I meant to post this Sunday night, but got sidetracked. Going to have to be more mindful in the future...
Part of keeping myself on track this year is going to be setting goals, and another part is going to be me writing about what I do each week. Sometimes it's hard to see progress or feel like I'm working on "my craft" when I really am (for example: those dead spaces where I'm not in a show, but keep busy with auditions, class scenes, writing, reading plays, and other actor-related things). And other times, I lose sight of the art I love and spend weeks doing nothing to work toward any goals whatsoever, and then wind up feeling really lost and purposeless.
A major goal is to not get stuck in the latter one this year. Having goals is important. And achieving big goals requires lots of little tiny steps toward them, not big, giant leaps.
Baby steps.
My goals for 2015:
1. Do 10 scenes for class. Not including remounts. Last year I only did 3 all year (plus remounts), and so I hope to do much better this year.
2. Record my voiceover demo.
3. Get new headshots.
4. Write at least weekly in my blog, and publish 5 articles before the end of the year.
5. Find and rehearse 5 new monologues for audition season.
6. See approximately 80% new work, 20% previously produced shows.
That's what I've got so far. I might add more goals as the year goes on.
So, the past 14 days of my life as an actor have been filled with a ton of theater-related things. There is no particular order of importance placed on these things, though perhaps there should be. Some of them are definitely more meaningful, more purposeful, and more in-line with my goals than others. I'm going to star the ones that are important baby steps toward my bigger goals.
- I put up two scenes from Magnolia in class, and then remounted them the following Monday.***
- At my job at the U of M Medical School, I played the mother of a sick infant; I worked on communications and presentation skills for case presentations; and I helped first years practice their exam skills with me as their patient.
- I checked out a giant stack of plays from the library and have read quite a few of them (The Flick, Halcyon Days, Shooting Star, In a Forest Dark and Deep). I'm currently reading Trust, by Steven Dietz.***
- I went to see three shows, all new works: Theatre Novi Most's Rehearsing Failure and The Red Eye to Havre Grace at the Walker's Out There series were both devised pieces, and Loudmouth Collective's production of A Bright New Boise.***
- I re-watched Breakfast at Tiffany's (in the interest of making my roommate watch it for the first time ever), watched Paul Thomas Anderson's film The Master, and saw A Most Violent Year.
- I binge-watched Galavant.
- I did a private play reading with some other actors for a company I'd love to work with.
- I had a lovely dinner with my director from Candid Theatre's production of Hauptmann.
- I was asked to do four separate paid gigs which I was unable to accept because of conflicts with other commitments.
- I auditioned for one play and was called back. Auditions are still a bit sparse at the moment.
- I attended birthday festivities for three different theater friends and the Bar Mitzvah of another theater friend's son; My friend Rachel taught me two chords on the ukelele, and I tried out some new songs at karaoke, so I feel musically accomplished; and I went dancing at Transmission for David Bowie night.
I think that's a pretty good start to my year! Now on to my second month...
Small steps I want to take this week toward each of my big goals:
1. Email possible scene partners about a few more class scenes. I have possibly in the works two scenes. I'm meeting with one classmate on Thursday to discuss, and the other one hasn't gotten back to me yet.
2. Transcribe 3 commercials that I've recorded that I could use for my demo.
3. I have to pay my taxes for last year before I can get new headshots, but I will work out at least three days this week. Gotta get more in shape for my shots!
4. I will write on a topic of importance to me, some sort of rough draft. And I will update this blog by this Sunday as well.
5. I will cut a monologue or two from one of the plays I read recently.
6. I am seeing one play this week, and it's Caryl Churchill's newest play, Love and Information...so I think I'm doing good on my percentage so far.
Also:
Taxes. I need to get my tax stuff for last year together. This is not working toward any big goals, but it needs to get done, so this week I would like to get all my mileage entered in my spreadsheet.
I am meeting with a filmmaker I know to discuss a project we want to work on together.
I'm sure that's plenty...I still have work and rehearsal for Commedia Day with Shadow Horse Theater, which is February 25th. I'm sure all of this will keep me quite busy!
Until next Sunday...