How to Really Prepare for an Actor Showcase.

A waste of time.

From the second you started school, you heard about the seemingly all important senior showcase. In fact, to this day many people choose their school based on whether or not it has a showcase. Now schools are showcasing in LA, NY, Chicago and DC amongst many other cities and even adult actors well out of school are paying good money to participate in similar opportunities. 

But the lack of preparedness students have going into these unique opportunities basically make them a big waste of time.

The way programs prepare students for their showcase perpetuates the same disempowering fantasy actors take for granted; do a great job, magically get an agent / manager, begin auditioning immediately, book a few shows, move on to Film/TV and you’re set. 

The truth of the matter is that performing your showcase and “hoping for the best” is a really bad business strategy that for most leads to nothing but missed opportunity.

How to really prepare for your showcase.

The fact is, for 99% of those entering the acting workforce, the job is bigger than actually acting. However, students are not taught how to make the most of this unique opportunity or what to do alongside the showcase performance itself. Subsequently, we are being led to slaughter. 

We’re all aware of the endless time students spend on picking material, the running order of the showcase and what outfits they’re going to wear but what if they spent time on:

• Doing research on confirmed representation and identifying who could be a best fit based on the office’s roster, what they focus on and what the actors goals are?

• In the year leading up to showcase, cultivating essential relationships with directors, playwrights and actors who have the agents they want, and then invite them! 

• Building a strategic plan to follow up immediately following the showcase with additional materials (a reel, invites to upcoming projects and “good words” from those relationships we already identified)?

• Having an organized list of all of their options so that they can be preparing for reach outs well beyond whomever may be coming to this showcase?

One thing I’m very much aware of is that this undercuts the herd mentality. Most acting students are taught that their job is limited to the performance they give on showcase day; to stay in their lanes and to not be too “pushy”. 

Well - let’s remember - there’s a difference between a hobby and a career. A career takes focus, determination and active follow through. A hobby takes low risk chances. Why would you not put equal time and effort into planning out an effective business and networking strategy around your senior showcase? Are you resting on the laurels of your school’s credibility or your wholly unique talent? Good luck!

Why showcases ruin careers before they start.

Here’s another diddy. The importance programs and their students give to showcase is ruining careers before they start. Period.

“But the showcase is designed as an opportunity to get in front of potential reps, and securing representation is helpful, so how is it ruining careers?”

Students are led to believe that this is the one and only next stepping stone of their careers without a sense of what will actually sustain their businesses for the decades to come. 

Most actors finish their showcase experience, and while some may have snagged some initial interest, many are left walking into the open industry not knowing what to do next. Sound familiar? The first ding to our morale, yea? The second is watching some of your colleagues begin to audition while you arrive for a 6 AM EPA only to not be seen. The third is the often slow descent into inactivity, wondering if you’ve made the right choice, if you should go back to grad school to get a second-chance showcase or quit altogether. 

Here’s the good news, there are literally thousands of things you can do to build a sustainable career as an actor right now! For instance, I mentioned the idea of “invites to upcoming projects” above. This ties into all the other ways we can be preparing to venture into the “real world” beyond the minimal opportunity that is the actor showcase. In addition to preparing for this random, small piece of your potential future, what if you were:

• Building a financial plan for a secondary income stream that will allow for you to focus on the beginning of your career as much as you would like to?

• Working through three varied self produced projects that you could use to dive right into the industry and, again, invite those reps to?

• Developing a strong sense of brand and potential marketing strategies to employ no matter what comes out of your showcase?

• Creating a “who’s who” alongside a cultivation plan for relationships you know are key to making next steps?

• Identifying where you currently need to improve in order to stay competitive and have a plan for continuing to better your product?

• And the list goes on…

What if we enhanced the actor showcase with so many of the avenues we’re underlining above? We may have an even stronger, happier workforce.

By the way, it’s not too late to kickstart or build upon your career even if your showcase didn’t reap the rewards you thought it may. The tools above will always be applicable and necessary.