Let Battle Commence
Tomorrow night, Monday, 20 January, the doors of The Actors Centre in Covent Garden will swing open to welcome a large number of this years drama school leavers. We're staging a new event entitled "Moving On Up", designed to help drama school graduates prepare for the moment they step out of the womb of training and prepare to face the world of work. In the space of two hours the young would-be actors will get to meet prospective employers, agents, casting directors, recent graduates, accountants, and staff at the actors Centre, all of whom could help to play a vital role in the development of their careers.
What they will also meet is each other. Or as it might be referred to - the competition. At this moment in time all of these graduates are aware of the rest of their peer group at their own drama school. They've not yet really come into contact with the final years of up to 12 or 14 other drama schools who will be releasing their graduates into the job market at some stage during the summer of 2014. These are the people they will each meet at auditions. These are the people who will be going up for the same jobs as them. These are their rivals.
It never stops.
When my agent rings and tells me that I have an interview for something, depending on what the part is, I can always almost name an actor I will see who is also being seen for the same part. Sometimes I come away thinking so-and-so would be so good in that role, and sometimes I come away thinking that part should be mine. I am often proved wrong, but at least I'm aware of who the competition is. A sly glance leaning over reception at the casting studio to try and see the list of other people they are seeing for the role. Not that you can do anything about it, and if you read any of my other blogs on the audition process you'll know that I'm a firm believer in "Go in there and be who you are. Don't try and be what you think they want."
So just how do you differentiate yourself as a young actor leaving drama school in 2014, one of several hundred new aspiring actors bursting onto the scene? Knowing your own identity can take years. I think mine hit me on a late Friday afternoon in September as I was approaching my 40th birthday. Until then I'd spent a lot of time trying to be what I thought people wanted me to be. I wanted to be chosen for each and every job.
Having spent too many cold Thursday morning games periods at school standing on the touchline being the last to be picked, I was now in a field where I thought there might be a chance that I was chosen first. As actors, we talk a lot about what teamwork each and every production is. When we pick up awards we are gracious enough to thank all those without whom we could not have done this, and of course it's true. Once you've got the job, you are all the better for the support and fellowship of the actors around you.
But while getting it, it's a world of wary stares in the waiting room, and false confidence. Psyche the others out. Or at least that's how some people choose to play it
I'm sure that the green room at The Actors Centre, where I have the honour to be chairman, will be brimming with false confidence tomorrow evening. Many of the young actors who are coming along will be given two minutes to sell themselves to one of six agents in a speed dating session. It will be interesting to know just how many of them know what they're selling. A young actor friend of mine, incredibly good looking and very photogenic, floods his Facebook page with different images, each one stunning and sellable in itself. Yet who is he? Which picture is him? Casting directors and agents need to know who you are, so they know what they're selling. Finding that identity can often take a while.
Of course the greatest gift that these young graduates will bring is that they are fresh and innocent. Many will feel that that is a disadvantage and try and cover it up, but being themselves will probably be one of the keys to their success.
It will be a hard road. If they are lucky enough to get work, such as one of the award-winning young actors who I've been mentoring of late, they will start to feel guilty when the jobs come in for them, and the people with whom they were great friends at drama school still haven't worked. As they strut the boards at the RSC, it may be still harder to keep in touch with that close friend who hasn't worked for eight months.
No matter how generous I feel I am, there have been moments when a little bit of me has died when someone else has told me about a wonderful job they have just got.
"How many actors does it take to change a lightbulb?"
" Six. One to change the bulb and five to say 'I could have done better!' "
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| 2013 Alan Bates Finalists and judges. The eventual winner Adam Buchanan is extreme left back row |
Yet such competition is about to become part of their lives. Probably nobody does more job interviews than an actor - although in the current climate, perhaps 28-year-old investment bankers can give us a run for our money. No matter how full the waiting room is, greet everyone with a smile. Listen to what is said to you, rather than spending time telling everybody else about yourself. Be generous, be courteous, but don't get walked over. Sell yourself, but don't sell out. You are the best you there is. or as the great Oscar so winningly put it
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
By the way, as any true actor would know, the joke I quoted earlier is incorrect. The correct version is, of course:
"How many actors does it take to change a lightbulb?"
"None. It's a stage management job!"
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