The old adage goes something along the lines of ‘you can’t Act without an Equity Card and you can’t get an Equity Card unless you Act’. Therefore, it seemed to me that the logical first step back into the industry was to re-join Equity (if they’d have me).
Simple as this sounds, the first challenge I faced was finding my old Equity Card – and associated membership number – which I was sure I had kept somewhere safe but had no idea for the life of me where. But, after a rather grubby half an hour searching through boxes in the attic I found it – along with a pile of photos of a very young (and rather slimmer) looking me!
Armed with my Equity number I completed the online form. Unsurprisingly – given the last time I applied it
involved filling in a form using a pen and dropping it in by hand to the office on St Martin’s Lane – there were no computer records of my membership.
Info provided I received an email telling me my application was being checked. I must confess I was slightly nervous – after all I didn’t know whether you’re ability to be a rejoin expired after a certain period and, if so, I would have stumbled at the first fence so to speak. Fortunately, however, my concerns were unfounded and a short time later an email appeared in my inbox saying my application was successful – phew!
So, once the card arrives (picking up on the old adage) the Acting roles will start flooding in, right?
William Baylis 