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:

1. 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.
2. Make sure your resume is up to date. Add new credits and skills.
3. 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.
4. 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!
5. 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?
6. 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!
7. 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!
8. 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.
9. 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!
10. 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!

Students in class will know that I am a big proponent of “adding energy” to an exercise. So often we shy away from an energy flow with our partner as a way to protect ourselves. If we don’t send a lot of energy out to the partner, we won’t have to show anything about ourselves. We can keep ourselves at a safe distance.

Also, higher energy levels tend to push behavior into levels that are socially unacceptable. Yelling, gesturing, crying, laughing, loving, all of these would be considered “too big” in a normal social interaction. But not between actors.

Actors, even when not in an acting environment, can seem to be bigger (in their behavior) than “normal” people. Admittedly, sometimes that big behavior is to cover up for some inner insecurity. But it can also be coming from a place that actors have trained to be ok with bigger responses. In front of a camera, those big responses tend to translate into quicker response times, a feeling of being extra receptive to the things that are going on around you (an actor while on camera often can’t have such big external behavior). But on the stage, that willingness to have big, energetic behavior is what an actor needs to get a performance out to an audience.

So when you’re in the acting class, and I ask you for “more energy” don’t worry! It’s something that everyone needs!

Networking, or building up your network of contacts, is something that gets a bad rap. It can be viewed as a phoney or a fake way of making friends. And if you do it badly, it is. But even if you do it badly, you’re still going to be ahead of those actors who don’t do it at all.

I learned about networking from this post over at Manager Tools. They are some fantastic coaches of managers and their podcasts and advice on how to get along in the business world is fantastic. Definitely listen to their post and see what you get out of it but I’ll outline the basics here.

1. Building your network is much more about maintaining contact rather than going out and being social.
2. Start a list of people that you want to stay in contact with. This can and should be anyone: casting directors, ADs, production assistants, agents assistants (today’s assistants are tomorrow’s real deal!), directors, actors, costumers, drivers, whatever. Anyone that you come into contact with through your work can go on the list.
3. Put the list into a system where you will get a reminder to contact that person every 3-4 months or so. I made a special calendar in google calendar where each person was an event that recurred every 3 months. But you can use any system you want!
4. When that person’s day comes up, send them an email or letter, or call them or tweet at them. It’s best if you contact them to mention something that they are involved in, rather than just saying what you’re up to. But you can also mention what you are up to.
5. Don’t expect an answer back and don’t require one in your contact with them. All you need to do is keep the contact alive.
6. Over time, add details to who they are: what projects are they associated with, what are their kids names, when are their birthdays (and their kids birthdays!). You may or may not use that information in your contact, but its good to have it handy if you need it.
7. Also over time, add/remove people as necessary. You can easily keep in active contact with 200 – 500 people this way. If someone is not responding or asks you not to contact them anymore, then take them off your list! If you meet someone cool on a set or a class, put them on!

As Manager Tools states: having a strong network means one where the contacts are alive and where you aren’t only contacting these people when you need something. If the only time a casting director hears from you is when you want them to cast you in something, they are far less likely to think well of you than if you write to them on their birthday or when you congratulate them on a show they cast that you really enjoyed.

And remember, this is a marathon. There are contacts that I have kept up (because I like the people, not because I think I can get something from them) that have been able to help me directly as an actor only after 5 or 6 years! So keep it up! It will be incredebly rewarding when you do!

Also see the Backstage article on where to go to meet new people in the industry!