Whither anon?

There are (at least) two ways to think about plans. The first is in terms of scheduling. When I was newer to Perth I tended to do whatever people would cast me in, to get some exposure. I guess that was a plan in itself, with which I have had some success. Now I am a little more in the loop as to who might be doing what, where & when. This harkens back to Craig's comment in the recent thread about pre-casting, where he described how he keeps involved in theatre, whether onstage or elsewhere. My plan has now changed. As an actor who has a "day job" plus other hobbies, & of course a non-theatrical husband (who supports and humours me as well as I do him), I have to consider carefully what projects I might like to take on. I tend now to try to limit myself to perhaps two productions a year that I really want to do, which I find sustainable. As Dazza mentions we actors in community theatre are not always aware of what is available very far in to the future. For this reason I use the ITA site a lot and enquire as early as possible about anything I might be interested in, as it helps me to make the best use of my time. Planning part deux: my karate instructor encouraged us all to set goals for ourselves - short, medium & long-term. An example of a short term goal might be: "learn the Chekov speech for the next month's audition"; medium: "help with makeup backstage this year"; long term: "play a role that gives me an opportunity to explore naturalistic performance techniques within 5 years." Almost as important as setting the goals is reviewing them, to see how far you have come in achieving them, so I would suggest a review date for each goal as well. And if anyone subscribes to the ideas in the book, "the Secret", having a goal in the first place is the main step to achieving it.