News & Advice

Get the insider knowledge and audition tips you need to navigate your acting career. The Spotlight News & Advice hub offers the latest industry news, practical advice on the business of performing, wellbeing articles, and exclusive interviews with top casting directors.

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36 results found in "open house"
Making Work
Hands holding a pen while writing in a notebook
How to Write a Monologue

How to begin writing, develop a monologue and what to bear in mind when turning that monologue into a full show. When it comes to writing – in all its forms – starting can be the hardest part. We want to make sure whatever we write is perfect, but the first words rarely are. Writing, […]

making work
monologues
open house
The Essentials
Getting Started with Accents

Voice coach Laura Carroll shares her top tips on how to learn an accent There’s no quick way to learn an accent. Like any skill, it’s developed through training, practice and feedback, but once perfected, it will open up a whole new world for your voice work. Commercials, video games, audiobooks, narration – all of […]

accents
acting
open house
Young Performers
What Young Actors Need to Know About Working with Intimacy Coordinators

How intimacy coordinators look after you during production and what they do to ensure your wellbeing during intimate scenes. The role of an intimacy coordinator is still relatively new to the industry – only beginning to increase in popularity in 2017. But intimacy coordinators aren’t for show: they’re an important ally for performers to have […]

open house
parents
starting out
The Essentials
14 Tips for Finding Freedom within Self-Tapes

Mel Churcher’s 14 expert strategies for finding freedom, building a believable world, and ensuring your next self-tape captures your true potential. Technical perfection is only half the battle in a self-tape; the real challenge is maintaining the spark of a live performance through a lens. Renowned acting and voice coach Mel Churcher — who has […]

acting advice
auditions
improvisation
The Essentials
Confidence in Auditions

Top tips to help actors approach auditions and self-tapes with confidence. I’ve done a lot of auditions. I’ve been acting professionally for 30 years, performed on stage and screen in the UK, Ireland and Australia, and ran a theatre company in Melbourne for six years. I’ve worked across multiple genres: drama, comedy, musical theatre, Shakespeare, sitcom, […]

auditions
open house
self-taping
The Essentials
Creating Compelling Characters

Actor and drama school teacher Des Fleming shares his advice and practical exercises to help you create compelling characters. Des Fleming hosted a brilliant workshop at our recent Open House event where he explained that bringing characters to life requires a process of exploration and investigation. Here, we summarise some of the valuable insights he […]

acting
des fleming
open house