claytoncast

So it's the morning of our first preview for "Brimstone and Treacle" at the delightful Hope theatre. Three weeks of rehearsal seem to have flown by and as is always the case, no matter how long the rehearsal period is, one feels less than prepared for putting our work in front of an audience, but strangely excited by the prospect of doing so. It's been a great experience so far and one that I'm so glad I stuck with. Four days before rehearsals were due to start, I was offered a couple of days on a very major movie. Nothing demanding in the acting stakes, but it would have made my bank manager very happy and would have been a great credit. Having spent many hours learning "Brimstone and Treacle",  so that I was off the book before rehearsals started, I decided I had already made sufficient investment in the production not to be sidelined by sheer financial concerns.  The rewards have been great. In the very capable hands of Matthew Parker, an except...

Regular readers of my blog may be feeling a little uncared for this year. It was with a certain amount of surprise that I noticed my last post was at the end of January. Probably the same reaction I had when finding out that we have now entered Spring, the clocks have gone forward, and the end of the week will bring April Fools’ Day. Probably apt as April this year will see my return to the stage after a gap of nine years. It wasn’t a deliberate career move; just that the right project hasn’t come along. With the exception of starring in a West End show, theatre is what I would unfortunately regard as underpaid. My ability therefore to commit to a long run has been limited by my desire to earn money. Also limited by my boredom threshold. My last theatre outing as an actor was in Watford in 2008 and it was hugely enjoyable. Sarah Esdaile directed a brilliant cast in “Kafka’s Dick” by Alan Bennett and we had a very enjoyable three weeks in the rehearsal room. Then we had a technic...

I’m not really sure where January has disappeared to, except that for some reason this year it has seemed darker and more miserable than usual. Whether it’s talk of Trump or Brexit or just too many icy winds sweeping in from the continent, I shall be more than glad to welcome February on Wednesday. The end of January brings us our annual “Moving On Up” event at the Actors Centre which is the point in the year when we first engage with all this years drama graduates. For some six to eight hundred young people, this will be the year they begin to try to turn a dream into a career. Having spent three years in the artistic hermitage of their drama school, they now have to make contact with the real world and the Actors Centre aims to be part of that. “Moving On Up” is the first event at which we offer them a taste of what the Actors Centre can do.  Tomorrow evening there will be agents doing speed dating, an industry panel answering questions on “Life after Drama School”, an...

So if ever there were a day for setting objectives, whether in one’s personal life, or one’s professional life, today’s it. January 1. The first day of the New Year.  Many of us will be approaching today having had a little bit of an extended break over Christmas. A great many people will be in the middle of what will probably be the busiest period of work in their year - two shows a day and weighed down with glitter and sparkle.  At such times it can be hard to think ahead to the fact that in a week or two, you may be facing a cold bleak and possibly unemployed January.  Similarly those of us who have just been taking the Christmas period as holiday, shouldn’t rely too much on everything kicking off within the first week or so. The year, as indeed our careers, are a marathon and not a sprint. If you have not worked by the end of January, you’ll probably be in the majority, and it doesn’t mean to say that the rest of the year will find you similarly unoccupied. ...

I find the anticipation before Christmas almost unbearable. I have done since I was a small child. Just where are those presents hidden? I know my partner came home the other night with a large carrier bag which I saw him walking up the drive with, but which didn't seem to materialise when he walked into the lounge. It must be hidden somewhere in the flat. Now mercifully I'm past the age when I would root through cupboards, drawers and wardrobes in search of it. As a child, any hint or clue that might lead me to find a parcel hidden somewhere, and on some occasions, even to unwrap something were too hard to resist. Now I suffer in silence. I know Santa's sack will be bulging on Christmas morning and I will have total joy in the surprises. This year I haven't even given anyone a Christmas list so I've no idea what I will be getting. Partly in order to defray this horrendous sense of anticipation, I like to do a little thinking back over the year as to just what p...

I have a work motto which many people know about. “Do one thing each day that may lead to work and then get on with living your life”. Good advice given to me by a tutor at drama school and it has stood me in good stead. I have one other thing I do every day. 10pm each evening. The news begins its roll call of calamity but only one thing concerns me. Time to head into our office and pick up the phone to Mum. She’s about to be 95, lives in a care home in Rotherham and her grip on reality can change from day to day. At it’s worst she may have resisted the staff’s efforts to get her up and spent the day in bed. These are her dark days. Days when she has had enough of the world. “I just want to go to sleep” she says. She means die. Part of the roleplay work I have done has been concerned with end of life conversations and saying the D word is incredibly important. I’ve broached it with her. “When you say you just want to go to sleep, do you mean you want to die? “Yes” she re...

So on Wednesday evening this week, it might be thought I became a traitor, As Chairman of the Actors Centre, why on earth was I to be found delivering a workshop for the Actors Guild, our supposed rival. I had a great evening, was well looked after, had a very keen and attentive group and hopefully by the end of the evening, seven people were more clued up on skills to enhance their corporate roleplay than they had been before. So why on earth wasn’t I on home turf delivering this in the Actors Centre? Truth of the matter is I have done so and it's always gone down well. However, in a world where one of the choices actors do have is who they pursue their skill refreshing with, I wanted to reach as many people as possible. The Actors Centre has a pre-set curriculum with workshops advertised up to 3 months in advance and this was one of the very reasons that caused a group of actors to break away and form The Actors Guild. They wanted more control over the workshops ...