Showing posts with label Making a Living in the Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Making a Living in the Arts. Show all posts

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Actors Working At Being Employed

Auditions for voice-overs, and film and tv, coming up. Send out good vibes for me.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like, to NOT feel the need to act, or write.
And despite being very imaginative, it's truly difficult to imagine being without that drive.I recall a wonderful Professor (renowned British film and stage actor,Paul Massie) saying to us eager college-students, waaaay back-in-the-day(University of South Florida, where I went to school) that "....if you can do something else, do it....You should only act if you HAVE to do it."
It's true.
This business is immensely rewarding in terms of self-expression, the relationships you form, and the discoveries you make about yourself--and other human beings, through the creative process, is amazing....but unfortunately, much of society rates a human being's worth in terms of the dollars and cents they make from their profession. It is sometimes depressing, to work so hard, and receive so little money.
Of course, plenty of A-List actors make a fortune, but the rest of us working actors feel fortunate that we just get paid.
We've all acted, or written poems, or written plays, for little or nothing, just to get to do it.
Most of us also work at a "job-job" (or two), my term for a non-acting or non-writing-gig, in order to pay bills, and/or save money for classes or workshops, etc.
So, I'm curious:
Any of you out there, who would be willing to do your chosen profession--whatever it is--for little or no money?