The book · Dearing Acting Studio
Acting Is My Day Job
Seven strategies to market and make money as an actor. Written by Matthew Dearing, founder of Dearing Acting Studio, and published in 2019.
The worksheets that go with it are free, and you do not have to buy anything to get them.
Or find it on Amazon. Reviews there help more than you would think.
“Thank you Matt for being there to give me guidance and opening my eyes to how much more I can learn to be a better actress.”
Sofia Wylie
Sofia trained at Dearing Acting Studio in Phoenix for two years, between starring in Andi Mack and landing her lead role in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Free, and no longer only for readers
The Actor’s Notebook worksheets
Chapter two of the book is about keeping an actor notebook. These are the actual pages that go in it. Nine worksheets, and every one comes twice: a blank to print, and a filled in example so you can see what a good one looks like.
- Accountability chart
- Actor audition tracker
- Character breakdown
- Connections and contacts
- Goal setting for actors
- Important info reference sheet
- Be inspired
- Actor progress sheet
- Actor expense sheet
Also promised in the book
Five lists, kept current
Chapters one, four, five and seven each send you to this page for a list. Here they are. The book puts it plainly in chapter four, and so does this page: there are no shortcuts.
Chapter 1 · Get Out There
National audition websites
These sites will not make you rich and famous, and they are not a free path to success. They ask for time and money before they return anything. Have a strategy before you enroll in one. Chapter one is how to build it.
- Actors AccessBreakdown Services. The widest reach in the country. Free to join, small fee to submit with extra photos.
- Casting NetworksStrongest in the Southwest. Phoenix Casting posts its own auditions here.
- BackstageSubscription. Theatre, student films and independent work.
- Project CastingFree. Background and extras work, which is a real way to earn a first credit.
Chapter 5 · Be a Producer
Basic self-tape equipment
Start on your phone. Upgrade when you can, and only as needed. Every item here has a wide price range, so buy for what you actually need today.
- Your phoneAlready good enough to book work. Shoot horizontal unless you are told otherwise.
- A soft key lightOne light in front of you, above eye line. A ring light starts you. Two LED panels finish you.
- A microphoneA lav clipped to your collar or a shotgun just out of frame. Sound is the first thing that gets a tape cut.
- A plain backdropMid gray or blue. A bare wall works.
- A tripodSet at your eye height, close enough that you fill the frame from the chest up.
- A readerA person, off camera, standing right beside the lens. This one is free and it matters most.
Chapter 7 · Be a Great Actor
Books on habit formation
Read as many of these as you can get your hands on. Good habits make forward progress, and forward progress over time is the only thing that matters. These are off my own reading list.
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleStephen Covey
- The Compound EffectDarren Hardy
- Atomic HabitsJames Clear
- Deep WorkCal Newport
- The Talent CodeDaniel Coyle
- The Obstacle Is the WayRyan Holiday
- Extreme OwnershipJocko Willink and Leif Babin
- The Laws of Human NatureRobert Greene
- Can’t Hurt MeDavid Goggins
Chapter 7 · Be a Great Actor
Acting books, scripts and plays
Twenty minutes a day of reading something acting related. That is the whole habit. The plays below are ones I have read and kept.
- Craft
- Respect for ActingUta Hagen
- Sanford Meisner on ActingSanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell
- An Actor PreparesKonstantin Stanislavski
- The Art of ActingStella Adler
- Plays worth reading
- The SeagullAnton Chekhov
- ProofDavid Auburn
- BetrayalHarold Pinter
- Danny and the Deep Blue SeaJohn Patrick Shanley
- The Lieutenant of InishmoreMartin McDonagh
- Reasons to Be PrettyNeil LaBute
- OrphansLyle Kessler
- The Boys Next DoorTom Griffin
- BirdlandSimon Stephens
- Barefoot in the ParkNeil Simon
- I Ought to Be in PicturesNeil Simon
- The Odd Couple, female versionNeil Simon
- Mrs. Dally Has a LoverWilliam Hanley
Chapter 4 · Brand Yourself
Social strategy resources
The book says the landscape shifts too fast to name names. It still does. So this list is the part that holds still.
- Jab, Jab, Jab, Right HookGary Vaynerchuk. Still the clearest thing written on giving before you ask.
- Crushing ItGary Vaynerchuk. On building an audience around what you already are.
- Take a class from someone who does only thisLearn it from a person actively working in it, the same way you would learn acting.
- Each platform teaches its ownInstagram, YouTube and TikTok all publish free creator training, and theirs is current by definition.
- Your own analyticsYour last thirty posts tell you more about your audience than any course will.
- One calendar you actually keepConsistency is king. A schedule you can hold beats a strategy you cannot.
As an actor, you are the product you are selling.
Chapter 6 · Run the Business
Every list on this page is a tool. None of them acts for you. A product nobody is improving is a product people stop choosing, and that is the whole reason the book sends you back to a class in every chapter. The version of you that gets hired next year is the one you are working on now. See what we teach.
What is in the book
Seven chapters, and the first one is free to read right now.
- Get Out ThereTake a class, go to a networking event, sign up on the audition sites, audition locally for everything.Read chapter one free
- Get OrganizedThe actor notebook, and the nine sections that go in it.
- Build Your TeamAgents, managers, and the people who see where you are going.
- Brand YourselfHeadshots, reels, and being known for something.
- Be a ProducerStop waiting to be picked and make your own work.
- Run the BusinessYou are a small business. Here is how to run one.
- Be a Great ActorMastery, and why it is the only thing that lasts.
Every room is full of people who want to be seen and heard.
Confidence built in this room translates to every room.
Dearing Acting Studio has taught script and improv in Phoenix since 2007, to kids, teens and adults, from the same curriculum. Script meets Monday or Tuesday. Improv meets Wednesday or Thursday.
See the adult classes