Creating Community & Contacts in your Acting Class

On the first day of your acting class, make a Class Contact List and share it with the group.

Why do this? So many reasons!

You immediately create a sense of community within the class and when you do that, you make friends faster and people’s work usually gets better.

You now have their info and you could use it later to reach out to them and…

  • Cast them in a project you’re working on
  • Ask them for advice
  • Ask for a referral to a rep
  • Support an agent, manager or producer by referring them

Remember, this industry is all about relationships and we don’t know where these people will be in a few years. They could become your best friend or they could be an EP on a hit show or know someone who is. Wouldn’t you like that person in your life faster?

OK, so how do you go about it?

All you have to do is:

  • Pass around a sheet of paper or if it’s a virtual class, send out a google spreadsheet link in the group chat for the class to fill out their contact info.
  • Ask for everyone’s names, emails and social media profiles and permission to share them with the rest of the class.
  • Create a google spreadsheet and share this info with everyone in the class.

Congratulations! You’ve helped create a feeling of community in your class.

But Jenna, what if the teacher already cc’d the class on a group email?

My answer, do it anyway.

It’s great to have the info in a spreadsheet for yourself so you’re not scrambling to find people’s contact info later on. Being organized is half the battle. You also won’t have everyone’s social handles in an email and it’s so fun to follow people and get to know one another better online. Your classmates will appreciate it too.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

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