If I told you that in three steps, you could guarantee your success as an actor, would you do it?

Considering how turbulent an acting career can be, my guess is that if you knew there were three things you could do to make 100% sure you were successful in this arena, you’d do them!

In fact, what I’m about to share with you isn’t revolutionary. These ideas have been around for a while, but I think it’s important to keep sharing them because even though they’re floating through our collective actor consciousness, so many of us choose not to live by them.

So here we go. Follow these three steps to guarantee your success as an actor.

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Last week we started exploring the conversation of whether or not an actor needs to continue to train through his or her professional career (read Part I of this series HERE).

This week, I’m taking the conversation a little deeper with my guest contributors from the Chicago acting scene and asking, “How can Chicago actors keep up with actors in New York and Los Angeles?” 

Training is Viewed Differently in Chicago than it is in NY and LA

Jimmy Carrane, Performer, Teacher and Author: “I took an on-camera class years ago, and in that class we had an actor who was in the touring company of Wicked when it was playing in Chicago. The guy had a big part in the show, and he was taking an on-camera class on his night off. He was similar to many actors from New York or LA, where it’s just part of the acting culture that you should always take classes to keep getting better. Chicago actors don’t think like that.” 

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To Train or Not to Train

As we move through our careers as artists and attain a certain level of success (whether that be consistently booking guest stars and recurring roles, becoming a member of a reputable theater company or some other definition of success), it can be tempting to think that you’ve “gotten there” and that there’s no longer a need for training.

I’ve also seen students come straight out of conservatory training programs thinking that they’re all set. They have all the training they need, and they don’t need to attend class or regularly “work out” their acting muscle.

As an actors’ business coach, and an actress myself, I know that ongoing training is vital to success as a performance artist. This is true because not only is continual growth and expansion important to any art form, but also because your competition is training. If you want to book work, you must train.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve interviewed some important industry voices on the topic of training. Here’s what they had to say...

Is ongoing training Important?

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As actors, it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling powerless. Waiting for a callback, hoping for a booking, crossing our fingers that they wanted a brunette instead of a blonde. Can you relate to that feeling?

Even though there are aspects to an actor’s career that, yes, rest in the hands of the powers that be, it’s a trick of the mind to get in the habit of expecting that we don’t have any control.

Or – said another way – we’re fooling ourselves if we don’t recognize that when we step into the world with focused intention and take charge of where we want our career to go, we become incredibly powerful!

Here are 5 things you can do today to own your power as an artist and creator... “desperately checking to see if your agent called” not included!

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