Facing the competition

This week we have seen the first two rounds of the Alan Bates bursary 2014. This bursary is something that we are very proud of at The Actors Centre, and my involvement with it over the last three years has been one of the highlights of my period as chairman.

It was set up in memory of one of the actors who was a founder of the Actors Centre, Alan Bates. A fabulous English actor, who had a great love of actors and acting. I have very fond memories of seeing him as Petruchio at Stratford on my first ever visit to the Royal Shakespeare Company with my mum way back in 1973 when we spent a whole week seeing all six players in the repertoire. He's very well remembered from the iconic Ken Russell film "Women in love" and there's a huge body of work to his name, so it's an honour for us to have this bursary named after him.

It's open to all graduates leaving a Drama UK accredited drama school course this year and we have a 170 applicants who were all seen by various members of our audition panel last week. The final twenty gathered on the Sunday for a full day of workshops to test their abilities.

The second round is a difficult day. It's a day of workshops and we try our very best to make it exciting, educating, and entertaining for the people taking part. But it is after all a competition and, like all competitions, there are going to be some people who will do better than others.

Until this year the competition has focused exclusively on theatre skills Given that most young graduates are more likely to do a day or two's television in their first year's work than a major theatre job, it was my decision to introduce a television audition into the second round day. I was absolutely thrilled that one of the best television directors I've had the privilege of working with, Richard Laxton - who has directed all four series of the now BAFTA nominated “Him and Her”- was able to give up an afternoon and conduct 12 television castings.

Of course this meant that we only had twelve places in the afternoon and at lunchtime, after an movement workshop and the Shakespeare workshop, we had to say goodbye to eight of the second round finalists. It wasn't difficult making our choice, but by heaven, was it difficult to stand there and read out the list of the twelve people we’d like to stay. The standard has been exceptionally high this year, and I'm sure some of the eight people we sent home, in other years, may have made the final, but alas this year, it was not to be.

The television interviews proved revealing and further workshops in comedy technique, and then improvisation took place in the afternoon. Heading up the judges this year, along with myself, is Anita Dobson, fabulous actress and national treasure, Actors centre board member, and a force to be reckoned with. She was absolutely passionate about honing in on the abilities of the people she was watching, and defending the ones she wanted to make the list of the final six. It was an inspiration to have her with us. The final will take place on the afternoon of Friday, 25 April where the six finalists from yesterday will deliver a further audition speech to a new panel, take part in a duologue with one of their fellow finalists, and an interview as to how they feel the bursary can help them. We are looking for good actors, were also looking for people who will be great ambassadors for the Actors Centre, and for whom the bursary (a package of goods, workshops, and benefits worth over £3000) will mean a great deal in their first year as an actor.

There are some people who say that you shouldn't have competitions for acting. Acting is not something you can judge objectively and give marks. You and I could both sit side-by-side and watch a theatre performance and while I may think that one particular  actor was absolutely the best thing since sliced bread, you may hate the same person and his or her work. And of course we would both be right.

But then again, all aspects of our lives as actors are competition. We have to compete to get every job. We have to arm ourselves with as many skills and abilities as we can to make sure that we can make the most of as many opportunities as we can. That's one of the reasons the Actors Centre is here. In the main, the competition is friendly and fair. There are stories of actors who may have employed underhand tactics in a casting situation, and there are certainly anecdotes a-plenty of actors who have decided that the stage is not a space to share. Working with the late and very great Emrys James in the 1980s at the RSC, I had to battle my way through a scene every night while he decided to sit at a table and dismantle a flower arrangement during what I though of as my big scene in the play we were performing at The Other Place. It was upstaging of the first order by any degree, and yet of course it was probably rather wonderful to watch. He was also a great mentor to me and as I understudied him as Malvolio in that season's production of “Twelfth Night" he would sit me down over a drink in the Arden hotel and give me the most wondrous advice. He was also quite relentless in Julius Caesar in telling me off quite loudly every time I corpsed. He was quite right too, and it's probably thanks to him that now I manage to maintain dignity on stage and a straight face for at least 98% of the evening.

I ended my day yesterday at what is probably the greatest competition for actors, the Olivier awards. And what a glorious celebratory evening of all that is good and great about British theatre it was. Yes there were winners, and yes, there were losers. But it did bring everyone together to be able to say that what we do is good.

So as long as the competition is healthy and it has benefits, it's something we ought to learn to live with as actors. Think of when we went through that whole regime of school sports days not being about winning, but just being about taking part. I know how thrilled I was on the one occasion I won the egg and spoon race at the age of six. Crossing the line first was much better than taking part. It's something to aspire to. And I got there by not pushing anybody else out of the way. I just worked hard and ran as fast as my little legs would carry me. Sometimes I feel that's what I've been doing ever since.

So let the competition begin……… And huge good luck to our six finalists for the Alan Bates bursary 2014 for the final, and for their careers.