How Long Until I Am Ready?
When someone asks this question: How long will it be before I get to Step 9? Or how long is it until I am ready to audition for acting roles? Or how long until I can approach an agent? They are already missing the point.
The pursuit of excellent in acting comes in no fixed time. We all want it now. Of course we do. I understand. We live in that type of culture.
In Western culture, actor training is generally 3-4 years in length. This is purely for financial reasons. But I’m not talking about staying in school forever, I’m talking about learning, not about remaining an acting student forever, but you must always be
But the craft of acting is similar to Zen, you cannot find your way in Zen by seeking the moment of excellence, the destination, the end point. Once again, it is the actor’s journey that must be the focus, because it is the journey that makes us grow.
When a beginner asks how long they train with me for, two hats sit on me head. The commercial hat, that reminds me that I have acting courses to fill and bills to pay. The Zen hat that says that the training will take as long as it takes, and that if you seek only the end point, I doubt that you will ever reach it. Your impatience to get to the end will see you give up the training, and perhaps even give up the acting profession far too soon.
Becoming an actor is a Zen activity. Focus solely on the joy of acting, learning more about yourself, to be present to yourself, in the here and now, and be present for your partner. Breathe. It’s going to take as long as it takes, and you cannot rush it. Of course, you may make rapid advances from time to time. It’s not about staying a beginner, it’s about growing in skill and developing yourself along the way.
The beginner slowly becomes an expert. But even when they are feel that they have become an expert, you should see it as viewing the world like an informed beginner. Starting again. At each opportunity to learn, we go deeper and deeper. The beginner learns something new, the expert may enjoy the same lesson as the beginner, but they learn a completely different lesson from it. Always deeper and deeper.
So acting is not a sprint, it’s not fast that you need to be, it’s deeper and deeper. Enriching yourself with quality by going deeper.
An actor never stops learning to act, never stops going deeper. Sometimes formally, sometimes informally. You cannot rush this, even if you want to, there are no shortcuts, and anyone who says that there are, is looking to find a way to relieve you of your hard earned cash.