So, approximately 100 days ago, I issued a challenge in the March Forth column. I’ve so enjoyed watching tweets, reading emails, and hearing — in person — about how this challenge is going for so many of you.
This week’s installment of The Actors Voice is a celebration of those of you who wrote in to share your 100-Day Challenge experience with the world. 🙂 Hooray! Let’s dig in.
Bonnie!
First off, congratulations on your admission to the Television Academy and on your clients’ successes at Cannes!
Second off, I love 100-day challenges! Like, I love them so much I want to marry them. In fact, I think the rest of my life will be divided up into 100-day challenges!
On March 4th, I was eager to take an idea for a super lo-fi webseries that I’d been kicking around for over a year and turn it into a reality. I had the first two episodes written and not much else. Your 100-day challenge inspired me to finish writing, cast, produce, shoot, edit, share, and promote my webseries by June 11th.
Well, I did all of that! (I’m currently in the promoting phase.) And it has been an a-maz-ing 100 days! During this time I made the decision that, yes, I do want to be a part of the entertainment industry (not just a theatre actor trying to do film and TV in order to make money). BUT if that’s the case, I also need to be a force for change within this industry (that I find incredibly inequitable in many, many ways). And THAT means that I have to be a creator.
This project gave me the confidence to start identifying as a creator! Also, during these 100 days I got dropped by my meh-manager. Had it happened earlier I might have been seriously distraught about suddenly being without representation (even if that representation didn’t “get” me). But because I was feeling so creatively fulfilled by my project and fired up by my new approach to the industry (and also because of your “Hooray! It’s drop season!” email), getting dropped felt like the absolute right and best thing that could happen! Finally, these past 100 days have gotten me very excited for the next 100 days. I already know what challenge I’ll set for myself and I’ve marked September 19th on my calendar (hope my math is correct there)!
Here’s the PDF press release for my webseries, Dandy Nails with Sandy. But if you want to go in blind, you can watch all four episodes here.
So thank you, thank you, thank you for the 100-Day Challenge! And for your weekly columns! You are, in fact, helping me achieve my dreams.
xoxo
Sallie Merkel
Sallie, I freakin’ love this email for so many reasons. You are a rockstar and I *love* that you were able to turn something that was “slightly in-progress” into DONE in these past 100 days. I totally believe you’ve found your speed. 100 days works for me. I love that it works for you too.
Yes, your math is right, that with our 100-Day Challenge ending on June 11th, you’re good for September 19th as your next goal date. I cannot WAIT to hear about what you create in these next 100 days. You’re inspiring! Stay that way. 🙂
Hi Bonnie,
I’ve been loving your Actors Access BonBlasts, as usual, and wanted to give you a report of my 100-Day Challenge.
Around the time the challenge started, I lost my day job as a nanny. This was actually a move in the right direction and my split from the family was totally amicable, but getting a new job took first priority so I didn’t get to take the immediate action I originally planned to achieve my goals. My goals were to:
- Audition for more plays (and hopefully book one) and
- Get a manager.
Even though I wasn’t able to take the action I wanted to to achieve my goals, both ended up falling into my lap without much effort on my part. Through a connection I made four years ago and have stayed in touch with over the years, I was offered a role in a play festival at the ACME Theatre in Hollywood. That festival just wrapped, and from the connections I made through that experience, I’ve been referred to a reputable manager (3G Management) whom I plan on contacting shortly.
So pleased with how things worked out! I’ve never experienced goals being met so easily before! And now that I have an awesome new job, I’ll be able to focus my attention on some new goals.
And thanks to your most recent article about helping your agent and manager work together, I’ll be ready to have a kickass team if all goes well at my manager interview.
Best
Emily
Awesome! All of it! I think my favorite part of this is that — just by setting the intention — you brought so many of your goals into your life in just 100 days. Think about that! That’s powerful stuff, if all it takes to get things flowing toward us is our goal-setting. Let’s try it again, shall we? I can’t wait to meet you at the next tier! Say… by September 19th? 😉
Hey Bonnie,
To put it simply, the past 100 days have been awesome. Lots of pinch-me moments. Here are some highlights:
- Booked and performed in the west coast premiere of the critically-acclaimed play Wake. What a positively delightful cast and crew! The show and the role gave me so many opportunities to stretch, to challenge myself, and to laugh, and I enjoyed every second of it.
- I’m published! My play Little Swan, a pas de deux inspired by the life of prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, was one of six plays named Best of PlayGround-LA. The selected pieces were published in the Best of PlayGround-LA 2014 anthology and received professional staged readings in Hollywood.
- Who She Could Have Been, a dramatic play I wrote, has been getting a lot of attention: It was named a semi-finalist in the LBDI Female Playwrights Project, it had a staged reading in Arizona, and the world premiere production will be held in Toronto on June 15th!
- Two of my comedies, Altared State (which I also directed) and Personal Space, had well-received staged readings in Los Angeles.
- Two additional comedies, Beaten at Her Own Game and Tofurkey Day, were produced in San Diego.
- Different short things I’ve written are being produced in Brooklyn, in Manhattan, and in the UK this month.
- Working hard on my screenplays and stage plays — I have written over 100 pages of new material in the past 100 days!
- As an actress, I’m currently in rehearsal for two different plays. In one, I’m an outspoken and dramatic teen in 1976; in the other, I’m a nanny at the turn of the century.
- I booked and shot a film.
- Two new credits on IMDb!
- You Me & Her, a film I’m in, had screenings at AFI and Directors Guild of America. Its official world premiere is coming up this July at the Egyptian Theatre!
I like this 100-day marker and check-in a lot. Keep it up, please! 🙂
Sincerely,
Allie Costa
Tiny but shiny.
Yay, Allie! Keep it up, I will. 🙂 Thank you for playing. Y’all, please notice the emphasis on creating work, here in Allie’s list. And, um, also note Allie’s young age. If anyone is worried about the next generation and how it’ll take care of our industry when it’s in charge? Um… they may already be in charge. Watch out!
Bonita,
As these 100 days draw to a close, I’m tempted to look (as usual) at what I DIDN’T get done and kick myself rather than take stock of all the things that I DID.
I was ambitious with my goals, but knew that was the way to get shit done. Shoot for the moon, etc., etc. Here they were:
- Upgrade my commercial reps.
- Make a list of 25 commercial agents and pitch myself to them.
- Get at least two meetings with managers to see where I stand.
- Film the last three episodes of my all-female comedy webseries.
Here’s what I accomplished:
- I had four meetings with commercial agents, some of them tippity top and way out of my league.
- I sat down with a manager who agreed to help get me into the three offices in which I already have relationships from workshops (and got me my very first guest star audition).
- I filmed two episodes of my webseries, one with a crew of seventeen people who got up at the ass-crack of dawn to work for free because they believe in me and my project.
Yeah, I didn’t get signed with new commercial reps, I didn’t sign with CAA or 3Arts and I didn’t complete my entire series, but I did a hell of a lot more than if I’d not made a concrete, step-by-step, time-sensitive plan.
Hard work and discipline over time is easier when you have a checklist along the way!
SO, to all my other lower-tier, greenish, hustling actors: Look at where you were a year ago, a month ago, when you first got to LA, a day ago, WHENEVER… and take stock of where you are now and how to get to the next tier, step-by-step. The number of days is irrelevant. It’s making each one count, whether it’s a baby step like emailing someone or a giant leap like auditioning for that theatre company you were all nervous about.
PS — Thanks for the giant calendar idea. I made one myself and put cat stickers all over it. 🙂
xoxoxox
Bipsie
Yayayayay cat stickers! And YES for encouraging everyone to look back and see how long it takes before getting discouraged about how “nothing’s happening.” It’s a bunch of wee steps, of teeny progress, of incremental inching toward our goals that get us there. Sure, at some points, there are full-on, no-doubt, obvious-to-everyone tier-jumps that happen. But those come sooner the more work we put in on the itty-bitty stuff, especially early on.
Way to rock it out, girl! Way to rock it out, everyone who participated in my 100-Day Challenge, whether you reported in officially or not. I’m excited to hear what the next 100 days bring for us all!
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001830.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.