The Director Sector

One of the problems that frequently comes up in conversations is the lack of money. Specifically, the lack of money in the hands of artists. In this economy it’s no wonder that this is a concern! There are many of you out there who pursue theatre professionally and would love to do nothing more than work theatre full-time and make enough money to live in comfort and security.

Alas, that’s not the reality we live in today. Most of us need to have a way of paying that rent, buying that food, paying for the doctors visits. @JessHutchinson Tweeted recently that she felt sick but had to go into work because she needed the money. “Why must I choose between health care and money?” she asked the Twitterverse. It’s a dilemma that we all face at some time or another.

I know that many of you have day jobs that you suffer through in order to pay those bills. Some of you work as number crunchers for the health industry, others as hosts and hostesses at restaurants. Some are receptionists and some are floating by the grace of their parents’ money. Nothing wrong with that.

But let’s face it. Very few of us, with the exception of the latter group, are happy with that situation. We want to do theatre, dammit, and by God we’re going to sacrifice everything else to pursue that dream. We’ll even wash dishes in some seedy restaurant if need be.

The good news, folks, is that you don’t need to stoop quite that low. The solution is simple: become an expert in something else. Find something else that you’re passionate about and become an expert in that field. Once you’re confident that you can walk into a room full of people and be the most knowledgeable person in that room about that topic, you’re set!

Let’s look at myself, for instance. I’m a web designer by day, director by night. When I go into a room, there’s a 99% chance that I know more about web development and web design than anyone else in that room.

How does that help me, you ask? Well, let’s say a theatre needs a new website. I’m their guy. Let’s say a company needs emails fixed to look good on all web browsers and email clients. I’m their guy. And I get paid to do this. And not to brag, but I get paid quite a lot to do this.

Let’s look at another example. Dan Granata, whom many of you know and love in the theatre community, is an accomplished actor. He’d love to become a full-time actor, but that pesky bill thing gets in the way. So what did he do? Did he take some crappy day job and suffer through it for the sake of his art? Well, yes, he did. But recently, he attacked the problem from a new way.

Dan has spent the last few months researching and studying and training himself. Now, Dan knows more about social media and how to use them in marketing and business than most people I know. He’s currently doing seminars for a variety of companies, teaching their employees how to use Facebook to their advantage, to bring in revenue and increase the customer-base.

Let’s be frank, people, we all love Facebook. We love it, we love to hate it, and we’re always on it. And Dan has taken something that’s an enjoyable activity to him, something that he’s passionate about, and taken his passion and skill in theatre and entertainment, and combined the two into something that is marketable: social media consulting.

You, too, can do this. Find something (besides theatre) that you’re passionate about or that you’re good at doing and figure out a way to turn it into a business advantage. Can you teach people how to use your area of expertise to increase revenue for their business? Can you provide a service for them that they need? If they don’t think they need it, can you convince them that they do need it?

Most of you are actors of some caliber, and one thing that actors do very well is speak in front of people. Not only that, but you make it entertaining. So find another topic that you enjoy, research it, and pitch it to companies for seminars or consulting work.

Are you more of the technical type and less of the public speaker type?  Find an area that is related to your field and become an expert and get a day job doing it!  I’ve always been good with computer programming, and I think it’s incredibly fun and challenging.  I made a decision one day to learn as much as I could, so I spent three weeks doing nothing but writing web sites and making sure that I knew what I was doing.  Now I make a decent living making web pages.

If Dan can do it, if I can do it, then you can do it.

Trust me, it’s way better than waiting tables.