Top Ten Tips to Kick Start Your Acting Career

Getting your acting career off the ground isn’t going to be easy. The field of drama is highly competitive, and with so much opposition it can be difficult to know where to start to distinguish yourself from your rivals. Although it would be impossible to provide all of the information that you need to make your career a success, the following top ten tips will help to give things a kick start.

Tip 1 – Find the best acting schools

Without knowing how to act, your career in drama will be over before it begins. There are a huge range of different courses available to you, featuring lessons that will strengthen your skills and introduce you to many new ones. Do some research on the different acting classes within your local area in the UK, and make sure that you attend them.

Tip 2 – Keep reading

Read modern works and Shakespeare plays, tales of romance and tales of action, every genre and style that you can lay your hands on can offer valuable insights as you learn to step into a range of different character roles. You never know what you might be acting in the future, so reading a range of different books and plays will stand you in good stead for anything.

Tip 3 – Keep watching

It might sound like a great excuse to do nothing, but watching plays in the theatre and movies at the cinema or at home can actually be effective research. Don’t simply watch for enjoyment though, keep a close eye on the actors and learn from them; how do they play a difficult role?

Tip 4 – Find an acting agency

If you are just starting out on your road to an acting career you may not think that an acting agent is appropriate. And granted, if you don’t have any training or experience, you should start there. However, once you have a little training under your belt and are starting to hunt for auditions, an agency could be your means to be successful.

Tip 5 – Audition, audition, audition

Unfortunately there is no guaranteed recipe for success when it comes to acting auditions. You could be the best actor within the UK, and still fail to be noticed by a director that has had a long day. Don’t be discouraged; instead keep finding more auditions to attend, remembering that with every attempt you are learning vital skills for your future success.

Tip 6 – Market yourself

We live in a difficult economic situation, but the public always desire to see new films and new theatrical productions. To take advantage of this continual work stream it is important to be constantly marketing yourself. Why not create a blog and keep it up to date with your latest news and interesting stories? How about using your Facebook account as a means to connect with directors? There are a huge range of affordable tactics that you can take advantage of to get your name known.

Tip 7 – Consider your location

If you live in a village in the middle of nowhere, it is likely that you will need to travel to find work, if not to relocate permanently. Large cities like London do often offer the best opportunities, so consider how far afield you are willing to look for work. Deciding this at the outset of your foray into auditioning and learning can help to save you time by quickly ruling out inappropriate classes, auditions or even agencies.

Tip 8 – Take part in local theatre

Don’t have a lot of experience in acting yet? Want to wet your feet in a relatively safe environment? Why not volunteer to help out at your local theatre. It could be a great chance to hone your skills, perform in front of a live audience and even to realise if acting is actually for you now that you have experienced it in the real world.

Tip 9 – Remember to research

Research is vitally important to your success in the drama industry. You must research different roles available (even with an agent, you should still keep your finger on the pulse of upcoming possibilities), you must research different companies and directors before an audition, and you must always research your own character roles to ensure that you play the part convincingly.

Tip 10 – Dream big

Finally, you need to set yourself some goals. What do you want to achieve in your acting career? Do you want to make multimillion pound movies or perform in the West End theatres of London? Write down your end goal, and then the steps that you will take to get there. A great plan with attainable short term goals will keep you motivated to success, even when the going gets tough.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by vancouverfilmschool

Rebecca L. Smith is a full time freelance writer based in the UK. She specialises in creating an assortment of articles on a range of different topics of interest.