How To Become Productive In Under Fifteen Minutes
So you’ve had a great week of auditions, (callbacks!), networking events, and play readings and shows. Yay!
But you get home, and there’s something looming in front of you. You can’t quite make it out, but who really cares? You’re still somewhat flying on the high of today’s success. You go to sleep and the next morning when you wake, you realize …
You’ve eaten the last of the Cheetos!
Wait. What?
No. It’s worse. It’s….
ACTOR PANIC! That insatiable feeling that sets in every time we realize we’ve just sprinted through a very busy acting phase, but now when we look at our calendar before us, only job shifts and a friend’s BBQ litter our week.
What do you do??
THIS.
It’s a way to fill up your calendar with theatre/film/art related events in order to ease your mind and keep yourself productive. I call it …
How to be Productive in Under Fifteen Minutes:
You will need:
- Access to the internet
- A calendar
- Twitter and Facebook accounts
What to do:
Keep the cell phone far away and on silent. No distractions. You’re busy, people!
1. Log in to Twitter. If you’re following the right tweeps, you should be able to find at least one event or audition. Here are some suggested tweeps (just click and follow):
2. Check playbill.com. Find an open call. Put it on your calendar
3. Check in at The Drama Book Shop. Are they having a reading soon? A famous playwright? Put it on your calendar.
4. Check in with the theatre companies for whom you want to work. Are they having fundraisers? Events? Auditions? Shows? Workshops? I check in with:
- The Shelter Theatre
- The Flux Theatre Ensemble
- FullStop Theatre Collective
- On The Square Productions
- Mad Dog Theatre Company
5. Find two hour chunks this week where you can sit down and just read scripts. Put them in your calendar.
6. Find fifteen minutes per day for the next seven days to devote to tweeting, liking, and promoting other artists via social media. Put it in your calendar.
7. Find a night to see a Broadway or Off-Broadway show.
8. Call a friend and schedule an hour of studio time to work on material. Try these:
- Simple Studios
- Shetler Studios
- CAP21
- Pearl Studios
- Studios 353 (room 6 is perfect and cozy for one on one voice lessons)
Commit to the schedule you’ve created! If something unexpected comes up or you’re met with a better opportunity, go with that, but reschedule what was in your calendar and commit to doing it.
Got it? Ok!
Now go get yourself a medium french vanilla iced coffee with skim and two Splenda and start on your first activity TODAY. It’s what you gotta do in order to ….
“You know, I’m sick of following my dreams, man. I’m just going to ask where they’re going and hook up with ’em later” – Mitch Hedberg
Onwards and Upwards,
The Green Room 
Love that you mentioned Mad Dog Theatre Company. I know the founders, and they’re awesome.
Sweet. How do you know them? Have you gotten a chance to work with them? I saw their production of Thrill of The Chase and was really impressed. Very raw and real, rooted in reality. Fabulous story, set, direction, and acting. Let them know they’ve got a fan over here and to keep it up please!
My boyfriend is Philip Gawthorne, the playwright who wrote The Thrill of the Chase. I’ll tell him that you enjoyed it!
We all keep each other going and this blog is one of those catalysts! Way to be, Newbie. 😉 Read and sharing.
Thanks for reading Gary! I would point all our readers in your direction. He knows what he’s doin, people! You keep it up too 🙂
Fo’ sho’! Gary knows what’s up! 🙂
Love this great list of resources and ideas for productivity, Newbie!
Thanks! It is a total myth to believe that when you’re not booking roles, you’re not working. There are so many other equally as important ways to keep busy. Did this post point out anything new to you? What ways do you keep busy when you’re not booking?
Thanks for the shout-out, Katelyn! Super honored to be on your tweeple follow list 🙂
You are my fellow twitter and networking queen! A prime example of the wonderful world of twitter right here folks- Cara and I connected on twitter first and then met in person at The Big Vision awards last month via The NY Actors Tweet up. We continue to keep in touch and promote one anothers’ work!
I got back from a year-long tour about 2 months ago and have been completely overwhlemed by Actor Panic ever since. This post is awesome. THANK YOU.
Bravo! Be right back, gotta go do some of these!
Reblogged this on Katelyn Collins and commented:
Click above for the full post, brought to you by GreenRoomBlog.com under my pen name, The Newbie Actor.