ABSTRACT
Any undertaking that brings human beings together also furnishes opportunities for them to step on each other’s toes and push each other’s buttons. Awkwardness, miscommunication, misunderstandings, moral dilemmas, and interpersonal conflicts can arise in any environment, but actors constantly encounter new situations and personalities, calling on us to continually hone our abilities to analyze, assess, and manage. Like martial artists, who are trained to use different defensive techniques depending on what comes at them, actors may find themselves having to deftly move between diplomacy, assertiveness, self-preservation, restraint, quick thinking, white lies, and sometimes even graceful exits.
Some of the sticky situations that readers have asked the authors to advise on are: how to leave a production when the need arises, awkward audition situations, how to respond when a casting person asks your age, dealing with unsafe working conditions, and what to do when your agent wants to date you.
