Crafting an Intentional Career for the Musical Theatre Performer

Crafting an Intentional Career for the Musical Theatre Performer provides aspiring and early-stage practitioners with the key skills to navigate the mental challenges of breaking into and building a fulfilling professional life in the industry.

Written by a professional with both on and off-Broadway experience, this guide will help performers to develop skills to positively and purposefully navigate their careers. Including practical tips, advice from professionals and a guide to develop a career journal, the book provides the missing pieces to help prepare the young musical theatre performer for the mental game of musical theatre. The book navigates key questions such as: how to increase your chances of reaching your career goals; how to look inward and take responsibility for self-confidence, self-talk, and self-belief; how to implement self-care routines for mental and physical well-being; how to define ＂success＂ not as a point of arrival, but as a long journey that can provide fulfillment throughout one’s career; and much more. Because of the practical focus of the book, readers will be able to apply these methodologies to their practice on a day-to-day basis. The book is accompanied by a podcast, The Mental Game of Musical Theatre, which includes interviews with professionals about how they navigate their own careers in the industry and is available on all the usual podcasting platforms.

Aimed at aspiring musical theatre performance professionals, as well as advanced students of musical theatre, this book will equip readers with the skills to manage the first steps of their musical theatre career.

Crafting an Intentional Career for the Musical Theatre Performer includes access to companion journal pages to support the reader’s day-to-day career and self-development efforts, available at www.routledge.com/9781032754789.

David W. Eggers is currently Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre for the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah, USA. He worked extensively on Broadway and off-Broadway, as both a performer in 10 Broadway musicals (including Thoroughly Modern Millie and Billie Elliott), and as an associate director and associate choreographer for many more productions. He produces and broadcasts his podcast, The Mental Game of Musical Theatre, from his home in Salt Lake City, and travels throughout the US to continue his work as a theatre creative and educator.