The Next Rung.

Remember when I used to start every other post with "I should be sleeping?" No? lol, well, I did, and I should. I'll go to bed soon (got two auditions tomorrow), just have been meaning to write for awhile, and don't want to keep putting it off.

I've been meeting with a lot of actors lately - actors with different levels of experience who are at different places in their careers. There is one constant: Everybody wants to know how to move forward. Beginners want to know how to get trained, trained actors want to know how to get experience, experienced actors want to know how to move from co-star to guest star or from guest star to series regular. Me too.

Y'all know I was in a slump for awhile. I blogged about it because I really wanted other actors to understand that a person's situation can change at any time - there really is no stability, even in success. Look at well-known actors who have a hit show or a string of blockbuster movies, then disappear for awhile (or for good). We wonder "What happened to so-and-so?" Sometimes drugs, sometimes just life. The same for "comebacks." You can't ever really count anyone out - look at the resurgence that Betty White has experienced over the past year.

So what do we do? Those of us who are trained, experienced, working, and then suddenly not working? After all of the research, marketing, and the auditioning, all we can do is stay ready. New opportunities will present themselves, and if we stay ready, we don't have to get ready.

Whatever your next move (I'm aiming for a string of high-profile guest-star roles instead of co-star roles, and I would also like to do some feature film work for the first time): let's make it happen. 2011 is coming up very soon, and whether you make resolutions or not (I don't), the new year is a natural starting point for changes. Figure out what you want to have happen in the coming year, and start preparing now, so that when January 1 hits, you can fly.

Dues have been paid. It's time.

--Nicole