Good job - what to do once your Edinburgh run is over

What happens after the festival? Where do you look for your next role? The Stage can help, writes Katie Phillips

So your Edinburgh run is finally over. You’ve said the same lines more than you care to think about, spent all your money on tickets for rival shows and beer and thrown yourself at any producer/agent that’s come your way. The curtain is down - but hopefully not for good. If you have been lucky enough to secure a tour or transfer, congratulations. If not, why not take a look at The Stage’s recruitment pages to sort yourself out with your next job?

Every Thursday The Stage carries pages of recruitment ads from all areas of the business. Actors, directors, technicians and teachers. Finance officers, marketing manager, animateurs and even wig knotters - it’s all there.

In the last year we have printed 5,237 recruitment display advertisments, including 2,152 auditions and 1,968 stage jobs, and 2,396 classifieds - a total of 7,633 job opportunities. In fact, 72% of readers buy the paper mainly for the recruitment ads and 42% of readers have been employed through an advert they found in The Stage. You can also see our jobs and auditions pages online at www.thestage.co.uk/recruitment and subscribers can access jobs online for up to 48 hours earlier than non-subscribers.

Stars who found success through The Stage jobs and auditions:

• In 1956 John Osborne replied to an ad requesting new writing for the about-to-be-launched Royal Court Theatre, submitting Look Back in Anger.

• Jeremy Irons found employment after finding an ad in 1968 for Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury.

• Dusty Springfield, aged 19, followed up an ad for a female singer in 1958.

• Kenneth Branagh found work in the Billy trilogy, a BBC Play For Today, after seeing an ad asking for an “actor 18-24, capable of Belfast accent”.

• In 1981 Ricky Tomlinson responded to an ad for United Kingdom, another BBC Play For Today.

• Reinventing girl bands as we know them, an ad for the Spice Girls was printed in 1994.

• The Comedy Store following an ad in 1979 for comic talent.

• Michael Caine got work through an ad in 1952 for Horsham Rep and later an ad for a theatre job in Lowestoft.

• Yoko Ono advertised in 1966 for actors for her film Bottoms, stating that “actors need only drop their trousers”.

• Peter Cushing joined Worthing Rep through a Stage ad in 1934 at the age of 21.

• Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French responded to and ad in 1980 for female acts for a Channel 4 Comic Strip TV show.

• David Warner became Assistant Stage Manager in Worcester in 1960 thanks to a Stage ad.

• Maria Friedman, aged 18, and Martine Mccutcheon, aged 14, both found work as singers through our pages.