If I knew then what I know now

September sees the fresh faced arrivals at many drama schools and colleges throughout the UK and means that the streets of Covent Garden are adorned with the latest intake of students at the Royal Ballet school. None of which is a bad thing of course.

What is worth pointing out to the same drama students though is that although the quality of teaching that they may have might well vary a little from institution to institution, they industry may well regard those venues (and their teaching) as vastly different. As I'm sure you've all been told before, Life isn't fair. Deal with it.

I was sitting and thinking about what I wish I knew when I started my training at City Lit? What would have made my life, not easier per se, more perhaps productive? What traps I could potentially avoid I guess.

The short answer is that I wish I realised that I had one mouth, two ears, and sometimes only half a brain. I admit that I was one of those students who needed to understand the reason behind the exercise that the teacher was putting us through. If, as often was the case, I didn't grasp the point of the exercise then I would spend a huge amount of energy trying to fathom it out rather than just getting on with it and seeing what followed.

My end of term reports often intimated that I was being too analytical and too cerebral and that I needed to not fear the visceral response sometimes. What crystallised the lesson for me was when a teacher, the immensely talented and hugely patient Jonathan Dawes, took me to one side and said "Imagine you're standing on a kerb or a wall. Balance right on the edge of it. Allow yourself to fall and deliver your lines in that moment of uncertainty and freedom." To this day I often find myself taking a character I've got trouble finding and, using bits of dialogue, I go and balance on the steps by the Renoir cinema and I play. Just play. With the words, the meaning, the timing. In that play I find a huge release of my own expectations and preconceived ideas about the character. As I topple forward, or backward if standing that way, off the kerb my instinct kicks in and my focus is not on me, or the character. I cease to exist. My attention is on the fall. The journey if you like. And in those moments the first glimpses of a character can sometimes be seen.

It's worth saying that Drama School, any Drama School, will be the most supportive, inclusive, welcoming, safe space for you to learn your craft in. So don't get caught up in petty squabbles between students and especially not between students and staff! You may or may not wish to include 'Romances' in the category of 'Petty Squabbles'.

Having seen relationships blossom and die between students in the same acting class I would suggest that although a dalliance might well be fun, be aware that if the relationship sours you may well have two and a half years of having to sit in the same room with, and reveal the deepest darkest secrets of your soul to, someone who you previously adored but now wouldn't pee on if they were on fire. Needless to say this added frisson can bring a useful element to some examples of scene work but may well interfere with others.
Let's not forget that the relationship may well have an impact on others in your class too. It may be that you and your partner want to work almost exclusively with each other on scenes too. But that would limit the learning that you both have ultimately.

We learn by being exposed to other actors. If we repeatedly, and misguidedly, seek to work with only someone we love, or even just 'fancy' in some cases, then we are limiting our own experiences. It is an actors  job to seek out new experiences and to challenge ourselves by, perhaps, working with the people we feel least inclined to work with. After all once you've left the safe environs of the drama school you will inevitably be faced with the situation one day of turning up to the first day of auditions and finding someone standing there you really would rather wasn't. If you don't have that experience of working with all sorts whilst at college you may find that you are thrown when the cast doesn't all gel perhaps. Even if they don't, and sometimes even with the best will of all concerned they just don't, you still have a show to perform so you have to behave professionally and in a civil manner. At least until the final curtain falls on the run.

To sum up this post, drama training should be fun. A play is called a 'Play' for a reason after all, so play. Play with character, with emotion, I would say play with yourself but I fear that may be misconstrued.

Be aware though that the start of training is precisely that. I loved my time at City Lit and I learnt loads. I also now know that I've learnt infinitely more about the business since graduating than I did in my time there.

Most drama schools seem to skirt around the 'Business' side of the business so I want to say a few words about that but I think that'll have to come in the next post.

Twitter and How to Use It

Sometimes life has a habit of getting in the way of even the most well planned of things. That is what has happened with my blog of late. Life, in the form of my own insecurities and foibles, has left me rather distracted of late so I have neglected my blog for almost two months.

I shall try, but won't promise, to provide a blog post at least once a month from here on in.

This particular post is being written at the request of one of the most highly regarded headshot photographers around, Mr Michael Wharley.

He is off to the NSDF conference this year and has asked if he can feature me as an example of an actor who uses Twitter effectively. Once I was over the shock of being asked if he can use my Twitter page as an example we talked the topic over a little and I decided that I would blog on the slightly wider topic of "How to Use Twitter if you're an Actor"

Not meaning to sound like I know what I'm talking about, and absolutely not meaning to lecture but it does strike me that there are some very simple rules to follow when using Twitter as a professional tool no matter what your profession.

Firstly there is the little matter of picking your name. Pick it carefully.

As much as your Equity and Spotlight names are your brand name so is your online presence part of the same brand. The fact that your schoolmates might well have called you Wobblybottom or that you really did have an email address that was "punanimaster@...." is something that you need to leave behind you.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, smacks of a lack of professionalism more than having an unprofessional online name. Your email address, even if it's a free web-based email, and your Twitter account are professional tools and need to be treated as such. The simplest solution is to just try to get an account that matches your name as closely as possible. If you have to veer away from that because some other person has already nabbed your name then so be it but don't veer off into the inane or profane.

If you want brand consistency across all platforms then I would suggest looking into sites like NameChk which allows you to check name availability on almost all forms of social media or Know'em which does something very similar but also allows you to check domain name availability and then gives you the option to pay for a service which will register your chosen name on up to 300 websites in one go. Personally I didn't much see the point in the pay service when you really only want to grab the top sites anyway but the option is there to use if you so desire.

Now you've got your page reserved what do you do with it?

This is Twitter we're talking about here so I will stick with that, although these can be extended to other social media sites too of course. Twitter allows you to change the background to your page. So change it. Even if you just tile your main headshot over the page that is something. And use a professional headshot as your avatar too.

I know these may sound like idiot guides but heigh-ho... Now you've set up your page you need to start to follow people. Personally I think there is limited mileage to be gained from following the celebrity Twitterati as you will not really be able to engage them in conversation. (Even if you do you will probably be speaking with the web manager employed to Tweet on behalf of the celeb anyway.) When I started out I found the Twitter accounts for as many of the London Fringe theatres I could find and then followed them. I looked at who they followed and followed them. That way I quickly built up a list of people I was following who were at least interested in theatre.

Read their posts. Reply. Ask questions. And above all else be prepared to help out too. If people need a retweet of one of their messages then retweet it. If you're stuck for something to say then ask who you can help.

I treat Twitter as part of the job of being an actor. Of course it doesn't improve my acting per se, nor will it get you auditions but if you follow film and theatre production companies, directors, and above all else casting directors, then you will hear about things in the pipeline often before they are public knowledge and that gives you a chance to be helpful.

There are some fringe producers out there who will look at a Twitter presence and if you've a growing following on here and someone else has none they will tend to offer parts to the actor who can readily market an upcoming show to their following.

Twitter isn't just about getting bums on seats though. Acting can be a very lonely profession at times and online social media can provide you with support and guidance in those times when you are ready to quit. And everyone has those moments sometimes. If you have engaged with people and shown compassion then you will get compassion back in return.

Speaking personally and entirely subjectively here I can say that there have been times when Twitter has given me room to vent and let off steam and others when it has given me strength and succour to continue. It has also put me in contact with some wonderful people who produce work that I truly admire. Of course, overtime, as you build your own online presence your personality will start to shine through. That is a good thing. You cannot expect to be entirely business focussed all the time and it's to be encouraged to have opinions on things and to Tweet them too.

I have seen people use paid-for Follower tools on Twitter. I decided long ago not to go down that path as even though they would generate a large kick in follower numbers it is doubtful that many of them would be even vaguely interested in theatre, film, or acting in any form so what would be the point of having the number for the sake of the number. I would rather quality over quantity any day.

As I've said before, spend time reading the Tweets from people who you follow. And reply. Twitter is a modern day version of the chat over the garden fence and it's going to be a very dull conversation if only one person talks all the time.

Be proactive. Be helpful. Be mindful too.

By mindfulness I mean don't flood your timeline with a million tweets about your undying love for Justin Beiber/One Direction/Twilight etc. It might well be that you will marry one of them but it gets very dull, very quickly when all you do is tweet about them. So think about what you post. Share the things you like. Share the things you really don't like. Share enough to allow people to see who you are beyond just being an actor.

Showcase Shmocase

Well it's been almost a month since I was here last and what a month it's been!

I've been to lots of drama school showcases, some of which have blown me away with the display of raw talent on stage, others of which have made me wish for a lightening bolt descending from the skies to strike the director who deemed their ideas worthy of being a showcase. I can't stress enough how terrible some of them have been.

Back in the day when I was approaching my own showcase it was drummed into us by our head of faculty that the job of the showcase was to, unsurprisingly, showcase us. It was not to give us all equal stage time if that time meant we could shoot ourselves in our feet. Metaphorically speaking of course. Well it seems to me that some drama schools take the view that all students need to be given equal stage time regardless of ability. Hence I've witnessed singing that was flat, voices that were indistinct, acting that was timid and utterly mind-numbing and I've also had to sit through umpteen excerpts from the same handful of plays over, and over, and over again. Even the food on offer has started to take on a relentless sameness. Standing around in the bar afterwards chatting to agents they all share the same view.

Drama school showcases invariably take place in the lunch hour so that busy agents, casting directors and producers can justify getting out of the office for a bit longer than an hour and seeing something entertaining and finding new talent. The new talent is undeniably there but the "entertainment" factor has been absent by and large. Making the audience laugh, or even making them smile, makes them more predisposed to like the actors they see on stage. Boring them or picking scenes that all feature two people screaming profanities at each other gets rather tiring.

The most entertaining, and arguably most successful showcase so far this year has featured a mixture of duo and monologues together with larger company pieces and even the odd song. And no this was not a Musical Theatre showcase, they're an altogether different bag usually featuring a large degree of shirt movements revealing toned six-pack abs, row upon row of preternaturally white teeth and any number of Stiles and Drewe songs segueing into hard bitting dramatic scenes where the leading candidate to play Dandini in panto this season in Margate is allowed to flex his acting muscles by declaring himself in love with the beautiful girl opposite him whilst struggling to hide his penchant to punctuate sentences with a demonstration of a jazz hand or two. But they are entertaining nevertheless.

I have to say the thing uniformly lacking in most of the drama showcases I've seen so far has been simply that. Drama. Mainly scenes are underacted with the actors showing scant connection with the text and not able to project vocally beyond the first two rows of the stalls. This has been the case in even the smallest, and oddest choice of venue, the Fortune Theatre where the showcase also suffered from being badly lit.

Why do I go if they're so bad I hear you say? Well, not only do I live moments away from the majority of venues but I also have a job to do. I'm an actor, a director and now a producer. When I go I am looking at, and for, actors. Sometimes the design of the showcase makes it hard for the cream to rise beyond the sea of little UHT milk capsules bobbing about. I beg the people tasked with creating showcases to remember what they are there to do and to showcase the talent. But please please please make the hour entertaining. Mix it up a bit. If you have one black actor please use something other than Blue/Orange to demonstrate his skills. Why not let him do Coward, or Crimp for that matter. Shake it up. Be bold. Let your imagination fly and let your students take wing rather than shackle them by lacklustre direction and no imagination.

It isn't just what you do on stage

Yesterday I went to see the work of an up and coming theatre company who are striving to reinvent the Rep Company for the 21st Century. They strive to provide a year long training program built around the experience of putting on three full scale professional productions throughout the year.

After the experience of yesterday I would still say that these are lofty ambitions and deserve support, however this is a business not a fairytale adventure and sometimes businesses need to be tough in order to teach people valuable lessons.

It was apparent from watching the assorted cast of some 17 young people of varied talent get to grips with the reworking of this classic Greek tale of lust, revenge and death, that some of the basics need to be attended to urgently.

There really is scant point in staging a full scale professional production when the cast are in obvious need of speech lessons. There is no point putting on what is ostensibly a college production and calling it professional.

Perhaps equally importantly the actors should all have drummed into them the importance of an online presence. I was trying to write up my review of this particular play this morning when I realised that my task was made much more difficult than usual due to the utter lack of photos and biogs in the literature handed out at the theatre. It could not be too arduous a task to have a couple of pages with just a headshot and the name of the actor next to it could it? I'd think not. But nevermind, I thought, I'll turn to Google and will go through the names listed and call up the relevant Spotlight or Casting Call Pro pages for the actors concerned.

I think my biggest shock wasn't that most of the cast are not listed on either site (as far as I, with the help of Google, could ascertain) but more that the few who were listed had not bothered to update their online resumes in quite a while. In one case that "while" equates to five years. None of the actors listed the current production.

Wearing one of my other hats, this time as Director, I constantly look out for actors who get added to my list of people I would want to work with in the future, or at least see how they develop over the next few years, but none of those on stage made that list yesterday purely because of the lack of ability to identify them.

Even a wall of headshots in the theatre would have helped!

I would hope that young actors, and those just starting out in their careers who may have a few years of Life on their side, would realise that most casting these days is done online initially. And that in order to improve their chances of getting roles, of actually just getting seen, then their online presence is just as essential as their technical knowledge.

Hold on tight. You're in for a bumpy ride.

I've been asked to post a few words of wisdom about this business aimed towards the younger, recently graduated, actor. So here they are:

1. You're lucky to be entering one of the most fun professions in the world.

2. You're unlucky to be entering one of the most frustrating professions in the world.

3. No matter how prepared you think you are for an audition/meeting/first day on set, trust me, you're not.

4. Never forget that this is a business.

5. This business is the acting business. It is not the Star & Fame business.


I don't mean to put people off becoming actors at all, because it's something that is exciting, vital, challenging and fun all at the same time and it means that I've been lucky enough to meet some remarkable people. And I hope to meet many more.

Talking to a lot of younger actors recently has made me aware that a large number of them seem reluctant to remember that this is a business. For example I was at BAFTA on Saturday just past and it was only the younger actors present who were embarrassed about having business cards and seemingly mortified at the prospect of handing them out.

Acting is a business. You are promoting yourself all the time. Every time you walk into an audition or casting, every time you are in rehearsals, on set, at a screening, a party, you are still an actor looking for his next job. Though if people think you're constantly looking to see what they can do for you then you'll get nowhere fast.

Networking, and that's what I'm talking about here, is much more about what you can do for them. Help other people make connections. Put investors and producers together. Listen out for castings that aren't for you and suggest actors for the roles. Either directly to the casting director or producer if you can or failing that then make sure that the casting is brought to the attention of the actor concerned. If you hear of a friend going in to see a casting director and you know something that may help, tell the friend. For example I know of a powerful casting director in London who seems to have a pathological dislike to coffee. And perfume. So, if you're called into see them, never wear perfume or aftershave, and if they offer you a drink, don't ask for coffee. Yes I know it's seemingly ridiculous but it's sometimes the small things that matter.

Talking of small things I turn now to business cards. Ah the minefield that is the Business Card. A few tips:

1. Don't skimp on the paper quality;

2. Have a picture (of you) on the card;

3. Put your professional name;

4. Remember your business card is public domain so think about phone numbers, email etc.

I know that some of the above seems counter intuitive but I shall explain. The paper quality, and size of the card itself, varies hugely. I've come unstuck using a very popular online card printing company whose paper stock just isn't as good as it could be. And they have non-standard card sizes which look odd. And cheap.

Why is this important? Well your business card is, literally, your calling card. If it's cheap and nasty then it doesn't suggest that you take yourself seriously as an actor. Likewise your headshot. Get a proper one done by a decent photographer who specialises in taking actors headshots. They are not the same as fashion or family portraits. And you find out who's good by asking around.

Make sure that your card has your headshot on it somewhere. When your card inevitably comes adrift from your hardcopy CV or headshot in the office of that powerful producer or casting director they'll still know exactly who you are if it's got your picture on it.

The public domain/safety issue is one that I've only just taken on board myself. My first few batches of cards listed my personal email and mobile phone number as well as those of my agent. Now I don't. I just list my name, my agent details and my spotlight number. It's enough. If any professional wants to find me they can with that information. I've already got the proofs in for the next batch and they just list my professional name and Spotlight number and nothing else though. Not even a picture. And yes I know that is a risk, and runs counter to my previous point but I'm convinced that if you think you're good enough then they will take the time to look and if they want you then they'll contact you.

Oh, about agents now. I can't tell you how many times I hear young actors lament that they haven't got an agent. How, if only they did, they'd have auditions for the Donmar/Royal Court/National Theatre/Next Big Thing on TV etc... I'm guessing that these actors think the agent's job is to get them work. Well here's a shock to the system but it really isn't the agent's job to get an actor work.

The agent, your agent, has a role which certainly touches on getting you work but that responsibility is yours alone. His (or hers) is to act as an intermediary in contract negotiations and to try to get you the best contract possible. Of course any agent worth his salt is going to be suggesting you to producers, casting directors etc and getting doors open for you, but it's your job to get the work. And to get the work you can't go easy on continuing the training that you get.

Even during the lean times, for there will be lean times, in fact especially during the lean times, do courses and classes to remain fresh. Every chance you have to sharpen your acting skills take it. Add accents to the mix. Learn a foreign language, a musical instrument, how to ride a horse, a motorbike. Something. Anything. Just learn. Widen your life experience, travel. Meet people. Talk to them but more importantly sit and listen to them. Observe. It's only by observing the minutiae of real people going about real life that we can hope to be real ourselves when we're a character.

Forgive my rambling thoughts this morning but I want to return to the agent topic a moment longer. I like, genuinely like, my agent. I enjoy being in their company. I like the sense of family that the actors on their books have. It's a big mutual support network and some of them have very rapidly become friends. I don't understand how an actor can work with an agent who they don't like, or even as someone mentioned last week, that they are scared of. The agent needs you to go out and earn or else they earn nothing. You need the agent to open doors, put you up for jobs and to negotiate contract terms for you so you both need the other. Such business relationships should be built on trust, equality, honesty. And of course it helps immensely if you actually do, genuinely, like each other.

Final two thoughts, when one job ends every actor thinks that they'll never work again so you're really not alone with that thought. And final, final thought, even with the business side, the endless rejection, the terrible pay, the doubt, worry, anxiety, etc it's still huge fun! Plays are called PLAYs. So do precisely that. Play and have fun. But hold on tight as you're definitely going to have a bumpy ride!