable living in the big city, not working, but LIVING.

Actor or not, this book is a huge help in finding the cheapest of everything in New York City. Listed by category, the author gives listings and phone numbers of the cheapest of it all. There are hints and tips on how to make it in New York on a budget, how to find a place to live, and even where public restrooms are available!

Where was this book 10 years ago? That's when I moved to NYC, and I couldn't believe how much I learned from this book--and I live here! So many ways to save money that I never even thought of and resources I never knew about. This was the best purchase I ever made.

I just bought this book and read it in 2 days - it has already helped me find tons of stuff for my new apartment (I just moved to New York 3 weeks ago) at amazingly low prices. As an actor, it has shown me all kinds of things I didn't know, like tax deductions (I can write off this book!), actor support services. Best of all, it tells where bathrooms are all over the city - although New York really has no public restrooms, this book gives the low-down on finding one in an emergency. The guy who wrote this book should be the new patron saint of actors.

The title of the book is a clever allusion to Stanislavski's 1936 bible of performance technique, An Actor Prepares. "To survive the ups and downs of urban life and the acting profession," according to Wroe, one needs "equal parts confidence and cunning, stamina and stability, tenacity and even mendacity." He has devised a guidebook, practical as salt, that points the reader to goods and services essential to the daily grind: opening a bank account, establishing credit, eating out and eating in, keeping fit (or getting buff), locating bargains, and finding clean, safe places to pee and freshen up in a city plastered with the warning that "Restrooms are for customers only."

An Actor Prepares...To Live in New York City is clearly aimed at those who wish not merely to persist but to prevail. Its grandiose subtitle is: How to Live Like a Star Before You Become One (A Guide for Actors and Everyone Else to Getting the Best for Less and Surviving, Thriving, and Living the Good Life in the Big Apple). The author says that, during his 18 years in New York, he has been "unwilling to sacrifice quality of life to my tight budget" and has "become the master of living above my means without paying above my means."

Wroe's authorial voice is benevolent and lightly paternal. He understands the rhythms of the actor's existence, with theatrical gigs interspersed among spells of "survival work" and unemployment. He's sympathetic to the fact that "downtime can be brutal," wounding the ego and exacerbating insecurity about "our talent, our place and ourselves in the business." He's practical: "[O]ur rent bills must be paid and we must eat." But he understands that "survival work," if it's unpleasant, "exhausts us emotionally and physically and bashes our egos that much more." Most of all, he understands the exaltations of the performer's life: "[W]e get that acting job and [we] are back on top of the world."

The author has ample advice for coping with the combined stress of city and career. He recommends sundry forms of recreation and urges the reader to take advantage of New York's cultural riches -- and he tells how to do these things without spending a fortune. Wroe has created a thoroughly accessible guidebook which is distinctive among similar products on the market.

Wile some of the info offered may be slightly out of date by the time a reader gets their hands on this book (addresses and phones can change, etc.) the wisdom and experience of the author comes through very well. Anyone who is headed for the Big Apple as an actor should read this book.

This book is fantastic! I live in Australia but I'm going to be living and working (hopefully...) in New York in a couple of months.
The book includes sections on practically every aspect of life - from cheap food, medical care, and general merchandise, to hairdressing, public toilets, and internet service providers.
I would say this is one of the most useful books I have ever read, and I can definitely recommend it to anyone planning on making a move to New York City.
It is extremely easy to read and not at all like trawling through a guidebook. The sections are well organised and easily located in the table of contents. I particularly liked the book and music store 'reviews'.
It also felt as though it was written by a person that I would actually like in real life, and while this is not entirely relevant, it gave me even greater faith in the advice.
I feel a lot more confident about my trip now that I know where to go and what to expect as I attempt to set up house.
This has certainly relieved me (at least temporarily) from my increasingly frantic google searches.

What a gold mine! This book isn't just for actors--it is a meticulously-researched, up-to-date and readable guide to living well in Manhattan without watching money flow through your fingers--it covers everything from haircuts and clothes to great deals at the opera. I'm recommending it to all newcomers, regardless of profession. If I had to find one small flaw, it's that I'm not quite confident about his recommendations for women, as--and he freely admits this--they rely on the judgment of his female friends, and the reader can't guage whether these friends share his ability to find the best, the least expensive and the most hard-to-find secrets of New York.