become a working actor

Went to another audition for a holiday gig yesterday. Even though nothing came of it, I was glad to have made the effort! I am slowly building momentum. :)

Signed up for a local acting event, including a workshop and intensive session. Got my BackStage subscription. Still need to join the Actors’ Network and to sign up for acting classes.

Other than the above, I haven’t made the headway (much less the start) that I would like to on all the “next steps” that I outlined for myself in earlier entries. Still, I finally feel like the ball is rolling. I will achieve this goal, one step at a time! :)

Immediately:

- Call my actor friend and ask her my questions/get her advice about getting extra work and about union eligibility.
- Pay whatever fee and go through whatever sign-up I have to with a background casting agency so I can do some extra work.
- Set up an account dedicated exclusively to saving up for my SAG initiation fee and membership dues.
- Set up a fund for buying plays and for seeing as many shows as possible.

Very soon:

- Have at least 10 monologues prepared.
- Study under multiple teachers.
- Try out for every non-union project and experimental, non-profit, and/or educational production I can before I’m a union member!
- Look for any workshops and/or short-term courses I can take (even abroad) to build my experience and beef up my resume.
- Accept at least 3 jobs working backstage or behind the scenes.
- Sign up for History courses on Theatre and Film at my local community college and/or pick up some books to better educate myself.
- Practice one cold read and one 5-minute memorization every day.

In the near future:

- Rent a local space and organize an evening of scenes or reader’s theatre.

This list is still full of holes. Will come back to this later, but at least it’s a good initial brainstorm of what to get started on.

Immediately:

- Put together an emotional work-out plan to start practicing at home.
- Pick two new monologues to work on.
- Join the Actors’ Network.
-Renew my subscription to Backstage West.-
- Join an acting class.
- Find out what other resources I need to be using to find out about local theatre auditions and even amateur productions.
- Look for other actors’ groups/forums and networking nights.
- Read the SAG, AFTRA, and Equity websites thoroughly so I’ll actually understand the actors’ unions and how membership works.
- Read every book on acting and technique that I own!
- Make a list of every acting skill and “special skill” (i.e. accents, languages, athletic abilities) that ought to be on my resume but isn’t. Make a plan to fill in these gaps in my abilities.

Very soon:

- Get cast in a play or join an improv group (even amateur stuff if it needs to be… anything to start building a resume again!).
- Go to every open call I can get to!
- At least try doing a couple of student films.
- Pick up the essential books on acting that are missing from my collection and start reading up!
- Start working on my own projects simultaneously… The time is now to write my screenplay, put together my one-woman-show, create my clown character, develop my storytelling repertoire, hone my special skills, etc.
- Volunteer, teach a kids’ class… do something to give back to the community while still using my talents.

In the near future:

- Get my SAG card.
- Go to Samuel French and pick up an Agency book. Mass submit. (If I haven’t already landed my dream agent by then! :P)

I want to make enough to meet my basic needs and living expenses from acting work of any kind—stage, film, commercial, voice-over… Anything that actually employs me for my talents.

For me to accomplish this will require a lot of getting organized, planning ahead, and doing research, as well as applying regular self-discipline and a positive attitude.

I think my next “to-do” for this goal should be to create a more specific list of actions/steps I need to take in order to find the work I want.

I have an agent right now. He isn’t any good, but I just finished doing a lot of days as an extra in March for “College”. There’s a lot of other films down here right now too that are filming, so I’ll probably do another 2-3 films before the end of the summer.

to redress the balance I would like to become a working actor who takes classes instead of an actor taking classes looking for work