The Dry Spell

4 Jul

It’s inevitable. I’m in it. The Dry Spell…………..!

I feel stagnant, bored, doubtful… scared. It was a busy first couple of months of the year and then bam, nothing, nada, zilch.

When there is a long period of time with few auditions and even fewer (read: none) bookings it’s pretty hard to hold on to my confidence, and my dream. What’s wrong with me? Am I not talented enough? Skilled enough? Have the right look? Is a career in acting not meant to be?

This, of course, is the irrational freak-out actor side of me. Well, I’m not going to say it’s entirely irrational because it makes perfect sense that after a run of little auditions and no acting you’d be questioning a few things. But, I do have this one piece I hold deep inside of me that knows, just knows, it is simply a “dry spell” and nothing more. It doesn’t mean anything. I have everything I need to carve my path. In fact, I should take this as a blessing- when I’m busy as hell with acting and auditioning I actually wish I had more time to do all the other projects and things I no longer have the time to do. Well, here ya go… now is that time! And I have been using it wisely, I believe. I revamped my website, had some much needed hang out time with good friends. Much, much needed beach and pool-side relaxing time. Reading A LOT. And writing even more.

I also have to remind myself that even dry spells aren’t really dry anyway. Fortunately, I have really awesome people that surround me to point this out. In the past three months that I have been in this supposed slump, I’ve started a bi-monthly artist support group with a friend, regular bi-monthly meetings with my theater company, performed in the Endless Weekend Tour, attended the PF Company Creative Retreat, completed the rough draft and preliminary edits of a feature-length screenplay, participated in a reading for a new movie, started ballet classes, performed in a staged reading of a new work at a theater I’ve never performed at before, moderated a panel at the 2nd annual Hollywood Fringe Fest, caught up writing my novel, started writing a play and I’m sure there’s even more stuff I’m not thinking of.

So, I guess I just dispelled my entire blog post. The Dry Spell is a myth. It’s not dry. Just because one minute aspect of all the gazillion aspects of making an acting career is on a hiatus does not mean you’re not doing anything. In fact, I’m feeling pretty good now that I’ve reached the end of this post- I’ve been busy!

4 Responses to “The Dry Spell”

  1. Aaron July 4, 2011 at 7:23 pm #

    You’re laying the groundwork for a career. Not getting what they want, as fast as they want, is why so many people go back to wherever they came from, and talk about how they “tried the L.A. thing.” Keep at it, you’re on the right path.

  2. vweak July 5, 2011 at 10:49 am #

    Nina – keep going! I’m in a similar place (and have been for months, closing in on a year, in terms of live theater work). I’m finding inspiration from a Japanese saying ‘fall down seven times, get up eight’ I wrote a little bit about this on my own blog, if you’d like to look…http://sfbayareaactor.blogspot.com/2011/04/fall-down-seven-times.html

    • Nina Harada July 5, 2011 at 12:26 pm #

      Thanks, Valerie! Great post and great proverb– gonna be pocketing that for later use for sure. Also nice to know another fellow bay area actor (lived there for 4 years before moving back to LA)