About Us
Playregistry.com in association with The Guildford School of Acting
Playregistry.com is the brainchild of Philip Simon, an actor who graduated from the Guildford School of Acting in 2001. It therefore made sense to him that an association and working agreement should be formed with the Surrey based college (Charity No.312102). Among other things, this would mean that at the end of each financial year both companies could benefit from any revenue generated.Having been in the acting profession for a number of years and built up an impressive CV, Philip became increasingly frustrated with the lack of information readily available to actors attending auditions. Character breakdowns were often too thin to really get an understanding of what the director or producer would be looking for, and that was only if you got as far as getting an audition in the first place.
Despite being happily represented by an agent, Philip has always been pro-active in generating his own work. On numerous occasions, he would hear from friends and colleagues telling him about forthcoming productions that were due to be cast. Naturally, no actor should turn up to a theatre audition without having read and studied the play, but given the last-minute nature of the industry, Philip often found that there wasn't enough time to get hold of a script before missing deadlines for submission, so he wasn't in a position to apply for a role, let alone audition successfully. Faced with the prospect of applying for work for which an actor might not be suitable or letting the opportunities pass by, the idea for an online resource gradually developed.
The website was to be a solution to this, but Philip passionately believed that it should never be intended as a means of bypassing the process of obtaining and reading the play. Rather it would be used as a first point of call for the actor to see what the play was about, and which parts, if any, might be suitable. A further association with internationally renowned play publishers Samuel French Ltd will shortly make it possible to link to their website in order to purchase plays.
Through its development, Playregistry.com has been especially geared towards the following groups:
- Unemployed actors researching play and character information for help with job submissions and auditions
- Employed actors researching play and character information for help with rehearsals.
- Directors & producers interested in mounting productions with a certain number of male & female roles.
- Agents wanting to know which clients to suggest for theatre roles, and then wanting to advise their clients on breakdowns for roles for which they have an audition lined up.
- Schools interested in mounting productions with a certain number of male & female roles
- Amateur Dramatic Societies & Youth Theatres interested in mounting productions with a certain number of male & female roles.
- Schools and students researching plays in preparation for examinations in Theatre Studies, Drama, English Literature, etc
- Theatregoers interested in learning a little about a play and its history before attending a production.
As can be seen in the Green Room, financial support and generous assistance with the provision of data from a number of individuals and organisations was invaluable in ensuring that the website was well populated and accurate prior to its launch in November 2007. There is still a great deal of information to be collected, which will be a full time project, but having temped in a plethora of meaningless organisations and roles, Philip is delighted that he is finally able to focus on something so worthwhile and meaningful between acting jobs.
Playregistry.com will continue to develop for as long as people are going to the theatre. There are plans to extend the parameters of the information we offer as time goes by, but for now we are focusing on the quantity and the accuracy of the play and playwright data we are providing.
The reaction from those within the theatrical industry has been extremely positive to date, and we are hugely optimistic for the future. We look forward to sharing more with you in time to come, and welcome any thoughts and comments you may have.
For further information on supporting playregistry.com, either financially or alternatively through the provision of information, please email info@playregistry.com or contact us using the Enquiry Form at the top of the page.
