Some say that to be a professional actor is to be a “professional auditioner.” More critical folks call it a “professional waiter.”
Unless you’re very famous, you tend to spend as much, if not more, time looking for professional acting work than actually acting. Every step of the way, there’s a rush and a lull.
When I first signed on with my agent, I was rushing to get headshots done and record samples for my reel. Hurry up! Then, casting directors could look at my profiles and I had to… wait. I would wait for a project to come in looking for an actor like me. I would wait for my agent to submit me or tell me that I had an audition. I grew tired of waiting.
I realized that I had to go looking on my own, too. I sent headshots to local independent filmmakers, film schools, musicians who might cast music videos, and more. I auditioned for theatre productions.
In a flurry of putting myself out there and responding to my agent’s calls for headshots or audition tapes, I felt like I was finally rolling. My career was gaining traction, and then a project’s funding would fall through, or someone would get sick when we were supposed to shoot, or I just wouldn’t get cast. There I was, waiting again.
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I was a cast member at the Carolina Renaissance Festival.
When I was on set for the first time, I noticed a similar pattern. Everyone be here at a certain time! Go to wardrobe! To hair and makeup! Be ready in ten minutes! Ten minutes later, you learn that they’re still setting up the scene, or decided to change the schedule so you’re not needed until this afternoon, or the scene before yours is taking longer than anticipated. There’s the wait!
Don’t even get me started on Tech Week in theatre. Actors run the performances like a dress rehearsal, but with pauses every time there’s a tech adjustment. Everyone’s stressed and tired, and the week before opening has colloquially come to be known as “Hell Week.” It can get tedious if you’re not ready for it.
Me as Prospera, with Miranda, in a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest
At first, it bothered me, but then I found a rhythm. The work comes and goes like waves breaking on the beach. Sometimes acting is fast, busy work, and then the wave washes out to sea and you get to take time to regain your composure.
After stressful, time-crunched auditions, I get to decompress until the next one and focus on things like writing or schoolwork. On set, waiting around provides a good time to run over my lines again or network with the other actors or the production crew. Acting is like a cog in the entertainment industry, and for a production to truly come together, the cog has to fit into the right gear at the right time.
Yes, the game of hurry-up-and-wait is part of the job. Being patient, being on time, and being a professional auditioner are part of the job. Being a professional waiter? A choice, not a requirement.
xo,
Cecilia