"You take the good. You take the bad. You take them both..."

 

 

Thanksgiving is over and thus begins the Christmas season, the busiest time of year. I have a full work schedule, rehearsals for a Backer’s Audition, the actual Backer’s Audition, classes and lessons, auditions to prepare for, auditions to go to and holidays to celebrate. Being busy is a good thing. But with being busy comes a challenge...making decisions as to what to accomplish and what to leave by the wayside. Each and every choice you make has the potential to change your Life. It doesn’t matter how large or small the choice. It can still have a major long lasting impact.

This “challenge of choices” is more prevalent for performers than peope in any other profession. We make more choices everyday that affect the outcome of our immediate and future lives. Within our profession we must inevitably choose between work, career or art. The three can be the same but more often than not they can be mutually exclusive and elusive. Art fills your soul. A career fills your need for success and work fills your pockets.

During the times between making Art and a career, you work. Some are lucky enough to work within the profession doing what they have been taught to do, perform. You should be well aware by now that not all performing gigs are career milestones and making “art” is usually not profitable. Most actors aren’t fortunate to have a performing job to make money. They have to rely on some other means of income...the “day job”.

No matter how much money you’ve socked away for your move and for the pursuit of Art, you will eventually have to get some sort of job. The possibilities are endless from dog walking to babysitting to cater-waiter to concierge to personal assistant. And the list goes on. But you’ll have to choose. The one thing they all have in common is their continued eating of your time and diverting you from achieving your career goals.

Now the choices really start. Should you take a permanent position in a corporation in order to make a steady income? If you make that decision, auditioning becomes secondary. Your time is pretty much governed for you. You spend 8 hours a day working, an hour and half in total commute time, 8 hours sleeping, a half an hour getting ready in the morning and in total an hour eating during one day. That leaves you five hours per work day and maybe two days off. In that time, you also have to run your life...laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, socializing and relaxing. You can hire people to do most of that for you, but that means more hours must be worked in order to pay for it.

An performer moves to New York / Chicago / L. A. to make a career. How much time will be left for that?

There’s always the traditional route. You could become a waiter. This seems to be a much better choice. You have the potential to make more money, because of tips. But because that relies on other people’s generosity, you have the potential to make a lot less as well. Not to mention at first you have to take the shifts no one wants to work. The other waiters don’t want to work these shifts because there is less money to be made during them. Budgeting becomes a concern.

After gaining a little bit of seniority in your waiting job, your schedule becomes much more flexible and you can start to get the shifts with better tips. This is wonderful. However some shifts can be as long as 10-12 hours a day, on your feet. That takes a toll on your body. Going to a dance call after waiting tables is no small feat. Singing at an audition after having to practically yell over the ambient noise in a restaurant is also a challenge.

All waiters are feed a staff meal and free food is good. Some places with bar service even allow you an after shift drink. You’re saving some money on food and entertainment. That means fewer hours to work. Unfortunately there are plenty of other things to eat up some of those “left-over” hours.

I’ve been performing and working on my career since I was 15 years old. And the one thing I know is this: The amount of things I don’t know could make an entirely new world. One of these "new world" ideas for many performers is that working on thier craft and career is a lifelong process. Everyone needs to take classes and lessons and seminars. Even if you don’t feel you have something to learn, there is still the element of networking. Networking is socializing combined with making professional contacts. And it’s a major time commitment... just ask any L. A. based actor.

Every performer you meet has the potential to assist you in your endeavor to pursue Art, career and work. I’ve performed with three casting directors and a major agent, performed with not for, prior to their becoming casting directors and an agent. Their lives changed based on their choices. Where did I meet them? In classes, doing shows and working the same day job, in short networking. Networking is a 24/7 kind of thing. Sometimes it’s a byproduct of other activities and sometimes it’s the activity itself.

Through all of this a performer still has to make it to auditions in order to get the opportunity to perform.

In the height of the audition season, getting in line at 6am in hopes to get an audition time is common practice. If you’re Equity you only have to wait a couple of hours before choosing a time to audition. If your non-equity you may have to sit around and wait all day to be seen. Either way, getting in line at 6am is no easy task if you've finished work at 2am. Even a bartender, who finishes work at 5am, has challenges. How well can you perform if you’ve been awake for fifteen hours straight; nine of the hours you were working, four of those hours you were standing in line and two of those hours you were getting ready and commuting?

It all comes down to choosing. You choose to work over going to class. You choose to go to an audition over going to work. You choose to have clean laundry, to eat, to sleep to live. Every choice you make has an impact on the outcome of your career. Believe or not a time will come when you’ll have to choose whether to take a performing job or not. It’s happened to me and with totally unforeseen outcomes.

I’ve only thought of turning down three performing jobs in my career. One I actually did turn down and two I didn’t.

I turned down that one job because I was young and naive. And stupid. It was for a theatre company that no longer exists, that virtually everyone at the time had worked for. My roommate got hired as well, but for the show prior to the one I was supposed to do.

Neither of us had cell phones at the time, so we were using the same land line as our buisness contact. Once during my roommate’s negotiations he wasn’t home so I answered the phone. It was the same casting person that had offered me a job in the subsequent show. The casting person acted as if I was “Joe Schmoe”. He gave no acknowledgement of who I was and the fact that he had just offered me a job. It pissed me off and hurt my pride. I later turned down the job. However the company continued to call me in for every show they did. I never booked another one before they shut their doors. There are some major up and coming directors and choreographers who have worked there. Little did I know that I chose to miss a prime networking opportunity.

In defense of my childish actions, I did have to get my life in order. I had just come back from Europe performing five years straight. I needed to find an apartment, a job and buckle down for New York City life.

Oddly enough, this job in Europe was one of the two jobs I almost turned down but didn’t. It was the hardest five years of my life and a virtual living hell. But wrapped up in all the turmoil and drama were wonderful experiences and amazing people (More on that in another blog).  If I had the chance to choose again, I would be just as torn as I was back then. I had two friends who convinced me to take the contract. In the end, however, the decision was mine and mine alone.

Taking this contract helped me to be put on file for the replacement of a lead role in a long running Broadway production.

The other job I almost turned down was prior to all of this. It was performing on a cruise ship. I was beside myself with the offer. Again I had just come off of another long stint of work and was rooming with another friend of mine (A major decision that comes from working out of town is whether to keep your apartment or give it up). He wasn’t going to classes or auditions or doing anything. He was stuck and deciding what he wanted out of life. Even though he wasn’t in a good place, I asked him his opinion about the cruise ship job. He told me to turn it down. Again the decision was mine to make and I did. I took the job.

He was right. The cruise ship life was not for me. There are some performers who make their entire careers from working on ships. That’s great for them. I hold nothing against them for it. They are just as talented and wonderful as any other type of performer. I did my one contract and came back to New York, back to living with my friend.

When I returned, my friend informed me of all that had happened since my high seas adventure. He was going to leave the stage and go into choreography, which by the way he is still successfully doing to this day. But more importantly he told me how grateful he was that I had made my own decision and took the contract.

Late one night, while I was on the ship, my friend heard a loud noise followed by a huge booming thud. Then silence. As he investigated, he found that an enormous section of ceiling over the head of my bed had collapsed. Had I not taken the cruise ship job I would have been in bed when it happened. My skull would have been crushed from the weight of fallen debris.

Not all decisions are as profound. One time I had to decide between going to a temp job or going to pick up a paycheck. I only had enough money for one subway fare...and I had to take the quarters out of my loafers to get it! I decided to pick up the paycheck, hoping to make up for lost work time with another temp job.

I am an adult. I make my own decisions and pay my own way. Sometimes it’s good and right and easy. Sometimes it’s not. And I can never know what the long term ramifications will be...

I’ve decided to forgo a few days of work to be able to be a part of the Backer’s Audition. Without the income, I will have to miss a few dance classes. I’ll also not be able to go through with the voice lessons I had planned on taking. Instead I will have to squeeze in time for the gym to get some physical exercise and simply sing through my audition material on my own. I’ll have to rely on the technique and songs I already have in my arsenal to get me through.

There are two auditions scheduled for one day. In the height of the audition seasons this is quite common, and decisions have to be made as to which to focus on. This time of year it’s a bit rare, so I’ve decided to go to both. I’ve planned ahead. I have no prior commitments. I’m not going into the “day job”. I have no rehearsals to attend. It’s all worked it out squared away. I chose.

Sometimes you choose and Life has a way of intervening and forcing you to face your decision.

On Thanksgiving Day, the Director of the Theatre program at my university passed away. He is an accomplished man, having worked with and been friends with some of the great legends of theatre. He was an amazing teacher. I’m convinced he’s taught some of the next generation of theatre legends.  Funeral services are scheduled on the day of these two auditions.

Choices.

Each and every day is filled with choices: some good, some bad, some obvious and some obtuse. And each and every choice is a direction, a road to travel down. There is no map. There is no right or wrong. The choices you make will have an impact on the direction your life takes and sometimes on your very existence.

 

Whether you work, audition, socialize, take a job, refuse a job, take classes, take lessons or skip the whole damn thing, it’s your choice. And that choice leads to another choice, which leads to another road. If you find the journey you’re taking never seems to be living up to your dreams, choose again.

For a performer birthing a career, having to constantly choose is simply The Facts of Life...