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Link to 101 Questions for the Actor"MISSION: POSSIBLE"
Why are you performing, and what do you want to achieve? Performers are often so busy striving to meet the expectations of Casting Directors, Agents and Producers that we miss defining and meeting our own goals. We need a guardrail to help us follow a consistent path; the path that leads to our ultimate goal.
To reach your performing goals, it helps to have a mission. Craft your career road map with these three steps.
STEP #1:
Define the future:
DEFINE THE FUTURE: A performer's mission statement is a paragraph outlining what you want from your career and what you're willing to do to get it. Michael Blevins' statement before coming to New York was: "Perform on Broadway befor age 21, make commercials and play a lead in a major motion picture before the age of 25, become a teacher and return knowledge back to young people". He did. Defining goals ia a way to stay on your path. Having a mission statement takes the selfishness--and egocentricity--out of performing. To craft your mission statement, ask:
-What's important to your performing career; income, a certain type of work or a specific genre/market?
-How will your strengths help build on your weak areas?
-What steps will you take to ensure your success?
STEP #2:
BUILD A LADDER:Once you define what you want from your performing career and how you plan to get it, you must determine the assignments that will move you forward. Post your mission statement in a visible place, and when an assignment comes up, ask yourself these questions:
-How will this assignment move my career forward?
-Why do I want to take this assignment?
-How will this assignment help me grow as a performer?
-Is this assignment within the guidelines of my mission statement?
-Your answers should help define if the assignment is important, or if it's something that will keep you busy without giving any momentum.
STEP #3:
BE READY TO DETOUR:As your career grows and changes your mission statement should too. Mission statements should be reviewed at least once a year, though sometimes more often than that. When you reach one of the goals which you have outlined in the statement, then it's time to reevaluate it and define a new goal to strive to reach. Your mission statement can guide you, too, if you define your goals and outline how you intend to reach them. Then reevaluate those objectives regularly to determine if they still apply.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A MISSION STATEMENT IS AIMING HIGH AND WORKING LOW........DREAMS MUST BE GROUNDED IN GRUNT WORK!
WEST SIDE STORY directed/choroegraphed by M. Blevins 2000
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