mostly david ephgrave

As of today, I've been a professional actor and musician for twenty years. Allegedly.  Doesn't working in the same field for two decades technically constitute a career? If so, I look forward to the sense of security kicking in, both psychologically and financially. However, I know I should at least give myself a pat on the back for managing to stay in an industry so notorious for people dropping out. To still be acting twenty years after my showcase at London's Fortune Theatre is not to be sniffed at, whatever my bank balance/sinus issues say to the contrary. All in all, I haven't done too bad. My first two jobs - both No. 1 tours for Bill Kenwright - set a high bar in terms of the scale of theatre I was playing and the work I was doing. Being a musician definitely increased my opportunities in the early days, though I risked being typecast in a genre I was determined to not get stuck in. However, it gave me some great opportunities of which playing my heroes Paul McCa...

For most of the morning, I couldn’t fathom out why today's date seemed familiar. Then it came to me: I started drama school sixteen years ago to the day. That sounds and feels like a long time ago. If my training were a child, it could get married with its parents' consent. It could also do rude stuff. If I were using the same time-frame to chart the distance between my birthdate and the events that preceded it, The Beatles would have just released ‘Help!’, and Winston Churchill, his last breath. I could have worded that better. What I’m saying is, my first day as a full-time drama student is further in the past than it should be. I can remember walking into Hertfordshire Theatre School to meet my year for the first time clearly. As I climbed the rickety staircase from the students’ entrance to the Studio, I was fully aware that I was about to come face to face with the people I’d spend the next three years with. What I wasn’t prepared for ...