Performers Self-Evaluation Questionnaire

Performing is a very competitive field. Most people who aspire to careers in the performing arts and train for these careers, end up making a living in another field.  Experts agree that a combination of factors determine which individuals become professional or semi-professional performers and which do not. These factors are: level of skill, having attributes that the industry currently is buying, luck, and perseverance.

Here are a set of questions to help you think about where you are, where you need to be, and how to get there. In each case, note whether your opinion is based on self-evaluation, the opinions of friends and family or an expert.  When considering the expert opinion, ask yourself how objective the expert actually is and how much regular interaction he or she has with purchasers in the particular industry you wish to enter. If your dreams are fragile and not based on reality read no further. If you have the determination and strength to turn your dreams into reality, read on, you might find this process to be helpful.

I suggest going over these points with a trusted coach or teacher after you consider them. It would be lesson time well spent.

1. What skills do professionals in your chosen field need?  At this point, do you have skills equivalent to professionals in the business in which you aspire to work?  If not, how exactly do you plan to develop these skills?

2.Do you know what the industry is currently buying? What qualities do you have that fit what the industry is currently buying? If you do not have the qualities and skills that the industry is currently buying, discuss how you plan to acquire them or how you plan to market the skills and qualities you have in order to create a need for what you are selling. Another option is to market what you particularly have to offer to niche purchasers. Have you identified these markets and do you know how to sell to them?

3. What is luck?  What is perseverance?  Give examples of ways you have persevered? Have you ever been lucky? What precipitated the luck? (Hint:Have you ever won a raffle without purchasing a ticket?)

4. Have you ever been paid to perform, won a prize in a competition or earned a scholarship?  Have you ever received confirmation from any objective external source that you have potential to earn a living through performance?

5. Have you ever attended a professional audition? A professional audition is an audition where the person hired will be paid. If so, what did you learn from the experience?

6. What is the difference between having high standards and having high ambition? If a high school student aims to get an A on every test and works to ensure that he or she gets an A, is that having high standards or high ambition? If a student would like to go to Harvard and thinks they belong there, is that having high standards or high ambition?   If a student would like to go to Harvard and thinks they belong there, yet does not aim to work as hard as possible to get an A on every test, is that having high standards?  Where does that kind of thinking come from? Can you translate the above scenario into one involving the performing arts?  Does that resonate for you?

7. Do you have an ambition to sing on Broadway, at the Met, or to have a commercial recording deal? If so, why? What qualities and or skills do you have that would objectively be suitable to be showcased in a prestigious venue or widely distributed to the public? For some perspective: If a person has the ambition to be a doctor at a top hospital, is it more important that he or she have the desire for the social status that being a doctor brings, the desire to help others, or the skills to accurately diagnose and cure illnesses in order to improve people’s health? My point is to focus on what you can offer to others not what you want, because that is how business works.

8. If you inherited $500,000, and you had the choice to either buy investment property or to spend it on promoting yourself as an artist (not developing, but promoting yourself, as is) what would you choose?  If you would not invest in yourself, why do you think a music/show business entity would, by casting you in a multi-million dollar production or producing and distributing a record?  If you need more development as a performing artist in order to be worthy of your own investment resources, isn’t it reasonable that you should do so before asking others to risk an investment in you?

Please comment below to let me know if the above set of questions have been helpful to you or your students. All comments and suggestions are welcome.