Mo Brady and Angela Tricarico
Mentorship is a crucial part of developing your craft as a supporter. Part-teacher, part-cheerleader, your mentor uses their skillset and insight to help you develop your craft. With mobile apps like Shadow Star, it’s never been easier for performers to have access to quality mentorship at the tip of their fingers. Once you find a mentor you click with, there are endless benefits that will transform your career.
1. Mentors already have performing experience.
Your mentor may use experiences they’ve already had to make sure you don’t make similar mistakes in your performing career. Their experience becomes invaluable when you look to them for advice and feedback.
2. A mentor can identify things you need to improve or change often before you can.
There’s a saying: you’re your own worst critic, but in this case, a mentor can helpfully pinpoint areas of improvement in parts of your performances that you may not have paid any mind to before. Constructive criticism is one of the best agents of change a mentor can offer you.
3. Mentors help with goal-setting.
Having a clear set of goals you want to accomplish is always beneficial. With a mentor, you can share these goals with the hope that they can hold you accountable in achieving your goals and setting new ones.
4. Having a mentor you can trust can be the difference between stopping and continuing on.
It’s safe to say we all have those moments where our guard drops a little, and we feel like giving up. Having a mentor there in those moments to offer encouraging thoughts, advice, and guidance inspires us to keep going.
5. Your mentor has your best interest at heart.
Above all, your mentor is rooting for you and your progress. The presence of someone like this in your life is invaluable because of a combination of their experience and accountability. Mentors like those on Shadow Star are the kind of people who know how to lift you up, because there’s a good chance they’ve been in your shoes.
Also by The Ensemblist:
Nili Bassman: Juggling Motherhood and a Broadway Career
Kyle Post: On Kinky Boots and How “Weird Works”
Published in collaboration with The Ensemblist
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