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Make a Living Acting Anywhere The Ultimate Guide 6 Ways to Make a Living Acting Without Leaving Home With Workbook Chrissy Hogue Bartels Copyright © 2020 Christina M. Bartels All rights reserved. ISBN: 9798642749791 DEDICATION You know who you are…the family, friends, colleagues, and collaborators whom I dare not name for fear of leaving someone out but who have been with me throughout it all! To those of you who I could not possibly get through a day without. And, to those of you who have purchased this book. To you I dedicate this version of my life’s work in the hopes that you will be able to use it as a tool while crafting your life as an actor making your living anywhere you feel happiest. CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 2 Solo Show: Booked and Paid to Perform Pg #3 3 Launching a Celebrity-Studded Film Festival Pg #8 4 Theatre for Charity Producer Pg #12 5 Freelance Voice Over & Actor Pg #14 6 Narration for Audiobooks Pg #17 7 Self-Producing & Distribution Pg #19 8 Resources Pg #22 9 About the Author Pg #23 1 INTRODUCTION Welcome to Make a Living Acting Anywhere Hello there and welcome to Make a Living Acting Anywhere: The Ultimate Guide Digital Book and Workbook! You’re an Actor, right? You’ve always been an actor. I hear people say all the time that they want to be an actor. I believe you either are one or you’re not. What I think people mean when they say they want to be an actor is that they want to be a rich and famous star. There’s no shame in that. But, for the purposes of our work here, I want you to start thinking of yourself as an Actor right now no matter where you are along your journey. Can you agree to that? If so, stop right now, get up and go look in the mirror and say to yourself, “I am an Actor”. You back? Or, did you have more questions? Did you, for example, think to yourself, “I identify as a woman…can I say, ‘I am an Actress?’ If you did, that’s fine! The simple fact of the matter is that an Actor is a person who Acts. So, it’s gender neutral and it is your choice. Now, go ahead and run to the mirror and say it, whichever way you want to, but please just do this for yourself. It is the Ground Zero for setting your mindset straight and will be the foundation for everything we do throughout this book. Here’s why, if you are waiting tables right now to earn the money you need to pay your bills and invest in your acting business (by buying this book, for example) and you got out and meet someone new and they ask you what you do, if you answer “I’m a waitress, but, I want to be an actor”, you have told the person and the entire Universe that you are a Waitress. So, the Universe will aspire to help you be a Waitress and the people you meet will call you a Waitress when they speak of you and we all know that the more you say something the stronger you believe it, so, you will effectively be thinking of yourself as a Waitress and the misery will commence and grow deeper. But…If you answer instead, “I’m an Actor”, you tell the Universe that’s what you are and you plant that seed in the minds of the people who know you and are getting to know you. And, most importantly, you tell yourself this and THAT is the seed you want to take root in your mind. This can have extraordinarily positive results on your self-esteem, how you treat your acting business, and is very likely to result in more acting work for you! If you’re reading this book it is likely because you are either interested in making a living acting but you may live somewhere that opportunity is very low or you are just beginning your journey and understand that by laying the foundation for your career as an Actor starting at home, you will greatly benefit where ever your path takes you. Where I live, there was no way to make a living as an actor and it was crushing my soul every single day. I couldn’t let it go. I felt awful about it, too, because I had a husband, two incredibly healthy and wonderful children, a beautiful house, great friends and I just loved the small-town life. I couldn’t shake the idea that I was going to grow old and regret never having pursued my acting career. I was raised by a playwright and comedian in New York City and spent my entire life around people in The Business. That all changed after 9/11 and I found myself living in Iowa. There were few, if any, opportunities to make any semblance of an acting career. And, I was broke. I had to become innovative to fulfill my dream. That is how this book and my obsession with teaching actors how to be actors anywhere came to be. I hope that you can use this book and 1 BOOK TITLE all of the other resources I put together for you to live a joy-filled life Making a Living Acting right where you are. EACH SECTION IS TREATED AS A STANDALONE SECTION. IF YOU ARE READING THE ENTIRE BOOK OR PLANNING TO DO EACH OF THE THINGS AS PART OF YOUR JOURNEY (AS I HAVE DONE) YOU WILL FIND THERE ARE SECTIONS THAT ARE REPEATED OR REFER TO OTHER SECTIONS AND CHAPTERS. THIS IS INTENTIONAL. EACH SECTION HAS A *WORKBOOK ACTIVITY DIRECTED TO THE FILLABLE WORKBOOK. IT HAS THE INSTRUCTIONS AND RESOURCES WITHIN. I RECOMMEND YOU STOP AND DO EACH ACTIVITY IN FULL WHERE INDICATED BEFORE MOVING ON, AFTER ALL, THIS IS GUIDE IS INTENDED TO GET YOU PRODUCTIVE IMMEDIATELY! *WORKBOOK ACTIVITY *Denotes an action item “Workbook Activity” where you will go to the link and, find the right section and activity # and fill out your workbook. 2 2 SOLO SHOW BOOKED AND PAID TO PERFORM Producing a one-person show was the best thing I did for my acting career. The incredible things that I learned throughout the entire process have been invaluable to me. From learning over eleven thousand lines to cold calling and getting the show booked, there wasn’t a single thing that I learned that couldn’t cross over to other careers and make me wildly successful if I ever decided to leave an acting career behind and just simply be an Actor who did community theatre while earning the big bucks at a regular ole job. Concept Creation If you already have a concept in mind, great! You may need to move on to the next section or further. For the rest of you, here are a few questions to get the gears turning. Do you have any stories you’d like to tell? Something that you just have to share with everyone you meet? Was there a pivotal moment in your childhood that defined the rest of your life? For example, I have a friend who I dated for one day in Junior High School. He did a comedy series around that much later in his adult life and got great feedback on it. One thing like that, which can inform the rest of the outcomes of your life, can serve as great fodder for a solo show. Did something extraordinary happen to you or your family? I met a woman named Brenda Adelman who still performs her One-Woman Show “My Brooklyn Hamlet” about how her father killed her mother and the effects this has had on her life. The show is incredibly interesting and spawns long conversations after. Is there a topic or current event that you have a unique twist on that can work as a solo show? My One-Woman Show is about the economy and continues to be relevant. Is there a song that inspires you and strikes your imagination? Does that song spawn the same vision in your mind? Maybe it needs to be developed into a full show! Workbook Exercise #1 Writing/Co-Writing/Commissioning a Playwright Although my father was a playwright and my sister is a writer, I did not feel that I had been blessed with this talent. I had tons of ideas that I thought would be excellent material for the stage and I knew what I could do in terms of character work. Because I did not have the discipline or the desire to write a one-woman show, I knew I’d need to commission someone to do that with me. With luck, I figured, perhaps someone will just write the whole thing! And, that’s exactly what happened. The Stupid Economy was written for me by award-winning playwright Robert Lynn. Before you start worrying that you don’t even begin to know how to reach out to a playwright, read this first. I had seen Robert in a community theater production and was impressed with his acting skills. I thought he had excellent comedic timing. Many years later, I had seen a show he had written at a semi-professional theatre company in my town. It was very funny. When I finally decided to get it together and commission a playwright, I researched that guy until I found out his name.

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