"How much of human life is lost in waiting?" ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
How much of our lives do we spend waiting? Waiting for that dream job, waiting for the right person to come and sweep us off our feet, waiting until we have enough money to travel to that exotic place we've always wanted to go to, waiting for just the right time to start a family. I'll bet we spend more time "waiting" than we do sleeping and eating combined.
This is the life of an actor. Waiting. We get up at the crack of dawn to wait in long lines in the freezing cold, we wait outside a room in a long hallway to be judged by casting directors, we wait to hear if we've scored that callback and then we wait some more wondering if we won the part. I'm not saying that other professions don't have their share of waiting for things to happen. But the life of a performer is primarily spent waiting, wondering if we got it or if we'll have to spend the next 3+ months at a survival job (A job just to pay the bills, but is not necessarily something one likes doing).
I'm sitting in limbo right now, actually. I was contacted several weeks ago by a well known performing company that has shows worldwide, three months after I initially auditioned for them. So now, after the second round of auditions, I sit and wait... again. Not knowing when I'm going to get that call or email and not knowing what commitments I'll be able to keep or not keep with my family and friends because, at any moment, my life could be uprooted and I could be flying off to who knows where for who knows how long.
This has been my life since I graduated from college. I've been performing on cruise ships, moving around the country trying to "make it" in each place and following my passion around the world. I go where the money goes and my passion for the arts is the driving force. So now... I wait; Everyday keeping my phone close by and checking emails every hour.
In the meantime, of course, I have to get a job. The dreaded survival job which is mostly temp work in corporate offices. I'm actually pretty good at it. But for someone who longs to be singing in front of an auditorium full of people, it's very lackluster and, for a lack of a better word, boring as Hell. On the plus side, at least I can get paid for checking my emails and surfing the web, just as I'd be doing at home for free. So it all works out, I guess.
Wait... did my phone just ring?
How much of our lives do we spend waiting? Waiting for that dream job, waiting for the right person to come and sweep us off our feet, waiting until we have enough money to travel to that exotic place we've always wanted to go to, waiting for just the right time to start a family. I'll bet we spend more time "waiting" than we do sleeping and eating combined.
This is the life of an actor. Waiting. We get up at the crack of dawn to wait in long lines in the freezing cold, we wait outside a room in a long hallway to be judged by casting directors, we wait to hear if we've scored that callback and then we wait some more wondering if we won the part. I'm not saying that other professions don't have their share of waiting for things to happen. But the life of a performer is primarily spent waiting, wondering if we got it or if we'll have to spend the next 3+ months at a survival job (A job just to pay the bills, but is not necessarily something one likes doing).
I'm sitting in limbo right now, actually. I was contacted several weeks ago by a well known performing company that has shows worldwide, three months after I initially auditioned for them. So now, after the second round of auditions, I sit and wait... again. Not knowing when I'm going to get that call or email and not knowing what commitments I'll be able to keep or not keep with my family and friends because, at any moment, my life could be uprooted and I could be flying off to who knows where for who knows how long.
This has been my life since I graduated from college. I've been performing on cruise ships, moving around the country trying to "make it" in each place and following my passion around the world. I go where the money goes and my passion for the arts is the driving force. So now... I wait; Everyday keeping my phone close by and checking emails every hour.
In the meantime, of course, I have to get a job. The dreaded survival job which is mostly temp work in corporate offices. I'm actually pretty good at it. But for someone who longs to be singing in front of an auditorium full of people, it's very lackluster and, for a lack of a better word, boring as Hell. On the plus side, at least I can get paid for checking my emails and surfing the web, just as I'd be doing at home for free. So it all works out, I guess.
Wait... did my phone just ring?