LL ARTS
'The 'The arts arts are are in in aa major major crisis' crisis' CALLUM SNELL speaks to actor Nathan Horrocks about his career hurdles during lockdown
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he creative industry has arguably suffered the most during the pandemic, making life hard for budding actors to be able to share their talent and creativeness. With mass closures of theatres and other arts venues up and down the country, it has been difficult for those passionate about performing to be able to excel in what they enjoy most. Nathan Horrocks, 22, from St Helens, is a working actor and has had numerous roles within theatre and TV, including Coronation Street. Nathan spoke to Liverpool Life about the experiences and difficulties he has faced during the past six months, and whilst he discussed the negatives he has faced he also spoke about how his local theatre group has been taking improvisation to a new level by holding workshops over Zoom. So how have things been this year? “It’s been slow,” explained Nathan. “At the start, all auditions and any potential jobs were cancelled with the theatre closures and filming stopped. A few months in, filming was permitted but jobs were so few and far between with all the measures, it was - and still is - very limited with roles. “More roles are coming up, but an actor’s life is tricky anyway, so when you throw in limited roles (due to) for Covid, it just makes everything harder.
available and produce theatrical pieces (or even short films) with the kids. “It’s really rewarding, and it certainly allows me to stretch my creative muscles and has been a great way to pick up additional skills along the way.” The life of an actor is always going to be tough when trying to really make it big, which Nathan is intelligent enough to acknowledge, and it is easy to see why a lot of people associated with the arts face the
danger of losing motivation to be able to keep on pursuing what they are passionate about. So how does the state of play look now? Is the landscape for actors improving? It is probably hard to say with the ever-changing scenario at the moment. “Auditions are picking up now slowly but surely,” said Nathan, “but with the arts in a major crisis, which I’m sure you’re already aware of, it certainly is still a massive struggle, so it’s important to push through and to never stop.”
"It's still a massive struggle"
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here’s still just as many actors looking for work but with less than half the roles, it can be difficult to stay motivated and creative so it’s really been a challenge to keep your creative mind ticking. But I’ve been doing my own little projects like my podcast and writing.” Teaching has provided a lifeline for Nathan. “A big thing that has helped me through it all is the local theatre group I work for,” he said. “I teach children acting, singing and movement and we spent a long time adapting our workshops to work over Zoom and, although it is not the same as working in the studio, we’ve been able to make the most of the facilities we have
© Nathan Horrocks
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