Just to clarify on my recent question regarding if people are hobbyists or professional actors. I don’t think it’s about training or your attitude to unpaid work, or subjective things like how good you are. On the ‘If it quacks like a duck…’ principle, you’re a professional actor if you can tick half of these features of an actors life: 1. You are registered with the Inland Revenue as a self-employed actor and have a Unique Tax Reference Number (UTR - formally known as a schedule D number) 2. You or your accountant produce yearly accounts and complete a tax return for your work as an actor. 3. You are in Spotlight 4. You have an agent 5. Getting work in TV, Theatre or Radio Drama on an Equity contract is not unusual for you. 6. When you work on a film you or your agent having to sign an Equity/ PACT agreement is not unusual . 7. Getting work in theatre on a non-Equity contract but being paid Equity equivalent rates. (Current minimum Equity rate on ITC theatre contract is £430.00 a week) is not unusual. 8. Getting a review in The Stage or listings in the Radio Times is not unusual for you. 9. Travelling to London, Manchester and elsewhere for auditions is a regular occurrence. 10. You regularly receive scripts to read and have to prepare for auditions on a fairly regular basis. 11. You are an Equity member. 12. Your car insurance company knows you are an actor. 13. You often have to juggle your shifts or cancel your in between acting jobs. (Be it waiting tables, bar work, promotion work, or corporate role-play ) to enable you to do TV work, take up a theatre contract, or attend auditions. 14. You know how to find theatre digs 15. You have performance skills that you keep fresh with workshops and regular practice. 16. You have a folder full of audition pieces and possibly audition songs ready to go. Now I hope this stops the endless circular conversation on the pros and cons of non-paid work, I’m really not interested in that. What I want to know is how many professional actors are in the Midlands region? Is it realistically no more than a dozen?
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 13:47:11 +0000
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