Actors careers are very often “hurry up and wait” and then “wait some more”. In the busy times (lots of auditions, lots of work, pilot season, etc), it can feel like there is no time to do any of the career maintenance. But there will come a time when you’re not so busy. Instead of sitting around waiting for the phone to ring, schedule some time to work on your career. Just like an out of work desk jockey should spend 8 hours a day looking for a new job, so should the out of work actor spend a significant amount of time preparing for the next opportunity.
Here’s a list of the 10 things that you can do while you’re waiting around for the next job:
- Make sure your website (personal, imdb, spotlight, actors access, e-talenta, etc) is up to date. Add new credits, skills, photos, clean out old credits.
- Make sure your resume is up to date. Add new credits and skills.
- Make contact with your network. If you don’t have a network contact schedule, take some time to make one. If you have one, go down the list and send out a few emails per day to people you haven’t contacted in a while. Update their contact record with their recent credits/job titles.
- Work on your Skillz. Down-time is the perfect time to work on your skills. Reduce your foreign accent (or learn a new one), get those horseback riding lessons, do stage-combat, work on your memorization techniques, take those singing lessons!
- Read! Reading plays and screenplays is one of the best ways of developing your knowledge of acting. When you read, read the best (oscar/tony winners, famous) plays and screenplays critically: what makes them the best? Why are they known? What’s happening with the characters and the plot?
- Take an acting class. This goes hand in hand with the skills point, but specifically: joining an acting class will keep you sharp while you’re waiting for that next audition or job. If you’ve had experience in “serious” acting, try an improv class. There are a ton of good classes in everything from auditioning, musical theatre, improv, and of course Meisner!
- Work on your promo materials. Make sure you have all of the scenes you want for your showreel. Do you have business cards made up yet? Maybe you can work on those!
- Start writing. Nowadays, many actors aren’t limited by waiting around until a producer or director gives them an opportunity. We can create our own dream role by writing it ourselves. Many of my students have started writing and producing their own short films. If you aren’t good at writing your own project, then start anyway! Be bad at it and over time you’ll get better.
- Look for a [better] agent. This could go in the networking category, but if you don’t have one, you can focus specifically on researching agents in your target market that would be a good fit for you and getting in touch with them. If you do have an agent and you aren’t happy with them, you can use the time to look for a better one!
- Get fit. Downtime is a good time to focus on yourself. Both physically and mentally. Start exercising regularly. Meditate. Learn about cooking right. If you’re in a good place mentally and physically, then you will shine when you go on that next meeting!