Calling all aspiring actors! Struggling with comparison? Opportunities? Auditions? These are challenges that many actors face, and our Resident Acting Company has some advice for overcoming them. Each of our company members gave us their biggest advice for aspiring actors, and we hope it helps as you continue your acting journey.
Elizabeth Bunch
Advice for future theater artists is always hard because we are all so different. Maybe the best thing to think about is how do you hone and focus your talents to be the best version of yourself. Find the things about your artistry that makes you proud and unique. You won’t get anywhere comparing yourself to those around you!
Michelle Elaine
Don’t wait to be cast in the role you want. Create it for yourself! All you need is a phone, a light, and a mic.
Dylan Godwin
I would advise any aspiring actor to never take any experience for granted. Our craft is iterative in almost any way you look at it. Because of this, every experience is an opportunity to learn something about yourself and your process. Sometimes the lesson I have taken from a process that feels frustrating is how to move within those constraints and still find success for yourself. I think the enemy is “shutting down.” Stay present, stay focused, and discover what that particular circumstance is teaching you about yourself. I read once that actors get better by doing and watching others. Every process, audition, at home practice is an opportunity for this!
Chris Hutchison
Read everything. Make your own work. Don’t compare your journey to anyone else’s.
Melissa Molano
There’s a lot I could say. What comes to mind now is something simple one of my cousins (also coincidentally an actor) said to me- “be you”. It’s simple but also not so simple when you’re still figuring out you and there’s a pressure to maybe be what you think others want you to be. Comparison will always be the thief of joy, and being true to you will always hold more value. It’s more vulnerable but it leads to truer connections and growth. Also, that being said, when it comes to being in the room -don’t make it all about you. Be generous, root for the people around you, dare to suck, and fail forward.
David Rainey
Never stop learning. Always look for people that know more than you and try to learn from them. Keep studying craft and stretching yourself in as many ways as possible. Never believe that you are good enough. Always be looking for ways to be better. Every time you’re onstage it’s another chance to grow, so don’t treat your good work like it’s a done deal, or a chore that you now must do every night. It should always be a chance to discover, and it’s that discovery each time that will keep it fresh and alive and exciting for you and your audience.
Christopher Salazar
Be curious and be adventurous. A career as an actor is likely to have extreme highs and extreme lows, but just keep trudging ahead. Anytime I’ve felt at the end of my rope, I think of this quote that exists in the back of my mind : “We may very well be hanging by a thread… well, it is my belief that the best things happen just before the thread snaps.”
