Written by Brielle Jobe

When you tell people you want to be an actor when you grow up, you get some questions, like: no, but really? Or, how will you make money though? Shouldn’t you get a real job, too?

But the thing is, actors’ skills are just as useful off the stage as they are on it. Through their training, actors hone countless soft skills such as communication, confidence, and organization. And to all the haters, having these skills is my “real job.” I’m a communications coach and consultant, which means I teach people from all different fields the skills I’ve learned through my almost 20 years experience on the stage.

Below is a long — yet still non-exhaustive — list of these skills.

Fun

It’s no secret that theatre kids know how to have fun. And when your job is so hard and pays so little, you have to enjoy it to pursue it. Although “having fun” may not sound like a skill, it takes practice to let go and shed those societal pressures in order to really live in the moment and enjoy what you do.
And if you enjoy what you do, so will your clients!

Building Trust

We make close, deep, intimate relationships onstage— not like that!…well, sometimes like that.
What I mean to say is that actors are quick and efficient in getting to know someone and building trust with that someone. Acting is a vulnerable profession and you have to have trust in order to be at your best; as “hippie-dippie” as it may sound, you have to feel safe, like your team has your back.

This is one of the most valuable skills actors develop and it applies in every other profession as well as in our personal lives.

Empathy

In order to play truthful, genuine characters, we have to empathize with our role, no matter if we’re the hero or the villain. One thing that lacks in our modern society is, in fact, empathy for the other side. It’s hard to see things from a different perspective but in order to take on a new character, you must. Villains don’t come from nowhere, they don’t materialize from thin air, they have origins and upbringings and loved ones just like all the rest of us — so even that coworker who drives you absolutely mental, yes, they, too, have a story worth sharing and worth understanding.

This necessity for, perhaps extreme examples of, empathy overtrains the actor to understand and interact with people from different backgrounds, upbringings, classes, and cultures from themselves.

Discipline

It may seem that actors are kind of off-the-walls, and it’s true, we have a lot of energy. But it requires an immense amount of commitment and focus to achieve great acting, and that requires great discipline to do the work outside the rehearsal hall in order to bring your best self and your best work to the final product.

Communication

Actors work with many people in many departments, and we have to be able to talk to them all. And you can’t be worrying about hurting people’s feelings or dancing around problems when you open in a week. Things have to get done and everybody knows it.

Expression

Ever been told you have a resting-bitch-face? Believe it or not, we aren’t really that great at expressing ourselves these days…Particularly in Western and Northeast-Asian cultures, seriousness and stoicism are synonymous with professionalism. This has resulted in many of us afraid to express emotions at the risk of being seen as “childlike” or “unprofessional,” but for the actor, expression is the very definition of our profession.

And emoting on your face, in your body, and in your voice, can help you appear more approachable, more empathetic, and overall, more trustworthy — a person people want to work with.

Creativity

This one may seem kind of obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less vital a skill. Thinking creatively and spontaneously is what helps actors stay on their toes and constantly bring something new to each role they take on. Creativity is a dying art as schools replace music and visual arts classes with math and science, eliminating critical thinking, problem-solving, and ingenuity from the curriculum.

Actors can not only come up with bold, new ideas, they’re not afraid to bring them to the table either.

Organization

Theatre productions have many moving parts and actors are just one cog turning in the grandfather clock. They have to stay on their game and know where they’re supposed to be when, keeping themselves not only physically organized but mentally.

Self awareness

Theatre is a medium that cannot be perfected or performed in a vacuum. You can know your material inside and out, you can have all the research, the subtext, the objectives, every technical piece complete, every emotion exactly where you want it.

But.

If it doesn’t read to an audience, all that work is for nothing. You need to be aware of how you present yourself and the story you’re telling in order to perform and communicate effectively.

Read the room

Because actors must be so aware of themselves and those around them at all times, it gives us the ability to read other people — hone in on their mood, their energy levels, their intentions. This is an invaluable skill when dealing with difficult clients or high-stakes negotiations.

***To read more about specific skills like collaboration, humility, problem-solving, and confidence, check out some additional articles of mine:
Why your executive should be consulting a theatre kid
Caught Between Arrogance and Humility: Acting through Life
Put the Humanities back into Humanity

In conclusion…

We all know that theatre people tend to be loud, confident, and unapologetically themselves; when they take the stage, they command it, they take up space, and keep you engaged when they’re speaking. The actor is aware of both their environment and themselves. An actor responds quickly and precisely to everything and everyone around them while being able to look inside themselves to examine motivation and thought-process. This understanding allows actors to be collaborative and empathetic.

Sanford Meisner, a famous theatre practitioner and a student of the, perhaps, even more renown, Konstantin Stanislavski, described “acting [as] reacting.” The idea behind this statement is that acting isn’t like playing pretend, but instead we should take what our scene partner gives us and react genuinely in real time. We should listen, think, and respond truthfully (within, of course, the confines of the text/given circumstances). This means that actors are attuned to their scene partners at all times — and that requires focus and discipline. Additionally, if someone misses a line or jumbles a cue, everyone else onstage must adapt and problem solve.

In all aspects of life, we should listen actively to those around us and work with what is being given to us. This results in actors being able to collaborate and work well with almost anyone!

Their toolbox holds countless skills that apply in performative, personal, andprofessional settings to make them better team members and better communicators.