Stay Ready and You won’t have to Get ready

Here’s some advice I wish someone had given me years ago: document your journey. This is not limited to doing youtube video diaries. I committed to doing that during 2013. I did one a month and I suspect I’ll wish I continued.

What I’m referring to is keeping a diary/bible of all of your audition experiences in this industry. I recently took Marci Liroff’s audition bootcamp class via Udemy. It was full of information. Some of it was old to me but a lot of it was new to me. She has had years of experience and she bestows it upon us one lecture at a time. One lesson that stood out among others was the advice to keep a journey of auditions and interactions in the industry.

I like to think I have the memory of an elephant and while it has served me well over the years, have concrete documentation of my work over the years would be valuable to me and agents, managers that I stand to work with later on. As we all know by now, we work more than our resume shows. The auditions, classes, and prep all lead up to the roles, but that is the work that matters. One actor suggested having five columns on an excel spreadsheet: Casting director, date, project, role, character name.

I also have a notebook full of monologues that I can refer to easily when I need to prep. Robert Townsend says every actor should have three monologues prepped and ready at any time in case of an audition. How much valuable time do we lose looking for a monologue? We should be spending time prepping one we have already selected.

Most recently I have added another notebook to my repertoire. I have sections for notes I take from acting books I’ve read, casting director workshops I’ve taken, acting classes, writing classes, and old sides with notes from my acting coach.  When I cannot afford acting class, I watch classes on Youtube and do my best to stay sharp. I take notes on these courses also.

These materials are all designed to help you and you never know how they can come in handy lately. My motto is: it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. 

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