Smart dreams for the young actor.
One really nice aspect of this year has been getting out to meet lots of 2014 drama graduates. Fully fledged caterpillars ready to turn into dramatic butterflies once their graduation happens at some point between May and July this year.
Because the day after their graduation is the day the acting stops. The acting that they have dreamed of doing since they were small, that they have been doing throughout their school years, and drama school years, suddenly will not be fed to them on a plate and will only happen if they get out there and get themselves a job.
That's when acting becomes not just a passion, but a business, and like any business, you need to have objectives.
This week I spent an hour with the final year graduating students at ALRA. An old friend of mine, Clive Duncan, is the principal there and he introduced me to sea of expectant faces late on a Thursday afternoon. Whenever I stand or sit in front of a new group of people, I always feel that they are surveying me with that wary cagey eye of youth as if to say "Why you?"
I asked about their dreams. They certainly have them. I asked what practical preparations they were making to becoming working actors. Some had thought about that too. I asked how they would know when it was time to give up! Perhaps that wasn't a question they were expecting, but the answers ranged from "When I don't like it any more" to "When the passion dies".
I then moved on to ask that if I came back to see them again in a years time, how would they know if they had been successful in.
The answers were sometimes A little vague. Some of them knew they wanted to do some theatre, and some thought they might work in television, but none of them had any objectives.
When working in the business world and dealing with managers who have to manage whole teams of people, it's very important that they give their teams objectives that are measurable and can be looked at and reviewed. These are known as Smart objectives.
Having set smart objectives, it means that the manager can review the person's performance in a years time and understand how to measure it.
A smart objective is as follows
S Specific. For the young actor this could mean not just "I want to do some telly but "I want to do at least two days television work"
M. Measurable. Any objective that you set has to have some way of being measurable. So in setting an objective for yourself as a young actor, do you want to earn a certain amount during the year, or do you want to do paid work for a certain number of days?
Achievable. While it's great to have a dream of playing the lead in a major Hollywood blockbuster in your first year out of drama school, in reality you won't do that. If that's your objective in your measure of success, then you're setting yourself up to fail. Put the major Hollywood blockbuster on your dreams list, and set yourself a target that looks achievable, so that at the end of the year you will have a chance of success
R Relevant. It's not much help just saying that I want to do ten days work, so that at the end of the year, you can count any number of days spent on the till at Lidl in your work total.
T. Timed. Give yourself a specific time frame for the objective. One year to the day you left drama school, one calendar year. Whatever it may be, let it be a period of time that you can measure easily.
Objectives such as these are the beginning of a business plan, and any good business needs a good business plan to succeed. As an actor, that's what you are...a business.
So give yourself every chance of success.
Because the day after their graduation is the day the acting stops. The acting that they have dreamed of doing since they were small, that they have been doing throughout their school years, and drama school years, suddenly will not be fed to them on a plate and will only happen if they get out there and get themselves a job.
That's when acting becomes not just a passion, but a business, and like any business, you need to have objectives.
This week I spent an hour with the final year graduating students at ALRA. An old friend of mine, Clive Duncan, is the principal there and he introduced me to sea of expectant faces late on a Thursday afternoon. Whenever I stand or sit in front of a new group of people, I always feel that they are surveying me with that wary cagey eye of youth as if to say "Why you?"
I asked about their dreams. They certainly have them. I asked what practical preparations they were making to becoming working actors. Some had thought about that too. I asked how they would know when it was time to give up! Perhaps that wasn't a question they were expecting, but the answers ranged from "When I don't like it any more" to "When the passion dies".
I then moved on to ask that if I came back to see them again in a years time, how would they know if they had been successful in.
The answers were sometimes A little vague. Some of them knew they wanted to do some theatre, and some thought they might work in television, but none of them had any objectives.
When working in the business world and dealing with managers who have to manage whole teams of people, it's very important that they give their teams objectives that are measurable and can be looked at and reviewed. These are known as Smart objectives.
Having set smart objectives, it means that the manager can review the person's performance in a years time and understand how to measure it.
A smart objective is as follows
S Specific. For the young actor this could mean not just "I want to do some telly but "I want to do at least two days television work"
M. Measurable. Any objective that you set has to have some way of being measurable. So in setting an objective for yourself as a young actor, do you want to earn a certain amount during the year, or do you want to do paid work for a certain number of days?
Achievable. While it's great to have a dream of playing the lead in a major Hollywood blockbuster in your first year out of drama school, in reality you won't do that. If that's your objective in your measure of success, then you're setting yourself up to fail. Put the major Hollywood blockbuster on your dreams list, and set yourself a target that looks achievable, so that at the end of the year you will have a chance of success
R Relevant. It's not much help just saying that I want to do ten days work, so that at the end of the year, you can count any number of days spent on the till at Lidl in your work total.
T. Timed. Give yourself a specific time frame for the objective. One year to the day you left drama school, one calendar year. Whatever it may be, let it be a period of time that you can measure easily.
Objectives such as these are the beginning of a business plan, and any good business needs a good business plan to succeed. As an actor, that's what you are...a business.
So give yourself every chance of success.
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