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A passel from last years crop of graduates from the Theatre Arts program at my school moved together out west, to California, over the summer. They room together there and most of them are trying to make it in the entertainment industry, in one way or another. I know that some of them are doing relatively well, others not so hot. I try to imagine the way their life is right now and it’s a bit hard to picture. The ones who are doing well are taking classes, working hard and long hours on film production crews to get a little experience and get their name and face out there in the film industry in the hopes that maybe they’ll hear about film auditions and not have to turn out for giant cattle casting calls. The ones who are not doing so well...who really knows? At least it’s warm.

All I can say is, I am glad I am no longer trying to be an actor. I really wanted to do it for a very long time (though it has been years since that time), but thinking about my friends who are currently trying to make it...well...it makes it start to seem like not too much fun. Spending all day every day combing papers for movie auditions, and finding only modeling auditions and advertisements for film production crew? Turning up at an audition hoping they are looking for real actors, and finding all that is available are extra roles? Registering with a modeling agency to do some commercials and modeling jobs on the side and make a little extra cash, and find that becomes what you spend the majority of your time doing? It does not sound particularly artistically rewarding I can tell you.

Of course, I never had any interest in being a movie actor, and these things are different if you aren’t trying to make it in film. If you are trying to make it on the stage you have a whole different, though probably equivalent, set of problems. But it is not for me. I am happier steeling myself for the playwriting route: rejection letter after rejection letter after rejection letter...but at least I am not going to end up modeling granny panties in a glossy magazine by chance.