Reckless Thoughts and their Remedies
We all have bad days. With any luck, those bad days are overshadowed and spaced out by hundreds of good days. But when the less than wonderful days get you thinking less than appealing thought, you need to work through them in a productive and healthy way. Ever found yourself blurting out one or more of the following?
1.) “I am never going to get any good work.”
a. First of all, what is “good” work? You must decide for yourself what this means to you. Don’t let others decide for you and don’t relentlessly compare yourself to what others are doing (See my previous post “Broadway or Bust…Or Not”). Then ask yourself: “Have I landed “good” work in the past? If the answer is yes, stop doing this to yourself!! Your constant worry and self-defeating attitude will do little to help your future. ALL actors go through different chapters of life with ups and downs. Go back and look at all your successes, then look ahead and make proactive use of your time by engaging in activities that will benefit your career and/or other areas of life. Take this time to appreciate having a free day for once! Spend time with family, workout, go somewhere fun, do NOTHING all day, catch up on rest, take a class, etc. Don’t forget to take advantage of this free time to look up auditions, network with those around you, and work on that reel you’ve been meaning to get to.
If the answer really is yes, and you’re starting to doubt your chosen field, perhaps you’re doing something wrong. No, I don’t mean you chose the wrong profession, I mean you may be going about this profession the wrong way. Audition more often, talk to others with more experience, train more, find an agent, take ANY steps to improve your career. Make lists of goals and track your progress. Busy yourself with ways to improve and things that make you happy rather than thoughts of failure and struggle. Set time limits along with your goals and if you continue to meet with difficulties, look for other ways to make this field work for you. You love serious acting but cant seem to land the roles you want? Maybe you’re a character actor auditioning for the wrong parts. Don’t limit yourself to one thing, branch out and see what’s in store for you!
2.) “I have SO much to do and no time, I’ll never get everything done!”
The Branding Badge (Part 1)
“On my honor, I will try…”
Oh, Girl Scouts. With your camping trips, your carefully packaged cookies, the color coded uniforms with the badges sewed to the sash. I have twelve years’ worth of badges sewed to my own sashes and true to my Girl Scout upbringing, I am upholding my honor in completing my summer to-do list. Starting with #1: Branding.
I’m going to give myself a badge for the work I’ve been doing on actor branding. Some of our other Green Room bloggers have talked about finding their type, their branding experiences before and I’ve even dipped my toes into those murky waters before but now that I’m thinking about how I’m going to make work, it’s time to figure out exactly how I was presenting myself as a working actor. It’s involved a lot of research, self-exploration and a few games of Solitaire.
Branding…branding. What is branding? Before I could figure out how to brand myself, I had to learn more about this mysterious concept—Of course, everything I needed to know about what branding is, I had already learned in Girl Scouts years ago. Enjoy a box of Tagalongs and read on!
Survival Jobs vs. Sideline Careers
Three adults sat, staring me down, each putting their own spin on the matter at hand; namely, that to major in theatre was a foolhardy endeavor – because, I mean, come on – who ever really makes a living as an actor? It would be best to major in something I could fall back on, get a liberal arts education (and maybe find a nice boy and a real job to settle down with ). I remember that meeting in my high school counselor’s office like it was yesterday, and, while I disagree wholeheartedly about the counselor and my parents’ take on what I should have majored in and what my career prospects were, there is a glint of truth in their admonition to line up a fall back plan.
Let me be abundantly clear: a fall back plan does not mean you have given up your theatre aspirations! In fact, a fall back plan can help you pursue your theatre aspirations more vigorously. After all, an actor with a roof over her head and food in her belly can then take some of her extra income to subsidize classes, new headshots, or a killer new outfit for that big audition next week.
Theater Space: The Final Frontier
One common argument in that tiresome old “theater vs. theatre” debate is this: “‘Theater’ is the building; ‘theatre’ is the art form.”
To which I ask: “There’s a building?”
As the theater/theatre scene continues to grow in my hometown of Washington, D.C., many companies are looking for a place to perform. As I wrote recently, this is a region with more than 80 professional companies and dozens of community theaters, and finding venues is a challenge.
From the standpoint of a theater artist or patron, it’s a good problem to have: There is so much work being done here that there is not enough space to do it. But for producers and artistic directors, it’s a major challenge. The Washington Post recently reported that the D.C. theater community “is experiencing a space crunch as emerging and growing organizations hunt alongside established companies that are suddenly out on the street.”
I recently changed survival jobs and have found myself in the most stereotypical actress survival job- waitressing. I really enjoy my job, however it has been a learning experience! Waitressing is not as easy as I expected it to be. I give credit to the servers out there who make it look so effortless, because it takes a lot of focus, multitasking skill, and patience.
I loved reading The Enterprising Actor’s “What I Learned from My Survival Job” Series. I think there are definitely a lot of tips and tricks you can take away from a survival job and apply them to your acting career. Here are some of the things I have learned from working as a waitress. They are things that can be applied not only to my everyday life, but my acting career.
Lesson #1: Write EVERYTHING down. I am terrible about making lists and notes. Since I began waitressing, I have realized the importance of writing EVERYTHING (and I mean everything) down. When I first starting waitressing, I didn’t write down details. I wrote down the orders, but nothing else. Sometimes I even forgot to write down the table number- which isn’t a big deal if there are only a couple of tables to take care of, but the minute it starts to get busy- there is no way I’m going to remember what table ordered the Caesar Salad and Chicken Fingers. Now, I always make sure I take down the table number, as well as an initial for the color of each customer’s shirt. I’m terrible with remembering a face, so I need to find a way to remember each individual customer’s order. That way, I can make my delivery more personal- the Chicken Fingers go to the guy in red (“R”) at Table 5, rather than just making a generic “Chicken Fingers?” announcement to find out who initially ordered them. Plus, if the kitchen has run out of Chicken Fingers, I know exactly who to approach in order to substitute the order. I also do this with Take-Out orders, because people often place their order, leave, and then return 15 minutes later to pick it up. If the place is full, it’s much easer to remember the Take-Out order goes to the guy in blue. It narrows down the many possibilities.
Beating the “Slump.”
It’s been awhile! I know! I’ll explain…
Our show went up – my duties in the process went from back-end producer and actor to: actor, executive producer, stage manager, treasurer.
I was running on adrenaline for a good two months, working full force on the show, the company, and my own j.o.b.
To be clear: I AM NOT COMPLAINING. From the day the show opened, until the day it closed, I was happier than ever. I was in heaven. Yes it had been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get there, but man, was it so so worth it.
And then suddenly, Sunday night, the show is loaded out, the wrap party is over, and it’s time for bed.
Be Nice to Everyone at Auditions
…and I do mean everyone.
Picture it, Chicago, 2012.
I bypass the audition room and head into the restroom for a pit stop before signing in and waiting to be seen. The bathroom is typically small of an old building, with doors opening every-which-a-way, which means there is a careful choreography to everyone in the restroom negotiating around the doors without getting smacked from behind by another one.
Out of one stall comes a Flustered Actor, clearly fretting over her pending doom audition. She is generally dismissive of everyone and her scattered energy is bewildering to bear presence. We all know where she is going, she’s an Actor, and clearly is Focused on her audition. She and her companion talk about the prospects at the audition and their pieces, being Artistically Self-Deprecating, because that’s what Real Actors do. She and her companion, gratefully, exit to get signed in at their Very Important Audition.
Out of another stall comes a Nice Lady. She is dressed artsty-ish, but it’s a creative building – she could belong to any number of the offices on that floor. In the tight quarters, she and I negotiate around each other for a space at the sink and exchange a pleasant, relaxed guffaw at the absurdity of the cramped space.
GUEST POST BY ZACHARY MILLER: The Chameleon Effect
Please welcome guest poster Zachary Miller to the blog today! Zachary is the director of AuditionInside.com, and is a performer in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show at Walt Disney World.
Make the casting director like you without even talking?! (The Chameleon Effect)
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” – Charles Caleb Colton
Do you remember this old quote? Would you be surprised to know that this might be scientific fact?
In 1999, two psychology professors, Chartrand & Bargh, conducted experiments on a phenomenon called the “Chameleon Effect.” They conducted three experiments on this effect, but we are going to specifically look at the second of these experiments. After you wade through all the science “mumbo jumbo,” the basic premise was to see if mimicking someone’s behaviors made you more likeable. For example, if I touch my face when you do or cross my legs when you do, will you feel a better rapport with me?
The answer is YES! Could these two scientists have found the magical answer to making someone like you? Can I just do this and magically be on the good side of a casting director or my coworkers? I don’t know if we could go that far…but Chartrand & Bargh found that people consistently rated “imitators” as more likeable (an average of 6.62 on a scale of 1-9, compared to “non-imitators” at 5.91). In addition, they rated their conversations as smoother (an average of 6.76 on a scale of 1-9, compared to the “non-imitators” 6.02).
The Green Room 