Category: The Essentials
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What’s Your Vocal Range and Voice Type?
Our quick guide to helping you figure out your vocal range and voice type so you can add them to your Spotlight Profile. Casting professionals will often search for singers whose vocal range and voice type suit a particular role. Clearly indicating these fantastic skills on your CV is integral to landing that perfect job.…
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Co-operative Acting Agencies: An Insider View
What you need to know about co-operative acting agencies and how they work. There’s a buzz of excitement. One of us has just come off the phone from a well-known casting director’s office. Having reviewed a self-tape from one of our actors, they’d like to see them in person for a Lantern Entertainment film, directed…
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7 Headshot Tips from Casting Directors
Casting directors explain what makes for a good headshot and what they look for in a photo. As a professional performer, your headshots are vitally important. They’re how you’re represented on Spotlight and are the first thing a casting director sees when selecting performers to audition so it’s essential that your photo looks like you and truly…
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A Guide to Working in the EU If You’re a UK National
What you need to know if you’re a UK citizen who is auditioning or working in the EU. Updated on 17 October 2022. The UK has officially left the European Union and as you’d expect, this has caused changes to the rules and regulations around travel and work on the continent. Whilst the Brexit deal…
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What to Do Between Acting Jobs
Four ways to stay active as an actor between roles. For years, I’ve been struck by how actors grapple with the period between acting jobs. When we’re looking for our next job, we can be plagued by self-doubt, loss of confidence and sometimes all-out depression. More than a few actors start to feel so low that…
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Five Ways Actors Can Use Twitter for Networking
How actors can use Twitter to network and build professional relationships online. Whilst plenty of actors have run with the idea of using social media to promote their acting business, for many of us, it can feel deeply uncomfortable. Self-promotion may even feel wrong, as if it goes against who we are, but what if your…
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How to Find the Perfect Audition Monologue
Tips for finding monologues for a showcase, and how to know which one is the right one for you to perform. We’re often asked where to find monologues for showcases. With so many resources available both online and in libraries, how do you go about starting your search? And how do you know which of…
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Audition Sides and How to Prepare Them
We answer your questions about what audition sides are, how to prepare them and whether you need to be off-book in auditions. You’ve been invited to an audition and given sides — this is an exciting moment! But what now? Here’s what you need to know. What Are Audition Sides? Sides are a small section…
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Looking After Yourself When Writing
Award-nominated writer and theatre-maker, Alexandra Donnachie, shares her top tips for looking after yourself and those around you during the writing process, from page to stage. Our industry has made huge progress in safeguarding artists and audiences, but as a writer-performer, I’ve found there can be a significant lack of consideration for my wellbeing when…
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Is Understudying the Role for Me?
What it means to be an understudy and whether this role is right for you. Everybody’s saying it: this is one heck of a time to be an understudy! Even as Covid rates subside, understudies and their counterparts are busier than ever and are finally being heralded as the unsung heroes of theatre – a title…