Doremy Vernon (Stage Talk, February 2, page 8) points out that there are some 35,000 actors and actresses advertising in the Spotlight casting directories.
Despite dramatic changes in the whole spectrum of media, you do wonder where true opportunities arise for ‘serious’ actors. There appear to me more teaching opportunities gracing the pages of The Stage than those offering actual treading the boards ‘performance’.
I remember, as a rather nervous young man, plodding up the stairs of the Central School in Swiss
Cottage for an interview with a constant credo inhabiting my mind, namely that 99% of actors were out of work at any given time - that you should be truly ‘dedicated’ and want to be an actor more than anything in your life.
Equity was still a union proper then and unlike today we had numerous provincial theatres and repertory companies whereby both RADA graduate and jobbing ASM might hone their craft.
Also, the television studios were pretty busy on the drama front and it is often rather bemusing to see a well-known face delivering a three-liner in an earlier part of his or her career prior to the limelight 40 years later. Expectations today often evolve out of false promises as we witness overnight celebrity and talent shows as an ongoing theme. 35,000 names? I wonder how many of them genuinely apply that credo which remains with me to this day. If so, then I wish you all the luck in the world.
J A Last
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