A Guide to Being an Actor Outside of London

There’s a general consensus that London isn’t just the capital of the UK, but that it’s also the capital of business, fashion and the arts. One of the biggest questions for anyone outside the city who wants to act is: Do I need to be in London?

I trained as an actor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and moved to London after graduating. I moved out of it in 2016 determined to prove to myself that being there isn’t the be all and end all. The world still turns beyond the Watford Gap and opportunity can be found if you know where to look. No two people’s paths will be the same, but I’ve put together a survival guide for making it work as an actor outside of London.

Training

There is plenty of choice when looking for professional actor training in London, but for actors based elsewhere, high-quality training opportunities can often feel less accessible. The Actors’ Lab (theactorslab.co.uk) is based in Manchester, and aims to provide ‘exclusive full-time drama school training but on a part-time basis’. They run a variety of workshops, both in person and online. Also based in the North, Act Up North (https://actupnorth.com) runs professional part-time acting classes in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.

In Scotland, Acting Coach Scotland (actingcoachscotland.co.uk) offers full-time and part-time acting training from its studio in Glasgow. Knock & Nash (knockandnash.co.uk) provides screen acting training and production opportunities in locations including Newcastle upon Tyne, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Further afield, The Actors’ Workshop Bristol (theactorsworkshop.co.uk) offers actor training for adults and teens in the South West. In Wales, The Actor’s Room Cardiff (theactorsroomcardiff.co.uk) provides weekly on-camera acting classes, industry workshops and short courses, welcoming all experience levels. In Birmingham, Collective Acting Studio (collectiveactingstudio.co.uk) offers part-time actor training at Midlands Arts Centre, with a particular focus on actors from underrepresented groups.

It’s also always worth checking out what your local theatre has to offer. The Nottingham Playhouse, for example, runs Amplify: Artist Development (nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/for-artists). Free to join, Amplify exists to support local artists, and members can take advantage of a range of offerings, including masterclasses with The Playhouse’s Artistic Director Adam Penford, playwriting workshops, and artist one-to-one chats.

Online Courses

There are some highly respected institutions, many based in London, that offer online courses, so you can access them from anywhere in the world. Here are a few to check out:

• Actors Studio at Pinewood Studios – actorsstudio.co.uk
• iampro: iampro.com
• The Actors Guild: actorsguild.co.uk
• RADA: rada.ac.uk/short-courses
• The Why Not Institute – contemporary clowning – thewhynotinstitute.com/when-are-the-courses

Drama school

If you’re reading this as someone who’s considering formal acting training, don’t limit yourself by just looking at places in London, you’re spoilt for choice in terms of drama schools elsewhere too.  Royal Birmingham Conservatoire,  Bristol Old Vic, LIPA, Royal Welsh and the Scottish Conservatoire all rank highly in the drama school league tables.

Festivals and Scratch Nights

Fringe Festivals

Arguably the most famous arts festival of the year, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs for three weeks every August and quite literally has something for everyone. The Fringe is an open-access performing arts festival, which means that anyone can apply to perform, and the festival has been the springboard for some of the biggest names in the industry today. If you can get sufficient funding, (and various other requirements, all of which are detailed here: edfringe.com/take-part), the Edinburgh Fringe is the perfect opportunity to showcase your work to a humble crowd of 2.3 million (based on tickets sold in 2015 for the festival in its entirety).

Whilst the Edinburgh Fringe may be the most well-known, there are plenty of other UK options to check out. Buxton Festival Fringe (buxtonfringe.org.uk/entrants), Brighton Fringe (brightonfringe.org/take-part), Greater Manchester Fringe (greatermanchesterfringe.co.uk), Theatrefest in Barnstaple (theatrefest.co.uk), GenFest in Northampton (royalandderngate.co.uk) and Mayfest in Bristol (mayk.org.uk/mayfest) all champion new art. Sign up to their mailing lists to be the first to know about the application process. As with regional theatres offering opportunities, it’s always worth having a google to see what goes on in the area local to you.

14/48 Festival

14/48 is ‘the world’s quickest theatre festival’ and quite frankly the most fun I’ve ever had as an actor. Seven writers, seven directors and twenty-five actors put on fourteen plays in 48 hours. The festival is held twice a year in Leicester (and Seattle, if your commitment to not being near London is that strong). 14/48 is a wonderful opportunity to network, challenge yourself and marvel at how creativity can thrive on very little sleep! www.1448uk.com/

Scratch Nights

Other ways to get your work seen are local scratch nights. In the West Midlands, the Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton hosts ACT, or Arena Collaborate Theatremakers (wlv.ac.uk). Cambridge Junction invites artists to become members of Troop, their artist development scheme (junction.co.uk). Paid membership allows access to the Cambridge Junction’s scratch nights, workshops, artist networking opportunities and more. Bristol Old Vic hosts the Artists Forum Open Scratch (bristololdvic.org.uk/for-artists) to try out early-stage ideas in front of a supportive audience in the Weston Studio. Participants receiving a £50 stipend as a contribution towards costs of taking part. Also in Bristol you have Prototype Scratch Nights at Tobacco Factory Theatres (tobaccofactorytheatres.com/prototype). Rough Draft  (ytheatre.co.uk/get-involved) in Leicester takes place on the last Tuesday of every month -and is free to enter and attend. In Glasgow, _and friends (andfriends.scot/scratch/our-scratch-nights) run their scratch nights as profit shares, sharing 60% of profits with the artists.

Theatres

There are some absolutely incredible regional theatres across the UK producing world-class work and it simply isn’t true that you must visit London to access high-quality theatre. Make sure you’re familiar with your local theatre and some of the large theatres near you and get involved in any way you can.

• Theatre Royal, Bath
• Birmingham Rep, Birmingham
• The Mercury Theatre, Colchester
• Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
• The Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch
• Hull Truck Theatre, Hull
• Theatre by the Lake, Keswick
• The West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
• Curve Theatre, Leicester
• Everyman Theatre, Liverpool
• Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
• Royal and Derngate, Northampton
• Nottingham Playhouse, Nottingham
• Crucible, Sheffield
• The Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon
• Tread the Boards Theatre Company, Stratford-upon-Avon
• Chichester Festival Theatre, West Sussex
• The Worcester Rep, Worcester

Some will cast primarily through Spotlight, others have in-house casting directors, some have their own acting company and some even post casting breakdowns on their websites. If a particular venue doesn’t specify its casting process, find a contact and get in touch.

TV

It’s refreshing to know that some of the biggest television and radio companies have studios situated outside of London, or are at least based in London but commission to multiple UK regions. Channel 4 film Hollyoaks in Liverpool, Emmerdale is made in Yorkshire, the BBC’s Doctors films in Birmingham and Manchester is home to ITV’s Coronation Street. BBC radio can also be found in the centre of Birmingham and ITV has a production office in Leeds. It’s nice to think that if you got a job at one of these places you’d be the one popping down the road to work while the Londoners make the commute for a change.

Opportunities

Creative Linda Bloomfield runs #OpportunityTuesday on Substack, publishing the details of paid arts opportunities for actors and creatives every week. I highly recommend subscribing to her newsletter here: opportunitytuesday.substack.com

Final thoughts

Having said all of that, don’t close your mind to London. Some of the regional theatres I’ve mentioned, despite their location, hold their auditions in London, so your career will invariably take you there from time to time. London is the hub of the industry and, undeniably, where a lot of the action happens. However, for those looking to enjoy the rest of the country whilst following their acting ambitions (and let’s face it, save some money!), I hope that this guide has given you a bit more confidence to do it. Being an actor outside of London is more than possible.

By Katie Burchett