EVERY Opportunity to Act is an Opportunity to Develop your Craft.

If you’re not auditioning then you probably aren’t working as an actor.

Auditioning is an integral part of this job, it makes up a huge portion of our work.

Read on: 🧵


Any chance that you get to audition, make it a point to get into the room, because that’s a chance for you to develop your craft.

You’re going to miss all the chances you don’t take, this isn’t a job where you wait around for someone to notice you (really no job is like that).

Here's the actionable steps:

Find out how to get auditions, and AUDITION! Then when you’re working your working, and when you’re auditioning, you are in fact STILL WORKING!

There's a few ways to get auditions:

Get an agent.

There’s a few ways that you can go about this.

Create for yourself a reel of your work.

YES it’s ok to put together a selection of monologues, and yes it’s ok to put together a selection of sides and film it all yourself.

Sometimes for agencies you can sign up through their websites, if not, try to email.

Research the agency so you know what work they do and who their clients are, and you’ll get a much better idea if that agent will serve you well, and if you will serve them well.

Remember, you make the agents money.

No agencies should be forcing you to take headshots from their special in house photographer, or to take their "Modeling 101" course to be allowed to work with them.

Avoid these “agencies”.

Lastly, industry standard is 20% agency commission for non-union work.

and 10% commission for union work.

No agent? Get on backstage or Actors Access.

backstage.com

actorsaccess.com

Auditioning for 2/day makes 14/wk. That really ramps up the odds in your favor! But make certain to show quality work!

Start small, and keep track. You’re aiming for getting cast more, so learning how to book more will be in your best interest.

No money for backstage?

Check out playbill.com. You’ll find a few castings there that you can send in for free, and I’ll keep an eye out for any more free websites!

Get out there and begin auditioning!

Wanna know how I got the roles I got now?

I auditioned.

Sometimes I’d get cast from a director who saw me in a past show.

Wanna know how I got that past show?

I auditioned.

Don’t take auditioning for granted. Learn to love it.

This is only part of what I go into in this last newsletter.

Sign up today and read "5 Things I Wish I Knew Starting out as an Actor."

https://mattsjourney.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Auditioning to Develop Your Craft as an Actor

Cherish Your Friendships.

I learned the hard way that it’s better to have a few very close friendships than trying to be friends with EVERYONE.

Read on: 🧵

Everything used to be so transactional for me, I sought friendship circles for safety in community as opposed to seeking people out for humanities sake.

I let so many of my close friends down trying to be friends with everyone.

By the end of college I had two friends from school.

Lucky I had two.

It’s NOT a good feeling when you realize that you missed an opportunity to cultivate meaningful relationships.

Though I deserved EVERY bit of it, when you do something stupid, all those people you thought were your friends are ready to drop you at a moments notice.

It was those two people that stayed friends with me because they wanted to see me grow, and stayed to see how I would change.

Because those were friendships I did cultivate.

But there were many I missed out on.

It’s so important to cherish those who are present with you.

Cherish those who open up to you.

Support them.

Support them so much more than you think you should.

Root for their growth.

Always hold them accountable in their actions but take care of them.

Call them out on their bullshit, but please be kind.

Deep conscious friendships offer a foundation of support toward a journey in healing and healthy change.

You know what my favorite thing to do is to reach out to my friends?

I send voice memos.

I’m an actor so I like to make people laugh and I make some of the most wild, idiotic voice memos, with random accents.

But you can also send out a random voice memos, videos, or just texts;

Asking how they are.

Complimenting them on an achievement in their life.

Recognizing something healthy that they’ve done.

Or simply an honest message of “thinking of you, hope you’re well!”

Cherish the friendships in your present immediate world.

The Value of Close Friendships

Acting as a Business

Let's chat about art and business,

"But an overcorrection in the business/capitalist world scares me"

Let's explore this topic together!

Read on: 🧵

I have never been good with money.

My past privileged ass, kept thinking that money wasn’t something that I needed to worry about.

I was going to be the best actor that I could be and would be blessed financially solely through my work as an artist!

Well I’ve worked my ass off and where are we? Broke… but happy… but broke!

Unfortunately this is my current development.

I wish I was already a master at this but unfortunately I can only tell you what my plan of attack is now.

Currently my actionable steps are:

• Find a job.

• Build your marketable skills.

• For now, split your focus in your art. this won't last forever.
It is something you must go hard in now, making and saving money.

• You will still be able to act. (Trust me).

• BUDGET! Become a budgeting FIEND!

My favorite changes come from over correction.

That’s how I’ve developed my whole life.

I overshoot hitting the extreme, and then I strike the balance.

I would rather over correct and be out of balance than remain stagnant making the same mistake over and over again.

But an overcorrection in the business/capitalist world scares me.

Though I have to explore this very messy and strange world of money making I have the help of others to find me through.

A few friends of mine have been kind enough to hold me accountable in staying centered and grounded within spirituality as I embark on this journey.

A rope tied to my waste as I explore the deep cavernous territory that is capitalism.

I pray I don’t lose myself.

These are the people I’m currently learning a lot from about business, making money, sales, and more. Utilize them as a resource, and stay conscious in your consumption.

@thedankoe

@AlexHormozi

@sircalebhammer

@The_MMW

@russellbrunson

Acting as a Business: Exploring the Intersection of Art and Capitalism

Finding My WHY Earlier

On today's thread we're discussing: FINDING YOUR WHY!

What wakes you up in the morning?

My mistakes letting the world mold me in anyway it saw fit, instead of me molding the world.

How I aim to right that wrong.

Read on: 🧵

My life had been built around the ideas and lifestyles of the people I grew up with.

My parents, my teachers, my young and malleable brain growing up with the media and social media.

I was an adaptable motherfucker.

My therapist called me a chameleon because of this.

Even in groups, I used to be able to adapt my beliefs to better fit in.

But that’s something only someone without a foundation could do, and I walked through my life for a long time without that foundation.

It became harder and harder to figure out who I was in a world full of vastly differing ideals, the rapid growth of social media, and the many differing and quickly adapting ideas and theories of this current world, and I only recently figured out my WHY a year ago!

Two years ago I began discovering and holding space to find my WHY, but only last year have I felt confident in my inner direction.

I’ve solidified it as this;

“To explore a spiritual and artistic pursuit toward freedom, and inspire and encourage others to follow their own pursuit toward freedom.”

Here’s how I personally found this.

NOTE: Every WHY will be different.

In my journey I gained a deeper self reflective ability, a deeper consciousness, different from my already very self aware ability.

Because I explored so many perspectives, so many options, adopting the inspirations of others, I could find out what worked for ME by letting go of what didn’t work.

What brought me joy, and what consistently offered me value in my life.

My own foundation began to form. But it came from stripping away pretty much everything I had already built on top of a non existent foundation.

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” - Chuck Palahniuck

My therapist called me a chameleon, and I still am to this day.

I now hold that as a power rather than any form of a detriment, but only because I found my WHY, my foundation.

Finding Your Why

You Do Not Need to be a Suffering Artist

In this thread I explore the false trope that is the "Suffering Artist"

Read on: 🧵

I was at one of the lowest points in my life. I was on my way to work in NYC waiting for the A train. In my hands I had an old black notebook I had nearly filled out.

I was flipping through reading my past entries. Choosing a random passage, reading to the second paragraph, suddenly, my heart sunk. A tight grip around my chest as I was waiting for the late A train into Brooklyn.

What had been written there was “I wish my life wasn’t so vanilla, that it wasn’t so boring, and I wish that I was more interesting, and I wish I was going through some kind of suffering, because it seems like all these people are so much more interesting then I am.”

My jaw dropped, my hand went to my head. I had gotten exactly what I wished for in that statement.

I was naive.

Great I got what I wanted, but I could not use it in my art. It informed very few things for me in my acting process, and working with those feelings would actually be dangerous.

If I hadn’t suffered I would have been just as fine.

It’s not the suffering artists chase, it’s the passion that they are chasing; the art, the craft, the love, the romance, whatever but inevitably they might have ended up suffering, because let’s be real, life is tough.

If you chase suffering, that's what you'll get.

I learned to heal my wounds. I learned to work on myself, and learned to seek out health and spirituality, and a positive mental outlook. Within my acting I used mostly imaginary circumstances and allowed life to inform my work.

A few actionable steps I took:

• Workout/have a movement routine.

• Forgive yourself, allow yourself the permission to move forward.

• BUT ALSO, hold yourself ACCOUNTABLE.

• Go get therapy.

• Sleep/rest

• Minimize or completely cut out alcohol, smoking, and/or junk food.

• Every day, learn something new.

• Write.

• Move.

• Connect.

Practice, and change it up bit by bit. Find what works for you and you alone. Be certain to begin. And though you might suffer you will be FAR more ready for the challenges that will come to you.

The Myth of the Suffering Artist

Here's a quick broken down version of my Newsletter.

Stick with me as I share updates on my work, broken up into short chunks.

I played Chris in an Equity contract show, STRAIGHT by Drew Fornarola, through @ETC_Columbus and it was my very first professional play!

I felt I did the best work I could, and was proud of my work.

Within the show, I explored further my concept of acting and how the roles I play are meant for me.

How I'm meant to allow the character the opportunity to be seen, and that's my greatest responsibility.

I learned a lot from the experience and found a few weakness too.

I plan to continue developing my voice and physicality through exercises in Kristen Linklater, and taking a further look into viewpoints this summer.

I'm currently directing The Abbey Theater of Dublin’s Adaptive Program's summer extravaganza and it's my third time working with them.

I love working with these students and their ability to connect with music on a deep, emotional level without holding back their instincts.

I've learned through this that passion is shared and that most people in this world want to see you succeed, and love to see performers have fun and express themselves.

In addition to directing, I'm also working as an actor and videographer for The Sound Company.

The project is challenging in both areas, but I was so inspired by the company's one-woman show, "On the Exhale," that I grew so passionate to work in every way I could with them.

I'm sacrificing a lot to balance all of my work.

I'm hitting some rough rough patched, but I wouldn't have it any other way. it's worth it to pursue my passions.

Worth it to face the hardship to adapt and come out of this completely different.

Want to read the whole article!?  I dropped it today on my website!

https://www.mattpiper.org/post/a-fun-little-update

Want to be the first one to know about my updates, stories, lessons, and advice?

Follow my email newsletter.

Dropping, hopefully more and more, compacted ideas in email format every Monday 11:00am EST.

CLICK THE LINK AND FOLLOW ALONG!

https://mattsjourney.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Acting Adventures: My First Professional Play, Passion, and Hardship

Tactics in Telling a Story.

The Hero's Journey.
Read on...
1/9🧵

YOU
Set the Scene:
• Who are you?
• Who is your character?
• Why are they there?
• What's occurring?

2/9

Need

There is something in particular that is a need for that character. How does that need:
• Look
• Feel
• Physicalize
• Manifest
In this setting?

3/9

GO/Search

GO is the decision into the search.

OR the character is swept away onto the adventure!

SEARCH is the trials that ensue, the barriers that keep the character from obtaining their need.

Create stakes!

4/9

Find

The need is found, or a dilemma is resolved.

"Problems are Solved, while dilemmas are resolved through a shift in perspective." Alan Watt

This is very much the point of realization.

5/9

Take/Return

Our character takes the key realization out into the world. A return.

This can mean to prior circumstance or an inner analysis.

6/9

Change

How does it now make changes to the character and/or the circumstances surrounding?

Mind you, many times, a resolution of a dilemma will create a new problem, thus leading into a new Journey.

7/9

final thoughts

These are a great guideline in how to tell a story.

Use these tools in your personal brand, fiction, screenplays and whatever else you deem fit.

Enjoy!

8/9

Your turn. Comment with your favorite stories! Books! movies! And more!

Follow for more like this! @MattPipes29
9/9 - BONUS BELOW

If you are a creative and would like to join along my journey towards artistic and spiritual freedom join my newsletter! I'll send you a link to our discord group!

https://mattsjourney.beehiiv.com/subscribe

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/MattPipes29/PA2lx0N

Are you suffering from your to do list?

A: Have you written it down?
B: Do you ACTUALLY need to do that?

Sometimes we fictionalize the work we need to do. Let me explain further... 🧵

Firstly, I know you might be a little annoyed by this

There are probably 15 tweets you read before this one that are telling you the statistical evidence as to WHY you need to do MORE.

Ok, sure, you might, but also, maybe not...

There's a lot of information on here, and I invite you to slow down just a second before moving on and scrolling through more information...

Some people are aiming for universality on here. Meaning, we want the advice to land for EVERYONE, our target audience isn't too niche.

What is ALSO happening is many people find riches and niches and target a certain person. There's a problem with both of these.

This is where you personally have to work in being discerning in the information that is being given to you.

People send out many different bits of advice, but they are ALL at different levels.

For instance. A personal example...

I'm working on becoming a better filmmaker, so I follow people that offer advice within this field.

The pool of knowledge for camera work is insane. It's hard to sift through at times.

It's the editing software I most struggle with.

Reckon, I'm a beginner in Premiere Pro, but there are a lot of experts here.

I learn something new all the time, but I keep scrolling after learning that new thing.

So then this whole big list starts piling up about things I need to be doing to better utilize the program.

But I haven't even taken action on that last one.

Quickly, intrigue becomes overwhelm.

Dopamine from ACTUALLY learning something becomes something you continuously chase to light ANOTHER spark, when you forgot to take action on the first thing you learned.

Eventually you start learning more and more about all the things you "should" be doing while not practicing the thing that lit you up in the first place, and you're stuck.

Stuck with a gigantic to do list.

Here's an actionable step.

Write down all the things you WANT to do.

Rate them 1-... in order of importance.

See what can be delegated.

See what can be pushed further. Mark a date so you don't lose it.

Then, see what doesn't actually need to be on that list. Get rid of it.

Then stop scrolling. Take action on what you HAVE learned, before going out and learning more.

The actual way to learn something is in the process of DOING, so try it out, fail at it 2 times maybe 15.

Set your foundation in the DOING and then come back to learn around that.

Much love today friends, I hope this was helpful to you, if it was please retweet to get this out there to more people who need this.
Also! Much love today, and everyday.

Matt Piper
🐅🌱

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/MattPipes29/TIGc8do

To be a storyteller, you listen, observe, and then relate how you saw that information. Use your imagination, and offer it to someone. People want a story. Tell yours. Here's mine 🧵

Rest is not something I'm quite good at. In fact if you told me to take a break right now I couldn't I have way to much to do. I'm staring at my whiteboard right now with my to do list, and that's only a section of what I have to complete.

This morning I went to the gym. I've been going a little earlier than usual. I tend to go late, but have been finding more reward in an early session. I steam and I sauna and I take a cold shower after I'm done with my workout, these moments to myself are important to me.

In the Sauna I take 15 minutes. Early morning gym is a tiring feat, so I'll just lay down, nap, and bake. 2 minutes I'll rinse in the cold shower before I step into the steam room for another 15 minutes. I breathe slowly, I allow myself to become conscious with myself and rest.

This particular time in the steam room was weird though. As the steam rose up it became foggier and my vision was getting more and more blurry. I couldn't see anything in front of me. It was white. My breathing became tighter, I started to feel claustrophobic, this never happens.

I try to slow my breathing, but while inhaling I see a shadow strike across the window, It kind of looked like a hose, but not where it was meant to be. It was in the right most corner of the rectangular shames steam room, but I also saw a hose right in front of me.

Understanding now that I might be seeing things I try my best to relax, I'm somewhat panicking. I began searching through my head to figure out what a panic attack is like, I search and search and unfortunately can't seem to find any personal examples.

I remembered in that one moment a recent meditation I had where a particularly morbid but beneficial thought passed through my mind.

It was an incredibly long day, and I had just finished editing my video for YouTube which took me about 9 hours to do. I thought it would be a good idea to do it all in one go, well it was, but I was exhausted. I through myself onto my bed and shut my eyes.

Reckon, this is most definitely a nap, but I also consider naps a meditation, especially because I was so wired from the caffeine that I couldn't REALLY sleep. Not a lot of thoughts passed my mind, maybe a song would show up, Hall and Oates "I can't go for that."

Right as I was able to get myself to nod off, a thought flashed through my mind. "What if I died today?" which led into "What would really matter to you?" "When you die, does it all really matter as much as you think?"

When I thought about this, it drifted me further into my sleep. Until the alarm blared about 5 minutes later... I didn't have long left.

In the steam room, while thinking of my death, accepting that I will inevitably die eventually, realizing what ACTUALLY matters in this life, I was finally able to calm down.

The breath came back to me (as much as it could in the environment), I found myself curling up into a ball so I fixed my posture, and I regained consciousness back into my self. Thinking to myself "What does it all really matter? Why am I putting so much pressure on myself here?"

I realized in that meditation and in this steam room that some of the weight I have been putting on myself is rather fictionalized.

There's a lot of things I could be doing:

• Social Media developing
• Cold Contacting
• ANY form of development
• TAXES

What's important?

In death:
• Your business will fall.
• People will inevitably forget about you.
• Over time, your house will rot away and fall to the earth.
• There will be no more business to attend to while dead.
• When you're dead your dead.

That's not to say that you can't live.

I don't mean this to be incredibly morbid. I just want to let you know that the weight you may be feeling to show up for your "responsibilities" might be fictionalized. What is it that we are actually doing all of this for. If you don't know, the next task is in finding that out.

There's also power that I received from this thought. It allowed me to accept the mistakes I will inevitably make. I will die, but so will all of my mistakes, my successes, my past, my present, my future. It will be best that I tried and failed than not to try at all.

My friends, much love today, and know that your life matters deeply, more than you will ever know. But I personally find through the acceptance in death, we can better accept life. Take what works and leave the rest.

Matt Piper 🐅🌱

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/MattPipes29/jAgAFP4

If you feel anxious it could be from any number of reasons

-imposter syndrome
-unsafe environment
-self guilt or self shaming

The list goes on right?

when this occurs I use this tool:

CREATE                SPACE

To step further within and create space let’s explore tactics

Meditation
Start - 5min

Start by finding a comfortable place to sit for the time.

Breathe in, breathe out, and notice the action.

Find stability and strength within your being.

Begin to explore your capacity, your space. 

Once the Inner adventure ends the Outer begins.

Explore Space outside.

I do not care how cold it is get outside.

Walk, explore, run, jump, play, and shake off the thing that actually has no control over you.

Remember that just as you have no control over it, It has no control over you.

You are uncontrollable, incredibly unique, abundant, and living the gift of life.

Create space around an acceptance that growth will come from the tension you are within.

Life is funny like that, it’ll teach. Don’t chase suffering, just grow from the inevitability of it.

Find space to swallow your pride.

Ask for help. 

If you ASK and ACCEPT help, your life will change for the better

The evidence is in the communities around you.

No one is an island, people are more willing to help than you think.

Try it, and you’ll find success. Practice.

Life isn’t all that simple, it’s not fixable in reading a tweet.

I write this for those feeling anxious, but I must warn you.

To heal takes action.
To heal takes time.
To heal takes rest.

Between these 3 tools you will find what heals you. 

I put action first for a reason.

Start small friends.

Take the actions to find what helps you.

Stay disciplined, because it’s usually not a quick fix.

It will properly take a beautiful amount of time. 

Much love today and everyday
-Matt 🐅🌱