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As a person who has had a long stage career as a performer AND a producer/director, I could spend time advising you on all of the things one should do to further their career in theatre. I'm not going to do that. While it may seem like I'm focusing on the negative, it is this humble writers opinion that it's more important to know what NOT to do. A vast majority of actors, singers, dancers, comedians, variety artists, technicians, and stage managers make one or many of these 6 mistakes far too often during their careers, and sometimes unknowingly hurt their chances at booking work. Employers talk to one another, and sometimes one bad reference is all it takes for you to lose the job. And you'll never know why you didn't book it. By avoiding these critical mistakes, you can set yourself apart from all of your contemporaries. While talent and craft is important, the most gifted performer can make themselves completely un-hirable by committing these career sins:

I have been teaching properties design and production classes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for over two decades. Prior to that, I worked professionally as a properties director, properties artisan and designer when UWM recruited me to start a props training program in the professional training tracks. Students came to the theatre department with a passion for technical theatre having hung lights, built scenery, or run a show in high school or community theatre. However few were familiar with props or had even an inkling a professional properties career was a possibility. Each class of students sifted out a gifted few who excelled in the props area. These students have gone on to have highly successfu

"Artists frequently hide the steps that lead to their masterpieces. They want their work and their career to be shrouded in the mystery that it all came out at once. It's called hiding the brushstrokes, and those who do it are doing a disservice to people who admire their work and seek to emulate them. If you don't get to see the notes, the rewrites, and the steps, it's easy to look at a finished product and be under the illusion that it just came pouring out of someone's head like that. People who are young, or still struggling, can get easily discouraged, because they can't do it like they thought it was done. An artwork is a finished product, and it should be, but I always swore to myself that I would not hide my brushstrokes."

He adds "I had my luck because Robert Mackintosh decided to drive to Guilford to see Putting it Together. I wouldn't be here now if that hadn't happened. Actually, I'd say it's 60% who you know and 40% what you know."