Finding and Creating Performance Opportunities

Singers sing scales and sonnatas, dancers stretch at the pole and choreograph pieces, writers write, and actors sit around drinking coffee talking about how they could have played that part better than DeNiro. At least that's the stereotype. For myself at the moment, it feels all-too-close to the reality (minus the part where I think I'm better than DeNiro).

As an actor, it's pretty easy to feel helpless when not actively involved in a show of some kind. Actors are performers, and performance implies audience. Without an audience, an actor can't really create - they can only develop the potential for creation. Certainly you can sit at home doing sense-memory exercises, read the complete works of William Shakespeare, or even learn and work monologues - but without the eventual promise of an audience it can seem rather pointless.

As a product of my American upbringing my gut tells me I'm a waste of human life if I am not actively doing and producing. If I wanted to be a doctor, I could put this feeling to good use as I ascended the career rungs to chief neurosurgeon. However, place this protestant work ethic in the world of an actor where there is no guarantee you will ever be hired to work again and the situation can quickly become dire.

That's why it's vitally important to find and create performance opportunities for yourself. If you aren't actively playing on a regular basis, it's easy to lose faith in your abilities as an actor. The following are some ideas I've generated on where to find and how to create performance opportunities:

• Open Mic: Many cafes host open mic nights where you can go up and sing, tell jokes, or read poetry. Perhaps craft some amalgam of stand-up and slam poetry and you've got a genuine space to act.
• Student Films: They don't pay, but they give you an opportunity to work. In fact you'll probably have more lines in a student production than you'll have in your average just-starting-out film/tv gig.
• Acting Class: It's important to have a safe space where you can really push the boundaries of your instrunment.
• Cold Reading Group: Get a few actor friends together and practice reading audition sides together.
• Sing For Your Supper: Do a weekly dinner with friends where you have to peform for your meal.
• Old Folks Homes: Put together a one-person show and take it on tour to the old folks homes in your area. They're nothing if not a captive audience.
• Kids Show: Write a show on a subject that is relevant to education, rehearse it and offer to donate your services to schools in and around your area.
• Hire A Bum: Give a bum $5 to watch you rehearse your latest sides, I guarantee the audition will seem like a breeze by comparison.
• This is a partial list, I welcome any suggestions you may have!

The goal is to always be doing something, because if you aren't, you're just another actor drinking coffee. Or as Mamet might say, always be acting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI