Is Your Training Serving You?

Let's start with a story:

This may surprise you, but I went to college for tap dancing. (Yes, really.) Twelve days after I graduated high school, I flew across the country to NYC, a city I had never traveled to, and began training in a two-year conservatory musical theatre program.

I chose musical theatre because I knew I wanted to be an actor, and since I can sing and I can dance, it seemed like the best course of action to have training in all of those things. This plan worked out for some time: I got a job dancing at parties and events for a few years, wearing some cool and some bizarre costumes while doing choreographed routines to some of Broadway's biggest hits. Next, I got a job touring the country teaching musical theatre (and improv, mime, and Shakespeare) to children. 

I got back to NYC in September of 2008, just days before the housing market crash and the financial disaster that followed. What a time to be auditioning! No one was buying tickets to shows, so few shows were being produced. I got a restaurant job and weathered the storm.

When work opportunities slowly started to come back, I learned that I didn't like musical theatre anymore. More importantly, I loathed auditioning for musical theatre. I was bitter. I wasn't trying my best. I didn't want to be there, and, therefore, no one wanted to hire me. I realized that classical theatre was much more appealing to me, but I didn't know how to get involved.

I'll tell you what I did, and what I wish I had done sooner. My path may not be what's right for everyone; it certainly came from trial and error.

What I did:

I tried the "be so good they can't ignore you" technique. Honestly, I probably wasn't all that good yet, with minimal training in classical theatre, but I was studious and determined. 

I worked for free. I'm not a fan of being a volunteer actor, but I needed to get some skills. I was cast in a less-than-great production of Medea where my dance/movement skills were a selling point in the audition. Then I played Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. THEN, I started booking paying Shakespeare gigs.

While I'm a big fan of learning as much on the job as you can, I still had to play catch-up when I came in to my first paying Shakespeare job. I didn't understand the basics of verse mechanics, and made a lot of embarrassing, simple mistakes. Thankfully, I had patient people around me who helped point me in the right direction. My own curiosity and desire to not be embarrassed led me to...

What I wish I had done earlier:

Classes. So many classes. And workshops. And lectures. I cannot emphasize enough how much I needed to put my pride aside and get back into class. I was ten or more years out of college, with an education that was not serving me anymore. I don't even put my college on my resume, because it's simply unrelated to what I do now, as much as it would be if I had gone to school to be a mechanic. I took a good, hard look at my resume and realize that my training was lacking, so I fixed it by learning from people in the biz whose work I admire.

 

Is Your Training Serving You?

Do you feel that you have the skills to be competitive in auditions, and to be a rock star if and when you book the role? If not, you need more training. Focus as intensely as you can on the skills you need to master, and master them!

Who is booking the work? What training do they have? Can you get comparable training?

A Master's Degree might be out of the question for you, due to time, money, or any number of other reasons. One potential workaround is to study with the best teachers you can find, either privately or in a group class.

What I hope you take away from this is that if your training isn't serving you any more, that it is okay (and encouraged!) to go get the education you need for where you want your path to go. 

If you want to step up your Shakespeare skills,

Email ShakespeareCoach@gmail.com to schedule your coaching session!

For more info, visit ShakespeareCoach.com!