Appendix C:
Alumni Career Journeys âAâ âAâ left LAMDA with an agent and initially had âlots of auditions and a couple of jobsâ. However, she described the material she was sent as unsatisfying; âyou spend 3 years on great texts then get sent a Hollyoaks scriptâ. The combination of this, together with her first agent dropping her after 18 months, resulted in her starting to make her own work. She had âgot the bugâ to do so while at LAMDA, but felt that there was an âundercurrent that if you were making your own work, creating something for yourself, it was seen as dirty or second-rate, not as exciting as getting something through your agentâ. She described having to battle with this perception for a few years. Sheâs continued to have an agent throughout her career, but this hasnât been the route that has brought about work. Her income from acting is âvery smallâ and she combines this with her own theatre company, some private teaching work, some âIT stuffâ and some directing. Sheâs now studying for a part-time masterâs degree in a related area.
âBâ Although he had no drive to start his own business, âBâ applied for the Deutsche Bank Award, as a back-up plan when he saw his fellow students being âsnapped up by top agentsâ. With a friend, he used this funding to run a theatre company for two years, resulting in two small productions. They took the decision to stop it afterwards, as running his own company and trying to launch his acting career was âlike getting a dog and a baby at the same timeâ. Since then, heâs been a jobbing actor, combining this with some writing, some creative projects and working for an after-school company. About 60% of his time is spent on these other jobs. Although he said his initial ambition was to be a full-time actor at the National, heâs since realised the most important thing in an acting job is it being a good environment, working with people he likes and enjoying the work. He understands now what he values most and is less concerned with prestige.
âCâ âCâ was a recipient of the Deutsche Bank Award and used it to create a pilot for a TV series. She was also working in a pub for a year, receiving scripts at 6pm for an audition the next day but because her shifts wouldnât finish till 1am, she had little time to prepare, wasnât able to learn the script in time, was turning up exhausted and wasted her opportunities. Though she did get some acting jobs, she also felt like she had ideas that were valuable and so started to co-create with a friend. She describes herself as a âjobbing actorâ, but also still creates her own work and supplements her income with corporate work for two days each week (âhigh-end lead generationâ). She also does voice work, despite saying that this opportunity wasnât mentioned whilst she was at LAMDA. She said she feels it is frowned upon, but it is another useful way of finding income. 35