claytoncast

So I'm sitting here in the Concorde room which is the very posh part of the First Class Lounge of BA at JFK in New York and thinking to myself "it's not bad".  There may be a big snowstorm outside, but I've just spent a week with an actor colleague and a consultant delivering a show on presentation technique to lawyers in Washington and then New York. One ninety minute show delivered on four out of the nine days we were away, so not a bad workload. In New York, the huge conference room stretched from Wall Street at one end to Broadway at the other, so for the few minutes I worked that end of the room, I could be said to have played Broadway. Hopefully over 500 lawyers are now better presenters and I was lucky enough to spend five days in one of my favourite cities, New York. When in NYC I always try and make a theatre visit. Richard was over here a great deal during the last ten years for various shows, and we spent a lot of nights in Broadway theatres. Mercif...

This year is positively flying by. It's already the middle of February and I'm not sure where the time has gone. Perhaps it's because as I get older, time moves faster. The theory is that each day is a smaller fraction of my existing life, and therefore moves more quickly. I'd like to think that it's because I've been busy. Mercifully that has been the case since the year started. A mix of corporate jobs to replenish the bank account, and some enjoyable and engaging filming on a new series in Northern Ireland. Albeit in temperatures of -3°C with no  protective layer of underclothing. Period costume can be quite exposing. Sadly my contract prevents me from a picture, but suffice it to say, silk shirts, wigs and lots of white faced seedy acting went on.  It's a difficult time of year if your calendar is not full. Everybody busy talking about new starts, and lots of magazine quizzes on "How to Get a New You" can leave you  with that cold and ...

So popular they are queuing in the street! Last Monday evening the Actors Centre was absolutely packed to the gills with new talent. 130 of this year's graduates came along to our "Moving Up" Event.  This is only the second time we have run this event and it's proved an incredibly successful and popular evening. A chance for anyone graduating from drama UK approved drama courses in 2015 to come along and see what the Actors Centre is all about. Most actors have heard of the Actors Centre. It's been in existence now for nearly 40 years, and everybody thinks it's incredibly worthwhile. But an awful lot of people wouldn't actually be able to tell you where it is. They know how good it is, and but they haven't actually been there themselves. Just to clear this up, it's actually in Tower Street in Covent Garden, the sort of place that is incredibly well located, and great for meeting up with your colleagues, your friends, and your peers. There ...

Start as you mean to go on. An apt phrase to run ones life by in these early January days. For me at the moment, that would mean a year of sneezing, snoozing, snot and handkerchief washing. Yes, that long awaited cold which I thought was going to rear its head on many occasions since the late summer finally took hold last Sunday and has laid me low for the past week. Mercifully it waited till we had returned from our sojourn in The North, as the A1 signposts would have us say, and allowed me to wallow in misery in the cosy environs of our new home. The good thing is that after a days bed rest and a days sofa rest, it allowed me to use one whole day to finish the first draft of my new book "The Working Actor" which means that I've done something productive during the first week of the New Year. I'm a little superstitious like that. Thinking that the first day of the year will dictate how the rest of the year will follow. I used to be incredibly superstitious a...

What with domestic moves and shoulder surgery, my blog has had to take a little bit of a back seat for the last couple of months.  Even my new book has been slightly delayed in getting the first draft of the publishers. It might also be the time of year. I have long since understood the delights of hibernation for the bear.  Many is the day in late November or early December when I can imagine getting home, particularly to our new flat,  and not going out again until February. This last week has probably been the busiest week work wise I've had since we moved house in late  October, and yet I can already feel myself winding down for the year-end. It's definitely been, to misuse football analogy, a year of two halves. It started as a semi regular member of the cast of "Hollyoaks", followed by two months on "Wolf Hall, moving into a month off to write my new book  and then lots of corporate events. It's ended doing what I do mostly. Being an independent fr...

I haven't been hospitalised very much in my career - professionally speaking.  I am one of the few members of British equity who've yet to step into the environs of the city of Holby. On a visit to Letherbridge  to see the "Doctors" at lunchtime, I had a father with pigeon fancier's lung whose antics resulted in me sawing through my hand, and on a second visit I had acute angina (no really!). A third visit as an international handbag designer of dubious sexuality lasted for two weeks, and mercifully involved no kind of treatment at all. Unless of course you call my first screen kiss at the age of 53, a course of treatment! Real-life has, for once, mirrored work. I have not been hospitalised since I had chronic pneumonia at the age of 18 months, something for which I'm very grateful. I have had visits to A&E, and two minor procedures on my eyes, but nothing really serious. This year  I have found an increasing amount of pain in my right shoulder. S...

For most of us who act, the job is our life. It's what we live for and we count ourselves lucky that we live to work. Many have been the days earlier in my career when there's been nothing to keep me occupied, least of all acting, and I am always grateful when there is something in the diary. The prospect of retirement, while looking attractive on a damp day, is not one that I would really relish. My partner is well aware of this and has no plans to let me retire gracefully. He fully intends to keep sending me out to earn my keep, probably until I drop, or certainly until I'm old enough to play Firs in The Cherry Orchard, A summer of writing, and then an enormously busy September and October directing two major conferences, and doing quite a few individual training sessions, have also had to fit in a major house move. After nine years in sunny Sydenham, we've moved to Shortlands, between Beckenham and Bromley. The flat is absolutely delightful, and from the moment ...