How We’re Supporting You Through COVID-19

Our members are always at the heart of everything we do and our passionate team have come up with a number of innovative ways to keep our performer, agent and casting members informed, connected and supported during this turbulent time.

Here's how you can continue making the most of your membership. 

Advice Sessions with Industry Experts

We've hosted a huge number of meetings where members have the chance to talk to Spotlight advisers, industry professionals, life coaches and peers via video chat or phone calls.

Scott and I really found today’s session very helpful. Thank you again for you time it was really beneficial. Also thanks for the info you sent through!
Karen
Parent of a Young Performer Member

121’s with Casting Directors and Agents

With general meetings not currently possible, we've been working with our casting and agent members to hold virtual meetings with performers. 80 casting directors and agents have generously volunteered their time, meeting with over 2300 performer members to discuss all aspects of their career. So far we've organised over 250 sessions for members to meet with industry professionals. Members are telling us how useful these meets are, so make sure you've opted in to our event emails to find out about future sessions.

How to book a session

  • Sessions are released via our events newsletter so be sure to opt in to the ‘Spotlight Event’ emails by signing into your Spotlight profile and click the ‘My privacy settings’ link where you can update your email preferences.
  • These sessions are hugely popular with hundreds of members trying to book a slot so to be as fair as possible, we offer one session per member. Once you’ve attended a 121 you will no longer receive emails to book future sessions.

D/deaf and Disabled Members

We continue to give priority booking to our D/deaf and disabled members. We offer support where it's needed including providing British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation on video sessions and organising for 121's to take place over email or phone to ensure members are able to make the most of their session.

Life Coaching sessions

We brought together a group of over 70 experienced and professional life coaches from across the world to offer our members support at a time when it is greatly needed. We’ve matched over 500 members with coaches, providing them with over 1,500 hours of invaluable coaching, for free!

Applications are currently closed however we hope to offer more sessions in the future.

Thank you so much for the life coaching sessions Spotlight arranged for me. They were so wonderful and helped me immensely.
Spotlight Performer Member

Agent Meets and Panels

Being new to the industry is hard at the best of times but doubly so when theatre first nights, screenings etc. aren't available. That's why we hosted a meeting where 92 new and emerging agents could virtually gather together to share their experiences and concerns.

Spotlight’s Ellie Samuels also hosted a panel for agent members who represent young performers. The Industry Forum Presents: Advice for Agents Representing Children panel featured Esta Charkham (ECA), Lucy Jones (child employment officer and NNCEE secretary) and Adele Moss (AM Kids Agency), where they discussed industry updates, licensing and issues that are unique to representing children. 

Events

We love an event and we haven't let social-distancing stand in our way of organising some inspiring industry gatherings, albeit online. 

Webinars

Sign-up to attend one of our weekly webinars where industry professionals take part in video panels, Q&As and discussions on key topics. We've already hosted several well-received sessions including Nudity and Intimacy In The Post #MeToo Era and a Q&A with the with Casting Director Louise Kiely and Director Lenny Abrahamson about the phenomenon that is Normal People. 

How to book

I attended the Spotlight Zoom Webinar earlier today and I just wanted to say a massive thank you for organising it, it was utterly brilliant. It was really wonderful listening to Nancy, Ita and Marci about all the work they do as intimacy coordinators and their impact on a set.
Spotlight Performer Member

Spotlight Events Archive

As we're not able to host our popular Open House event this year, we've dipped into our archives to release recordings of panels from previous years. With the kind permission of everyone involved, we're releasing a video each week on our YouTube channel for you to watch, with subtitles for our D/deaf members. 

Spotlight Graduates Digital Showcase

Having worked and trained so hard to become professional performers, graduates are currently unable to show their talents at live showcases. That's why we've adapted our Spotlight showcase site where we're featuring around 1000 of our 2020 Spotlight Graduate members. Participating schools have let us know about students who have successfully signed with an agent because of this promotion, which is great news!

The Spotlight Prize 2020

One of the highlights of our year is the much anticipated Spotlight Prize. Due to COVID-19, we made the sad decision to cancel this year’s Spotlight Prize for Stage, however, we pressed on with our Screen Award for Best Actor. Our 20 nominees were directed by Paulette Randall MBE as they filmed their monologues in September, with the prize being awarded to Nimshi Kongolo, a graduate of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Congratulations Nimshi!

Improvements To Spotlight Profiles 

We continue to make improvements to our website, updating profiles and adding new features to upgrade your Spotlight experience. We've also introduced a service where performer members can get tailored advice from our expert team about how you can make your profile the best it can be.

Spotlight profile service

Your Spotlight profile is your calling card so our publishing team check every edit and photo that our members upload and are now offering their expertise with tailored advice to help you make your profile shine.

  • If you’d like the team to take a look at your profile, email us at [email protected].

Website development

We've launched our refreshed website so you should see some big improvements when you next sign in. We've improved the way casting directors and agents use our site and added improvements to video and voice for performers. You'll notice that Spotlight is now mobile friendly and accessible, credits are easier to manage and we've added new gender and disability options for you to select from. 

Read more about all the new website features.

New voice over skills 

Voice work has been continuing during the pandemic so we've added new options for voice skills to help audio producers and voice casting directors find performers with the skillset they need for their productions.

If you haven't already, find out how you can update your profile with these new voice skills. We've also published advice about how to record your voice at home.

Digital self-tape service

Our team quickly got to work to offer a digital self-tape casting service for casting directors who are currently unable to hold face-to-face meetings. Find out more about the self-taping casting service and what it has to offer.

Our rooms and studios are now open again for castings! Read our COVID-19 guidelines for castings and book a space.

Aside from all this, we continue to offer members access to discounts scheme, helpful tips and advice as well as keeping you updated on the latest industry initiatives such as the ALBERT green rider. 

If you have any suggestions for things you would like us to consider doing then please get in touch with us at [email protected]. 

Last updated Tuesday 10 November 2020.

Photo by Jiroe via Unsplash.