Waiting Around
As actors we spend a lot of our lives waiting. Waiting to hear, waiting to work, waiting for work and waiting for people to see our work. Much of our time seems to be spent with the never boiling watched kettle. How much easier it is to have time full of things to do. To leave the audition room and plunge back into the world of work rather than let the hours drift slowly by waiting for the no. If it ever comes.
It’s not unknown to wait for quite a while and then to get a yes. I’ve just spent two or three weeks waiting for the results of meetings I had. Both turned into offers. Sadly, in the interim, my diary has changed and I can only take one of the jobs. It’s always great to be offered work, and its even nicer to do it. But one cannot wait around.
Many years ago I waited nearly three weeks for the result of a series of interviews for a West End role. I was in my early twenties and it was the biggest job interview I had been for. By week three, the long hours of unemployment were rotting away my sense of possible success, I could barely contain myself. In those days one knew there would be a definite Yes or No. And it came. At 5pm on the Friday as rehearsals were due to start on the Monday.
It was a no. I was crushed. Beaten down and for a further week or so, useless for anything. Now I don’t wait. I move on as soon as I have left the room. Process what you did in the audition room and then move onwards. Even with the ‘please say No “ campaign, the waiting is still painful if it is all you have. So move on. And if other opportunities present themselves, seize them. One can’t live a life on the possibility of “What if?”
Someitmes waiting is inevitable. Waiting for things we wish we didn’t have to face. Waiting for things we don’t want to happen. The advice is surely the same. Fill the time. Don’t stop and wait. The kettle will never boil. The bus will never come. Walk onwards to the next stop. Go and do something in the other room. The time will pass. And the result, whatever it is, will reveal itself.
And you won’t have wasted time waiting for it.
It’s not unknown to wait for quite a while and then to get a yes. I’ve just spent two or three weeks waiting for the results of meetings I had. Both turned into offers. Sadly, in the interim, my diary has changed and I can only take one of the jobs. It’s always great to be offered work, and its even nicer to do it. But one cannot wait around.
Many years ago I waited nearly three weeks for the result of a series of interviews for a West End role. I was in my early twenties and it was the biggest job interview I had been for. By week three, the long hours of unemployment were rotting away my sense of possible success, I could barely contain myself. In those days one knew there would be a definite Yes or No. And it came. At 5pm on the Friday as rehearsals were due to start on the Monday.
It was a no. I was crushed. Beaten down and for a further week or so, useless for anything. Now I don’t wait. I move on as soon as I have left the room. Process what you did in the audition room and then move onwards. Even with the ‘please say No “ campaign, the waiting is still painful if it is all you have. So move on. And if other opportunities present themselves, seize them. One can’t live a life on the possibility of “What if?”
Someitmes waiting is inevitable. Waiting for things we wish we didn’t have to face. Waiting for things we don’t want to happen. The advice is surely the same. Fill the time. Don’t stop and wait. The kettle will never boil. The bus will never come. Walk onwards to the next stop. Go and do something in the other room. The time will pass. And the result, whatever it is, will reveal itself.
And you won’t have wasted time waiting for it.
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