House.......work!

So the property search has slowed right down at the moment as we can't seem to interest anyone in buying our flat.

When you love a place as much as I love our flat it can seem to be a bit of a slight against you. We try to be out when people come for viewings as the idea of having our lifestyle examined by people while we rate here is quite off putting. We viewed a house on Saturday while the owner and his children calmly sat and watched tv or played in the garden and it was hard to have an objective discussion as one went around the place.

That house - which actually we didn’t like - and others will have to remain pipe dreams at the moment until we get an offer on our own place. We’ve been on the market for about five weeks now and we are going to be on for another five weeks. Then the flat will come off the market and we’ll go on holiday and consider our strategy. We know it's a gorgeous cosy flat. We just need to find someone else who thinks that too.

Work has picked up a little in the run up to the holidays, meaning that I should be able to have a feeling of relaxation when we are there.

I’m going to be doing a scene in a new movie scripted by The Coen Brothers. I’ve been approached about directing a play for Edinburgh, and I’ve got several sessions of corporate stuff booked in over the next four weeks so all in all, in what are difficult times, things continue to tick over

I’m writing this sat in a store room in a city law firm waiting for the phone to ring so that I can pretend to be a high powered client that the partners are calling. They are all in the lecture theatre next door working with a trainer and another actor who will make the phone call and then run a forum theatre session on phone call behaviour.

It’s good they do this - because it means I get paid, but it’s amazing in these days of people communicating with screens, that people in quite high powered jobs have lost a lot of the basics of face to face or voice communication. In days when most of us would prefer to send an e mail rather than walk across the office and have a chat with someone, the basic face to face conversational skills are lost and it is those that people now pay good money to learn.

In the rehearsal room a lot of the discussion between actors is “Why do I say that line?” “What effect does it have on you?” and these are exactly the skills that allow some actors to transfer their skills so successfully into the business world. It doesn’t always work. I know some brilliant actors who really can't hack it in the role-play training world, and I have met some actors who are breathtaking at role-play who just crumble with a script in their hand. For those who can move between the worlds it’s a great opportunity and a way of surviving as an actor without having to resort to temping as a bookkeeper, or a coffee shop attendant.

It’s the time of year when lots of the young actors I have had the pleasure of working with over the past few years are leaving drama school, and I've had more than one “Help me - what’s next?” phone call over recent weeks.

These days it is so much harder in many respects for younger actors setting out on their journey. When I left drama school in the late 1970’s I was lucky enough to go straight into eight months work, but between jobs, as I later found out, we could sign on, and devote time to trying to find a job.

These days the job seeker regulations can dump three years of training onto the tip within a matter of weeks. You are made to do another job. This job stops you having any time to pursue your career and slowly but surely you move further and further away from your goals. 

These days an awful lot of actors give up before they have been in the business for five years. It means that down the line, we will lose the depth of talent that we have always had in the country. British actors are sought after the world over, and theatre and acting is one of the things we still do best. If we continue to lose the depth of talent in the country by not allowing young people the chance to work their training up into a career, and by closing the theatres across the country that allow them to do this, we will be the poorer for it.

In hard times, and I believe there re still harder times around the corner, we turn to entertainment to see us though. In theatrical terms we create the best in the world.

So lets find a glimmer of hope for the theatres by encouraging business to step in and support them as part of creating communities. Let the theatres drop their barriers and make people feel welcome throughout the day, not just for the price of a ticket, but open the buildings and get people in there for other reasons, and let’s find a way of encouraging the young chicks currently being thrown out of drama school nests to try and make that training work in as many ways as possible.

An actors skills can be used in many capacities. You just have to think outside of the box on how to use those skills.

Remember an actors career is for life...not just for Hollyoaks!