A game of luck

In a male-dominated industry, not much funding and not many work opportunities, there are ways to achieve the dream to becoming an actor --and most importantly, make a living out of it.

November 2019

West London, with all its posters, lights and beautiful buildings. This area invites people to escape daily activities for a couple of hours and share a moment with people on stage telling a story.

Many people dream of one day being an actor, hoping that hard work and perseverance will make it happen. But the turning the dream into reality is more complicated, and sometimes comes down to plain old luck.

"There is no one way to become an actor," says Maria Askew, a professional actor turned drama instructor.

Maria Askew is one of those women who made it through. She fell in love with acting at the age of 10 in Bristol. From that moment on, she knew that being on stage performing was a magical experience. “It is accelerating, you are full of adrenaline. Also, it’s incredibly liberating.”

Maria was determined to follow her dream and went to university. Understanding the industry is something that every aspiring actor need to keep in mind, mainly because a lot of actors depend on the traditional casting – call process. It can be risky when bills start to pile up. “Most drama schools are designed to prepare for you that, rather than for theatre making.”

She did wait for the phone to ring with a job opportunity, but Maria found a different way.

She has her own theatre company. Teamed up with people from her same school, the creative process includes improvisation, writing a script and testing. “Sometimes what seems good in your head may not work at all in reality,” she says.

Part of the process is being able to bring a character to life. An actor needs to be convincing and owning the character, needs to know it as well as knowing himself.

Usually, a script will throw in clues about the role but for it to be credible, it depends on the actor’s creativity and how resourceful he is to add or justify a behaviour. “I like to begin with the body, the physicality of the character, how do they walk how do they move,” she says, although every actor can choose how to start.

Maria is convinced the key for this job is the ability to work as a team. Although it could be challenging it also allows creating unique pieces. “When you work collaboratively, you make something that no one person could ever have made.”

Sharing experiences and ideas is what helps her to come up with new projects, projects that break language and geographical barriers. Through international festivals, Maria has come across a growing community of creative performers willing to explore new paths and merge ideas.

Stage actors are storytellers who, aside from their voices, speak with their bodies. It is all about the senses, an actor needs to be able to feel and express those feeling with every inch of his or her body.

“Anything can happen, maybe the audience makes a sound that you react to, maybe something else happens that surprises you,” she says. “That is what makes it special, because it is just what happens in that room over that couple of hours.”

Maria encourages upcoming actors to put themselves “out there”, sitting back and waiting for someone to tell you what to do exposes you to frustration. “It’s a tough existence if you are not creatively satisfied with your own work.” She says that is why, if someone dreams of becoming an actor, he or she needs to be ready to fight for it.

Being an entrepreneur starts by reaching out to agencies, putting a play together (even just a monologue) and inviting people to see it. “The job in actor life is a game of luck,” and luck only comes by building a name for yourself.

Discipline is the best way to overcome the obstacles of this business, like being judged. “I find in acting, people want to tell you the kind of characters you should play or what you look dictates.” That’s a real struggle in acting, sticking to only one path will tag an entire career. It is the responsibility of the actor to put all his energy into transforming and developing his skills. Remember why you do it says Maria.

“When I was training I remember one prominent drama school explaining to me why they took triple the number of men than women in an acting course” still shocked by the answer, “they said there are more male roles than female roles, and they don´t lead the industry they follow.” Maria disagrees with it and believes that nowadays is a topic that people openly talk about and expects to see more changes as more women join this world.

Acting requires challenging and betting on yourself, with more than one way to become an actor, exploring the reach of emotions and the body as a tool to create a character people will remember. It is an opportunity to dream big and share it with the world. At the eyes of Maria, theatre is a community that has faced many challenges and it is still growing. “I think we have a responsibility to make the kind of work that reflects the kind of world we want.” It is a way to transform, it communicates, it is a job, and it is a lifestyle.