Skills Inventory

Respect

There are many ways in which respect comes into play as a skill. An actor must respect his craft enough that they keep their mind sharp and they physically take care of their body. Also rehearsal time is to be respected as time to focus and work with one’s fellow artists. My time in service instilled a very basic attitude of getting the job done despite how I feel or what gets in my way. The Army also taught me to never let someone down who is counting on me, which in theatre carries over to directors, stage managers, and the fellow cast members.

Experience

Varied life experiences ranging from war to a private liberal arts college have given me a viewpoint that is unique among performance artists and a drive that is uncommon among my peers. I consider experience to be a legitimate skill that can be consciously developed much like any other on this list.

My experiences can pose a potential obstacle, however. I can be put in a situation where I become very self-aware of having a background that is quite different than my fellow acting students. For example, when I am put in charge of a group of students to get a task done, I am very conscious not to come off as any sort of paramilitary stereotype. Another way experience becomes a hindrance is when researching a character that starts hitting close to home. Ultimately my experiences only turn against me when I let them. As long as I keep focused and keep a sense of objectivity, I can use what I’ve done to my advantage.

Leadership/Collaborating

In writing about these skills separately I found a significant amount of overlap and reckoned that they are co-dependant. I admit the working in groups is not always easy for me. I tend to be incredibly self-reliant, and when I do not know how to achieve a goal I enjoy finding it out on my own or improvising, adapting, and overcoming.

I have heavily considered a career in teaching theatre as well as performing. As a sergeant in the Army I led squads of paratroopers that ranged vastly in age and experience which provided unique challenges. In order to lead in combat, a sergeant must gain his soldiers’ trust by constant displays of courage, competence, discipline, and care for the individuals on his team. I thoroughly enjoyed leading by example and teaching field craft, but I also loved collaborating and working with my soldiers when the time called for it.

In college I was fortunate to have limited experience teaching theatre as an assistant to David Hammond. Part of my duties were to sit in on students’ self-conducted rehearsals and offer insight. I also found myself able to help the students with their background research, reviewing their character journals alongside my professor. I could see myself pursuing teaching drama after a number of years as a working actor.

Communication

I feel confident that communication is one of my stronger skills on this list. I hold communication in high regard when collaborative work is involved. My time in the airborne ingrained the necessity that everyone needs to be on the same page as often as possible. There are three basic rules to a firefight; shoot, move, and finally communicate.

If anything, I would say that my fault in this skill set is that I am overly communicative, at least that is the impression I get after working in college theatre these past three years.

Budgeting and Money Management

I have been living outside of my parents’ roof for approximately ten years. Like any adult my age in a similar situation, I have had a plethora of financial ups and downs.

If I am to be honest, budgeting is a weaker skill for me. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to my money. With that said, I have yet to put myself in a financial situation that I could not get myself out of ultimately.

When other people’s money is concerned however, I take an exact opposite approach. Allowing another individual to handle one’s own finances in any way, shape, or form can be one of the highest levels of trust that exist within our contemporary society. It is also in this field where an individual’s ‘word’ becomes their bond, and as soon as it is broken it will likely always suffer. I have the most experience working with a budget in the props department, both at Guilford College and with Fly-By-Night Theatre Company.

Organization

The majority of my skill improvement since coming to college has been in my organization. This may seem surprising that I did not learn better organizational skills in the army, but somehow the ‘controlled chaos’ method seemed to work fine.

When I allow myself to become unorganized in my work at Guilford is when I begin to fall behind drastically. If I utilize a personal organizer, avoid putting papers into folders for other courses because I am too lazy to get the correct one, and actually meet the deadlines I set for myself then I sail along semesters with relatively smooth waves.

Problem-Solving

The unique problem-solving aspect of props master is what attracted me to the job. I get a great deal of satisfaction when I am given an assignment to build a difficult item on a budget. The variety of the needs from the props department from show to show are so incredible that there is not much of a typical course of action that may be applied when it comes to the logistics.

Along with leadership and communication, I would put problem-solving as a high rank on my skill set. Of course I could certainly always improve, like with anything else. Sometimes if I come up with a solution and then someone else has an idea that they are not quite selling to me, I can be very hesitant to abandon my plan.

Time Management

I am currently struggling with myself to kick the notion that I work better under pressure. I have noticed that many of my peers make this claim as well; that we can continuously procrastinate but then when it come to crunch time, we shine. I will say that as soon as my graduation from Guilford and the prospect of graduate schools dawned on the horizon, I have made significant steps regarding my time management.