The Benefits of Outside Hobbies

By Chelsea & Cynthia

There's a classic saying in our industry:

"If there's anything else you love to do as much or more than theater, do that."

In our opinion, that advice is outdated. We've seen time and time again that some of the most successful performers are multi-passionate multihyphenates. 

We believe that the notion of the starving and struggling artist is starting to finally dissipate. There's no shame anymore in having a second or additional career that you actually like and enjoy when you aren't working a show. It's such a more healthy way to live. 

We recently ran a poll on our Instagram stories, and 67% of our community said that outside interests or hobbies have helped them in their theater career at one point or another on either a macro level or a micro level.

This is why we wanted to break down the broader implications and benefits of having outside interests, passions, or hobbies. 

1. Some Outside Interests Can Help Your Career Directly

These are things that would fall under the special skills category on your resume and might translate directly to something you could be asked to do in an audition or show. For Example..

• Playing An Instrument: The world of actor-musicians has exploded in the last two decades. You could use this skill to perform in shows like Once, Bandstand, Cabaret, etc. We know actor-musician friends who play sax, flute, guitar, drums, trombone, piano - the opportunities are endless!
• Gymnastics And Tumbling: This skill is in such high demand for dance shows or fight scenes.
• Puppetry: One of our respondents to our Instagram poll said puppetry. She has a mermaid puppet named Ethel Mermaid, who's helped her in callbacks. (Which we're obsessed with)
• Being Fluent In Other Languages: This could help you book shows in places all over the world or help you correctly integrate various accents. 

2. Outside Interests Can Help Your Career Indirectly

Things under this category could be other degrees or fields of expertise. Such as...

• Majoring in Anything Other Than A Theatre Degree: You are bringing so much intelligence and expertise from other areas that you've studied.
• Traveling The World: This allows you to see the world from a new perspective, which can shift how you interpret characters.
• Video Editing, Cinematography, Website Building: Somebody responded to our Instagram story and shared that they built a website for a new course in their area, and in return they got a spot in the course, and from that experience, they got into drama school. 

All of these different experiences can lend to a greater perspective on the world, a greater point of view, and you're going to bring all of those experiences into your role as an artist and an actor.

3. Outside Interests Can Become A Career Unto Themselves

We are really passionate about artists and actors stepping out of that struggle or hustle mindset and being able to support themselves with a survival job that fills their cup instead of drains it. What we really love about the outside interests that can become a career is that so many of these you can do alongside being on stage or you can keep coming back to whenever you're not in a show. They can often go side by side, hand in hand. These careers could look like (but not limited to):

• Fitness Instructors
• Yoga Teachers
• Vocal Coach
• Accompanist
• Virtual Assistant
• Dance Teacher
• Social Media Manager
• Photographer
• Our very own video and podcast editor, Meg, is an artist themself and they edit this podcast for us, and they're brilliant at it. 
• We've even known a wine sommelier! 🍷 

The list goes on and all of those things can be done in a flexible way to support your life as an artist. And that is why we are so passionate about artists using the skills and talents that they already have and funneling them into something that's sustainable, that pays you well for your expertise, talents, and for the time that you've invested in learning how to do these other skills or these other jobs.

4. Hobbies Are Just Good For You

 Hobbies don't need to be necessarily productive. It's important to recognize that sometimes we just need a hobby or a little side creative venture that is meditative or relaxes us. These kinds of hobbies can allow us to have a moment away from all the hustle (because we all know that hustle is tiring!).

We found this great quote from oregoncounseling.com, where they share that "It's important that we separate our hobbies from our need to be productive. We live in an achievement-oriented culture, which can make it hard for us to switch off when it comes to our jobs, money, and deadlines. Think of hobbies separate from something that needs to involve productivity. Hobbies should be low pressure, relaxing outlets for our downtime, and above all, bring us genuine fulfillment" 

Restful hobbies like these can also provide us with: 

• New Social Connections: Go take a class on how to do flamenco dancing or learn how to make pottery and make some friends with those like-minded interests or skills.
• Structure For Our Time: There's this idea that our jobs just fill all of our available time, but if you know that you have a book club or a wine tasting that evening, you literally have to leave the apartment and go to that event that you've been looking forward to. Make time for the things that you want to invest in.
• Making Yourself More Interesting: It's something to talk about, whether it be in your audition or with your friends when you go to brunch on the weekends. It's something outside of the business that can take up space in your brain and in your soul.
• Helping You Cope With Stress: Choosing restful, often mindless hobbies, can give us the break our brain needs from the hustle and bustle of our work life, and release stress from our bodies.

It's nice to have hobbies that are low-stakes because we live in high stakes. Not only is the job high stakes, but we're also constantly trying to make it even more high stakes. Give your mind, body, and soul the break it needs by investing your time in outside hobbies that fulfill you in equal ways that performing provides you with. 

If you're interested in diving deeper into this interview or exploring other interesting musical theatre conversations - check out the Broadway Vocal Coach podcast! Or check us out on Instagram, and get involved in the conversation! 

Are you a musical theatre performer and wondering what your next step should be? Take our Quiz - we can’t wait to hear your story and help you take the next step in your career.