I'm just starting out as a SM, but what I really want to do is direct (I sound like a broken record). I'm looking at soem ASM gigs which could lead to an AEA card. My question is, say I decide to do some acting and I am in AEA as an SM, am I an Equity actor (as in restricted from doing community stuff, etc)? Also, more importantly, if I join AEA, and then move to directing, will provisions in my equity membership prevent me from directing non-union shows? There's some proviso about respecting other unions (totally my paraphrase) and I don't know if that would mean I'd have to do only SSDC shows, or only equity shows, or what? If that's true, I really should NOT join AEA, because then my Directing career would be DOA. I'd have to somehow join SSDC and only do union shows, but who would hire a novice on only union shows?
I'm really new to this so I'm trying to figure out all of the implications