When reading the Equity survey, it was surprising to see some of the results! The following stood out the most:

• 34.9% of Equity Members stated they had completed less than 10 weeks of professional work in the past 12 months.
• 37.7% of Equity Members stated their earnings are under £5000 from entertainments work within a 12 month period.

This simply exemplifies the notion of the industry being tough!

As a Musical Theatre graduate, it is important to consider the implications the industry will have on myself as a performer and the different obstacles that I could encounter during my career. A surprising statistic showed the majority of Equity Actors classed under the bracket of White British, Scottish, Welsh etc. From my perspective, as I fall within this category, it is possible that gaining work to my type cast may be tricky. This is further emphasised when I look at the jobs posted on my Spotlight account. Even without filters, the majority of work is aimed at the White British Actor. Although this is great for my cast type, there is always going to be lots of competition!

It was also interesting to see that the majority of work other than acting for stage is through doing voice over work, directing, acting for camera or being a supporting artist. Although these may not be big jobs, it is all different work to put on the CV! From my perspective, it is better to have smaller gradual work in comparison to a bitty career. An actor needs to be able to support themselves financially, even if finding work is tough.

Although this data is a key primary source direct from Equity Members, it is also important to see the bigger picture. Those who responded to the survey may only be a small percentage of Equity Members so it is therefore important to take the results as an average as opposed to being completely accurate. Nonetheless, some of the facts and figures are extremely surprising and very interesting to know as a graduate who will soon be going into the industry professionally.