Creativity for actors is the ability to let your heart, mind and intuition guide you, as your body and voice bring words to life.

Actors need to be ready to do their best work whenever opportunity knocks. Keeping your creative juices flowing keeps you sharp and will help you reach your career goals faster.

Here are 10 ways to stay in top creative shape.

Make a creative work space.

Select a space in your home as your “creative place” where all of your projects, dreams inspirations and goals come together. We’re creatures of habit. A space where we’re used to being creative prompts us to be creative whenever we enter it.

Start writing

Understanding the writer’s intent and how they achieve it is central to the actor’s craft. The more you learn about storytelling the more creative (and effective) your storytelling becomes. Writing also puts you in touch with your own stories and helps you clarify your thoughts and feelings about what’s most important to you. Start writing and your acting will improve.

Sleep

Sometimes you get a gig with a lot of text on short notice. So you stay up and cram because you know your creativity won’t help you if you don’t know your lines. But in most cases, getting less sleep is actually the opposite of what your brain needs. Brain waves during REM sleep look a lot like brain waves during high-level concentration and thinking when we’re awake. That great idea you get in the middle of the night will probably come during REM sleep. So, if you don’t really need to pull that all-nighter, more sleep will help you be more creative.

Become a student of your craft and industry!

The more you know, the more things you have to draw upon and use in your work. Read about acting and actors you admire. Watch great performances. Read great plays, screenplays, books about filmmaking, television production and subscribe to trade publications. Research gives you different perspectives on your craft allowing you to explore it in new ways. To be a working actor in the entertainment industry requires uniqueness, ability and professionalism. Understanding your industry clarifies what your job is within it and opens your mind to ways you can be a more capable contributor.

Aerobic exercise

Studies have shown that as little as 15 minutes of aerobic exercise improves mental performance. Adding a morning workout to your day or taking a short walk before your daily actor’s workout will help you think more clearly. Exercising outdoors in nature always centers me, clears my head and sets me up to do my best work.

Make something by hand

Working with your hands lets you express yourself in a new way. Painting, drawing, sculpting, making furniture or crocheting can free your mind from familiar patterns and spark your creativity.

Daydream

When you’re hard at work and not getting anywhere, daydreaming can distract your attention from the task giving you a welcome break and allowing new ideas to appear.

Meditate

Meditation reduces stress, improves focus, attention and your ability to ignore distractions. It’s like strength training for the brain. Daily meditation helps you problem solve, sharpen your mind and think more creatively enabling you to perform at a higher level more consistently and with less effort. It will positively impact your life and your work.

Get inspired

Doing the same things again and again can put you in a creative rut. To break out, try doing something outside your #ActorsWorld. Visit a museum, zoo or botanical garden. Attend a music or dance concert you might not normally see. Read about architecture, philosophy, science or anything new that interests you. The more interests you have the more interesting you become.

Be inspired by “rejection”

If not being cast feels like a rejection, you’re gonna be a very unhappy actor. If you choose steak instead of fish from a lunch menu, it’s not personal. You like fish, you just felt like eating steak today. The fish would be foolish to feel rejected. When you audition and aren’t cast, it’s also not personal. Instead of feeling rejected, use it as an opportunity to think creatively about your preparation and performance and explore new ways you can communicate more effectively through your work.

If you’re auditioning but not getting cast and you’re tired of feeling like fish, download my free e-book six secrets of a working actor here.

Philip

Originally published on Backstage

Philip Hernandez is a respected acting teacher and singing coach in NYC. He is also the only actor in Broadway history to play both Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert in Les Miserables. He created principal roles in Broadway’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Paul Simon’s The Capeman. You may also know him from his many television appearances: The Blacklist, Gotham, Blue Bloods, The Path, Bull, Nurse Jackie, Elementary, Person of Interest, Law and Order, Hostages and Damages to name a few. For information about acting lessons CLICK HERE or singing lessons CLICK HERE. 

Follow him on twitter @philip24601, on Instagram @philip24601 and on Facebook at @philip24601.