claytoncast

As I may have mentioned before, I like the idea of sitting down at a blank screen with no idea of what I'm going to write just to see what comes out. To this end I discovered a rather delicious piece of online software called Ilys, which absolutely personifies this way of writing. You set your word target, click on go, and are presented with a blank screen which doesn't actually allow you to see what you've written, but only shows the input letter by letter. The program won't reveal your writing until you reach your prearranged word target.  It's a bit like setting out into a New Year, not really knowing what's ahead, and just carrying on until you feel you have got there. I remember many New Year's I've started without work booked into the diary. Now I can't think of anything more terrifying. To try to summon up all the resolve needed to cope with New Year resolutions and the feeling of a new beginning, and yet nothing is actually booked in. Th...

Here we are on the first morning of January 2016 and having woken up without a hangover, the world is full of promise and possibility. Today is a holiday, so that gives me licence not to do anything, but so that I have some satisfaction, I sat here at my computer and blogged. My diary for the first two months has enough workdays in it for me to feel secure until at least the beginning of March. The thing I'm asking myself as I look at it is "does it contain enough excitement?". By excitement I mean challenge. No new jobs in the diary. Most of the days pencilled in for January and February are continuations of the job I was doing for the last three months of 2015. The other task looming large on my worksheet is editing my book "The Working Actor". I'm now understanding the phrase "that difficult second album". It's a year ago since I submitted the manuscript of the first draft of this book, and it's been returned to me in instalments ...

It varies each year, but there's a cut-off date in the weeks leading up to Christmas when you know that if you're not working by then, you won't be working again until January. As someone who did his last pantomime nineteen years ago, this has never worried me and Christmas with my partner, and family and friends is something I relish. I can't imagine how I ever spent most of December and the whole of January doing two shows a day away from home, and trying to cope with all the demands of the festive season as well. This year, my working year finished rather early as we had  a holiday heading off to Mauritius on November 29. This meant that November was my last working month of the year. I had been offered two jobs that both were to take place in early December However they were unable to fix their filming dates for after 7 December which was our return, so both jobs had to be turned down. We have a rule in our house that once a holiday is booked, a holiday is taken, ...

A really nice little corporate job before Christmas with Kru live, a company who look after their actors. Suitable for personable actors and actresses with little corporate experience and a good chance to get in with a company with a lot of work. Rebecca is happy to answer any questions you have if you e mail her on the address below Paul We are looking for more than 300 fantastic hosts and hostesses to assist and support the HP DISCOVER 2015 event in London! Dates: Tuesday 1st Wednesday 2nd Thursday 3rd (You do not need to be available for all dates.) Roles: There will be over 12,000 delegates arriving from all over the world to attend the event! With this in mind, we required 300+ staff members over the 5 days, where roles will include meeting and greeting delegates at Paddington, Heathrow and St. Pancras. We will also have staff based at ExCeL, where the event is taking place. Hours: The average shift is 6/7 hours long but we have 4hr shifts as wel...

As I prepare to enter my fifth decade as an actor - for the next two years I'm referring to myself as "approaching 60" rather than giving people the benefit of a specific number - I begin to wonder whether I will ever achieve a state of content. I certainly didn't come into this profession for security. The idea of having to leave the house every day at the same time to get to the same place to do the same work would drive me to distraction as the incredible variety of work that I am given is part of what keeps me going. I suppose people looking in from the outside might regard me as doing well. The joy of having been in two great sitcoms. Jobs as regular characters in soap operas, other fun television appearances and theatre stuff besides. I know I've been lucky. Thanks to a healthy corporate career I manage to keep my bank manager happy too. And yet I haven't got to that stage whereby I feel I can rest on my laurels. Job finishes. On the f...

It's that time of year when a whole new batch of drama graduates are beginning to realise that they are heading towards the moment when the real world beckons. Already in the middle of their autumn term of the final year of drama school, a sword of Damocles, is hanging over their head in the form of agent selection, employment possibilities, and the real wide world of making a living as an actor. Over the last couple years, The Actors Centre has engaged in a much more positive and immediate way with graduates. The Alan Bates award has become much sought after and over 60% of graduates from manageable schools next year will probably apply for it. I think I would too as one looks at the prize fund. Not only a huge selection of work goodies such as Equity membership, Spotlight membership, show reel, voice reel, workshop credit and professional mentoring, but a goodie bag of books, fabulous Ted Baker clothes, and the sort of things that just make you feel good. As part of ...

I really can't believe where the time has gone this year. In just a few weeks,we will be celebrating one year in our new home, a place we absolutely adore living in, and yet I am still supposedly looking forward to summer which seems to have passed me by. Possibly I was working that day, but here we are with the falling leaves of autumn, conkers strewing the road to the station, and that smoky bonfire night smell in the air. Already time to be going out to talk to a whole new year of drama graduates. The Actors Centre has really got its act together about arranging talks for drama schools. My brief is to ensure that these talks are not just boring chats  about the Actors Centre itself. If they are to be successful the sessions have to ask the graduates what are their fears and their expectations of the world outside the haven of drama school, and how can the Actors Centre help them in making this transition. On Monday afternoon it was a trip down to Guildford School of...