by ActingClassFinder.com
For many aspiring actors––and for those who have worked in the industry for some time––the right acting class is an essential tool for developing and fine-tuning their craft. Acting is an incredibly personal occupation, so knowing how to find the right acting class for you is an important skill all its own. The best acting class should be an organic fit with your creative goals, schedule, and budget––and can make the difference between plateauing and thriving in your acting career.
Here are a few tips to help you find the class that will push you creatively, advance you professionally, and not break the bank.
FORECAST YOUR SPENDING
While actors are meant to explore all the realms of imagination, we exist in a world with realities, and one of those realities is financial. On average, an acting course can run anywhere from $200-600 dollars per month, with private sessions and workshops ranging from $25-100 or more per hour. Budgeting with an eye on your goals and income is an important first step in the process of choosing a class.
Miata Edoga, professional actor, President and Founder of Abundance Bound, a financial education service for actors and creatives, offers this: “The choice of a class really needs to be approached from your ability to sustain that choice.”
Edoga suggests coming from a place of clarity, not self-denial, when prioritizing the financial commitment to an acting class. “Ongoing training and honing of my craft is important, and I have to find a way to do that than I can financially sustain for the long haul. We must become people who forecast our spending. A forecast is when I say, ‘These are the resources I have, and this is how I am choosing to allocate those resources.’ This is how I am choosing to spend my money––and getting really clear on what those choices are and then holding myself to that.“[Financial forecasting] is different from budgeting,” says Edoga. “That’s a more powerful way of looking at it than ‘you can’t have this or can’t have that.’”
OUTLINE YOUR GOALS
Jim Carrey famously wrote himself a check for 10 million dollars in his starting days, using visualization as a method to outline goals for his acting career. Choosing the right acting class requires a similar commitment to goal setting, and while writing a million-dollar check may not be your style, writing down your goals is a fantastic way to reverse engineer the steps you’ll need to take to achieve them. One fantastic tool for goal setting in any industry is the S.M.A.R.T. system: setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.