ABSTRACT
In a recent survey of working artists on the east coast of the United States, a troubling statistic came up: of those who called themselves artists, fully 80 percent earned less than 10 percent of their income from their artistic side. In other words, they called themselves painters, musicians, actors, writers, and so on, but they earned their living as well. Most of the actors know either have been independently wealthy or are married or partnered to someone who is wealthy or earns a regular wage. Because this shows no sign of changing in the future, it must address what it means to us as an actor. Even if the work is not directly linked with acting needs, use it as a learning curve to observe and store up what real people do in real circumstances. We might spend quite some time in this other work, so take time out to train in it.
