The other day I reconnected with an old friend from high school. Someone who I hadn't talked to SINCE high school. She was one grade older than me and one of my best friends at the time. And suddenly I found myself remembering the old high school days...
We had a TINY theatre crowd at that school with no official theatre department. Although there WAS one theatre class taught for half the year. The teacher would be different each time and non had passion or even knowledge of the subject. So a small group of kids created a club years before I went there. We had random teachers sit in the house of the theatre and grade their papers while we decided on what shows to produce. We got the rights to shows from MTI and Samuel French, paid for everything out of a budget passed down to us from past club members through ticket sales and donations. We designed, we directed, we acted, and we produced our own productions from beginning to end. Our shows were terrible and we rarely performed in front of an audience that numbered in the double digits. But the small group of us that actually cared and put in the effort are all still working in the field today.
I seem to go back and forth on my feelings about my high school's "theatre program". On the one hand I got an advanced education in theatre management, but on the other hand I never learned acting basics. So when I reconnected with an old committee member from the high school days I was engrossed in her career choices following high school.
She was accepted into the UCLA acting school out of high school and made a swift transition to the film market. A transition that I am beginning to do myself. I found myself asking question after question. She had a ton of suggestions that I am working on doing now, but the thing that hit me the hardest was when she said this.
"I just see so many people waste all their time and money on drinking and partying and doing nothing with their lives but audition for one commercial every three months and they pretend they're still trying to be actors. LA isn't a breeze. You could book a great job immediately, or you could spend 10 years here trying and then maybe book something. So you have to commit to either of those futures."
I don't know what the next step is for me. I don't know if its in LA, especially as I find myself booking more work in the Bay Area the more I DO in the Bay Area. What I know is that it is decision time. I have always said that I wanted to be an actor. It's time to make a leap. I might fall on my face, but at least I will have done SOMETHING.
Patreon is a website for artists who need a little extra financial help in order to produce their product. On top of this blog, I want to start an interview series in order to give a more well rounded idea of what being a performing artist is like. I want to make the leap to short videos, as well as delve into sketch comedy and satire. And in order to grow my passion into a real business I need help; I simply could not do this without you. Thank you so much for being a fan of my work and considering joining me on this adventure!
A big thank you to James Lindfelt who became a patron of mine this week on Patreon. I couldn't do this without your help, James!