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Thinking about making a career for yourself in the entertainment business is something I’ve heard many non-creative types laugh at. It’s almost impossible to consider the avenues and correct rejections and/or praise to take. But as an actor/director and entrepreneur, I’ve pondered these thoughts and never given up on them. It’s always about the big picture, though at times, it will not always feel that way.
When I moved back from Los Angeles, where I was studying acting, I had no money to my name and was thoroughly distraught over the idea of ever being able to make money doing what I just spent two years of my life studying. However, I immediately immersed myself in the local community theatre, acting in plays, and soon after, directing as well. While working my part time retail jobs, I thought it to be essential that I go out on as many film auditions as I could schedule (and my wallet could afford). Walking into an audition with a prepared smile on my face paid off rather quickly. I landed my first paid acting and directing jobs within a few months of each other. The directing job was with a local theatre troupe for children. I had never worked with large groups of children before, and trying as it may have been, worked in my favor. 25 children, ages 5 through 16 for 4 straight weeks. The final product, an abridged version of ‘Peter Pan’, was a success. I knew that I had found a new, unexpected passion; something that never in a million years did I think I would do. Teach.
It was then that I decided to start my own business. But just like many of my family and friends thought, “How can a twenty year old start his own business?” It was difficult, learning business jargon and creating mission statements and finding target markets and sending out press releases. A slow climb wouldn’t do it justice. But I talked to EVERYONE. I let everybody know that I had started my own business teaching private acting and screenwriting lessons. It’s still paying off. While I wasn’t exactly meeting the business goals I had hoped for, I would still plug away, getting a new client every few months or so while I attended auditions and worked retail (which I still do!).
After directing ‘Peter Pan’, I researched local organizations for teaching, aside from the public school system. A night school for adults (a place I had actually taken a business class myself) is where I ended up teaching my filmmaking class. Before moving to California, I had studied film directing in New York, and I felt that lending the knowledge I had to other creative types yearning for a new outlet would be ideal. I was right. My film class was a success, and since then I have added an acting class as well, also a success. I continue to teach with the night school and thoroughly enjoy the personalities I meet on my way. I don’t intend to teach for a full time career, but it is excellent for networking (and the extra paycheck a ‘struggling’ actor always needs).
This teaching experience has helped me thrive as an actor and director in many ways. I meet so many different types of people, and go to many different places, and all of this gets stored in some part of my brain that allows me to draw upon it at a moments notice. This summer I am teaching acting and filmmaking camps for children with one of the top casting agencies in Philadelphia. I’m also making my Philadelphia stage debut in a play that is also making its Philadelphia premiere. Keeping busy and talking to everyone you meet is what I find to be a gigantic success on its own. Just like any job, creative or not, you have to work for it. And a part of that work is never giving up. Whether your big picture is projected on an IMAX screen, or on a whiteboard in a classroom, it will take work. You know that saying “Get a job doing something you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life”? It’s true! Some of it is enjoyable, and some of it requires more elbow grease than you would expect, but it’s worth it. Oh man, is it worth it!
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CAMERON MUNSON, a graduate of the New York Film Academy Manhattan and American Academy of Dramatic Arts Los Angeles, currently resides in Philadelphia. His efforts as a director have been successful, with films he made in his teens having won awards from film festivals in the Greater Philadelphia area and screened at festivals in New York City. His most recent directorial effort on stage, ‘Heights’, by New York playwright Amy Fox, garnered him and his cast Best Ensemble and Best Show at a Philadelphia area theatre festival, which in turn sent the show to compete in the Pennsylvania Association of Community Theatres Festival 2011. At age 21, Cameron has already performed in over a dozen plays, ranging from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams to Ionesco, and in many independent short and feature length films shot in the Philadelphia area. He will be making his Philadelphia stage debut in the Philadelphia premiere of ‘The Last Sunday in June’ this August, as he continues teaching his successful filmmaking and acting classes with the Chester County Night School in Pennsylvania, and kids camps with Kathy Wickline Casting of Philadelphia.
Visit Cameron’s website at www.cameronmunson.com
Or send him an email at
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