With every New Year comes a slew of new resolutions. The first weeks of January are always a time for us to reflect, steel our hearts, and with heroic determination go about trying to better ourselves for the rest of the year. These resolutions are so often related to typical ideas of ‘self-improvement’ (exercise, diet, and focus on studying all spring to mind), but seldom do we hear of people making ‘theatrical resolutions’. Enthusiastic thespians (in Cambridge and beyond) seem to carry themselves with such assured confidence and gravitas, it hardly looks like the theatre is an area of life that requires any kind of resolve.

Yet, for many (myself included) it requires more bravery and persistence than any workout regimen or study plan. I think I’m in a similar position to many first years at Cambridge: I loved theatre at home, but I’ve been hesitant to really get involved here. Thinking about auditioning or applying for production roles in a theatre community that’s produced famous actors like Tom Hiddleston and Stephen Fry is daunting to say the least. So, I think I speak for many Cambridge students when I say that the New Year’s resolution that will most test my mettle is a theatrical one, because this year I have resolved to put myself out there, and to audition and apply for whatever shows I can.

“Every time you make the effort to audition, regardless of the outcome, you’re improving”

Initially, what held me back from taking the first step off this particular cliff was something common to anyone broaching uncharted territory – what psychologists call your ‘attendant’. It’s the devil on your shoulder, the little voice telling you that you’re not good enough, that you don’t have enough experience, that there’s no chance you’ll get the part. In such a competitive environment, it can be hard not to listen to it. But, the first step to sticking to any resolution is learning to shake off whatever that little voice tells you. This doesn’t mean that you’ll get every part you audition for and that you’ll be on the fast-track to an Oscar as soon as you leave Cambridge, but it means learning to put yourself out there despite what it says, and it means trying again and again no matter how many times things don’t go your way.

If every professional actor who quit after getting one or two rejections gave up, the theatre and the cinema would be sparsely-populated places. Every single one of them has gone through the disappointment of not getting the part but it hasn’t stopped them. Harrison Ford spent 10 years as an unknown actor in Hollywood before he became the international superstar he is today following the Star Wars movies. Daniel Craig (the current James Bond) was rejected from four different drama schools before he was accepted at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican.

The theatre and the cinema are filled with stories like these, as many of the actors that have risen to the top of the industry first faced failure after failure. It’s their perseverance that’s allowed them to finally become successful, and their stories act as an encouraging reminder – if some of the most successful actors in the world can be rejected and pick themselves back up, so can the rest of us.

Also, while auditioning is definitely a matter of perseverance, it’s also a matter of practice. There has been a multitude of writing on ‘audition technique’: like any technique, it can be honed with repetition. Every time you make the effort to audition, regardless of the outcome, you’re improving. Each attempt gives you the opportunity to look back at the process of the audition and take stock of what went well and what didn’t. It’s a valuable information-gathering process that gives you the chance to improve each time you embark on it. The only way you’ll never improve is if you never even try. It’s for this reason that while this particular resolution requires a degree of persistence, persistence is what is guaranteed to make it worthwhile at all.

While this isn’t likely to be an easy process, it will be a rewarding one. This year, I refuse to let senseless fears stop me from doing something that I love. Hopefully, if you’re reading this and you’re in a similar position, neither will you