You may have heard the axiom, “If you can imagine yourself doing anything other than acting, do it.” Often, it is not offered in the attempt to discourage you, rather to ask you to consider if you have the perseverance to weather the storms this career will throw at you.
Let’s consider two ways to look at this question:
- Can you imagine anything else you can do as a career that will make you happy?
- What else can you do to earn money that is not acting?
Click here to read Part 1, from last week.
The second question is a way to drill down to what other skills you need to cultivate in order to make acting your sole business. If, after contemplation, you decide there is no other career but acting for you, then how will you sustain yourself in between acting jobs? Waiting tables may be fine for a while, but do you want to be 30, 40, 50 years old waiting tables in between acting jobs? None of us want to think we’ll “still” be slogging away “undiscovered” that long. We’d like to think we’ll tearfully say, “I’d like to thank the Academy…” within just a year or two. Sometimes it does happen…often it does not.
It is important to cultivate skills that you can parlay into rent and groceries for extended periods of time without being miserable. Leslie Becker has a great perspective on how to be an actor, not a starving artist. Check out her website and book, a resource I personally use.
The fact of the matter is that you may get a great acting job right out of school, but the nature of acting jobs is that they end, usually quickly. Even actors who are on a long running television show eventually have to find other work – acting, or otherwise.
Having multiple streams of income is essential to maintaining joy in your acting career. Absolutely, go get that theatre degree…yes, and can you minor in something? Or earn a certificate that can help you earn money when the acting jobs aren’t there?
You will be a better actor for being a well-rounded, well-fed individual – and that is the key to longevity in this business.
Study with Me
Now is the time to be preparing audition material for fall auditions!
I have a few spots left in my Individual Acting Lessons, as well as in the 4-Week Acting Masterclass. I also have half-day workshops in September and October specially designed to prepare the teen theatre actor for the most common audition: the monologue audition. Contact me if you live outside the Louisville, Kentucky, area and would like to bring the workshops to your community, or coach with me via Skype.