Welcome back to It Pays the Bills! Today’s guest is Bethany, an actor, singer, and small business owner. We chatted about how Bethany’s goals have changed through the years, why she enjoys teaching so much, and how she’s shaping the next generation through inclusive performing arts.
A bit about Bethany:
After graduating from Bird College, Bethany has gone on to work as a vocalist internationally, appearing in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, 2 Become 1, and in leading roles in various pantomimes. Bethany has also performed as the lead vocalist at London Cabaret Club for the past 5 years, including appearing at West End Live 2021. Bethany also works as a guest entertainer with classical crossover group Voce, performing internationally onboard cruise ships.
In the condensed transcript below, I’ve italicized my questions and comments. Paid subscribers will receive a bonus edition next week, Perks of the Job. Enjoy!
Welcome back to It Pays the Bills. I'm here with Bethany Whiteley, who's very kindly come to my very freezing South London flat to chat with me today about all things creative and day jobs. I'm going to ask you to introduce yourself really quickly and then we'll get into the main questions.
My name's Bethany. I'm an actor and singer. I graduated 3,000 years ago. I went to Bird College when I was much, much younger. And then I've lived and worked in London for going on 11 years now. I'm doing all the side hustles alongside a peppering of acting work. And now I run my own kids' theatre company called BB Broadway, alongside still doing creative pursuits.
So what is your creative pursuit? And how did you get into it?
So musical theatre was definitely my first sort of passion. I've actually gone back to school recently, doing some more training, but it's kind of evolving what I would say now my main passion is. My mum did a lot of dance when she was younger, so then I did loads of dance when I was younger, and that was always my main focus. And I actually came to singing and theatre quite a bit later for a kid. I was probably about 14, 15 before I started singing. But then that really, really took off. And then I went to Bird and did musical theatre. And then I've been very lucky. I've done lots of lovely bits of work. I did like some ships, a couple of shows, lots and lots of panto.
As I say, it's been like years since I graduated. The industry's changed a lot and I've changed a lot. And I've wondered what it is I really want to be doing, which direction I really want to go in. So we're now sort of going through the rebrand era. I sort of see myself probably more now as an actor. And I’m sort of dabbling in writing and doing more in the sort of comedy and improv world. More of an actor first who like can sing if pushed.
I've changed so much and the industry has changed. I was getting work but I still hadn't quite got to that point where I wanted to be. So I just sort of thought if I want to give this one last crack essentially, I want to do it properly. So let's go back to classes and then I can sort of emerge from the theatre womb and re-approach agents and say you know I've just done this training at Arts Ed and I'm back on the scene. Also I felt like I'd started to dabble in some work that I really love very much. [It] hammered home to me like this is the space you should be sitting in.
I'd chased the sort of musical theatre dream for a really really long time. And the older I got, the less I feel like a lot of the roles in town, the big commercial shows, align with my principles now. There are very few roles for women that I feel particularly inspired by and the casting process is very very tough.
Whereas like the new work that's coming out more in sort of straight theatre or comedy and improv and those sorts of world, they just felt like those are my people. And those are roles that I could see myself in and you get to be much more creative in and that really speak to my skill set and my principles as to who I am now, rather than not necessarily sort of trying to go up against 400 other girls who also look like me for one role where they're going to hire the girl who is the same size as the last girl that was in.
And so going back to training was also part of that, to answer that question in my head. And I also forced myself to go, because I'm sure most out-of-work actors will tell you that there's no time. You don't go to classes anymore, and you'll be at drama school for three years, where you do it all day every day, and then you graduate, and then you'll never do it again until you're in audition.
You mentioned briefly that you're starting to write as well. What kind of stuff are you starting to write and what kind of stories are you looking to tell in that way?
I'm sort of telling people I'm writing for the accountability because then people go, what are you writing? And I go, what? So I'm trying to write sort of a bit of maybe stand-up, sort of forming in my brain all the time, whilst never putting pen to paper because it feels too scary and because I have no time. I think in my head I can sort of see a world in which it's somewhat like almost like a cabaret comedy with a few songs, sort of using musical theatre songs but sort of rewriting the lyrics and stuff like that. We'll get there.
What is your current day job and how did you get into it?
My current day job is I run BB Broadway, which is my company. It is a theatre school that is gender neutral and inclusive and sustainable. We're trying to sort of rebrand a lot of what the vibe of theatre schools are to be sort of less pushy, precocious kids and just slightly more inclusive and diverse. Particularly in the early years sector, because we do everything from like baby and toddler up to 12 years.
I was teaching for a really long time - that was my side hustle - and I really enjoyed it and I wholly recommend [it]. But I did feel like having done it for a really long time, a lot of the big franchises in it were quite old fashioned for both the student and the teachers. And they also weren't serving the people that work for them in that you weren't valued as a self-employed sort performer, which is what you still are as a teacher.
So yeah, so my aim was to sort of create a space that was mutually beneficial to everyone.
You said you started that over COVID.
Yes. So my plan was always to start a kids' theatre school at the Turbine Theatre in Battersea in 2020. The world had other ideas. All my teaching stopped. I remember quite vividly I'd like just taken on a new flat. I got a phone call to be like, There's no more teaching. That's it. So I started teaching some online classes for my friends that had kids. They knew I sort of did this for a job that some of them had just had babies and they were just stuck at home with them, like, "I don't know what to do with this potato.”
So I started doing some online classes. Then was eventually doing that like three or four days a week. We opened like one open class in October of 2020, whenever we could go outside. And then it just sort of grew from there. Now we have something like seven, eight locations across London.
I have a team of about four or five [teachers], depending on what's going on. We sort of train them up in arts or baby and toddler stuff, where they work from at the weekends. And they're all self-employed performers. And I very much wanted to create a culture where they feel respected and valued in their work.
I understand it's not their dream job. They're not in Les Mis, and I can't help them with that. But they can still feel like they're adding value. They can still feel respected by their employer because they do add value to my business. So they'll never have to chase me for an invoice. We do like staff meetups because it can be lonely being self-employed and a teacher on your own. And we're very much like more of a team that work together.
If they've got a job or they've got an audition, I say, great, that's what you're in London for. It looks good for the business that we have people that are currently in shows. And so lots of the teachers return, you know. So we very much encourage and foster that. That's what they're here to do.
Do you enjoy running the business, like the business aspect of it?
No, not at all. It's horrible. You're sort of catching me at the end of the term where I could genuinely rip my own eyeballs out. But yes and no.
But it's much more stressful than I ever anticipated. And it takes over your life in a big way that I hadn't anticipated. And now I do a lot more like stuff I never thought I would have. I have to have conversations with an accountant about VAT. Like, who the hell do I think I am?
There's so many hats. It's something you're thinking about all the time and you never get away from that wherever you are.
What have your previous day jobs been? And do you have any favorites or least favorites?
My favorite probably was teaching. It's not for everyone, but compared to the work I've done where I felt like people felt sorry for me - in those roles when you say like, I'm an actor, and they go, oh god and you're here! Whereas no one really asked me when I was teaching, what else do you want to do? They just thought, this is what you're doing, this is enough.
When I first moved to London I used to work for a camera studio, trying to sell camera packages in the street. I worked for Ripley’s Believe It or Not - I’d be dressed up as like, I don't know, Safari Susan or whatever other shameful costume they could put you in. And you'd wander around Piccadilly Circus trying to get tourists to come in. I worked at Inferno's like once and was like, that's enough for me. Good money in that. A lot of the nighttime work I did, I just didn't enjoy because I'm just not a partier. And I think you should do nighttime work if you want to be part of the party. I worked at Archer Street for quite a while, but I just don't want to be part of the party. I don't want to finish my shift and then start drinking and partying.
I worked for a will company, which I used to stand in shopping centers and get people to take a free brochure about wills. It was fairly easy. And that's one of those jobs, you're not taking that home with you.
And then I spent a good couple of years working for them who shall not be named, Harrods, which was a time and a half. I used to do beauty and fragrance as all girls with a certain casting did. I thought it was hell on earth at the time. It's quite mind numbing to sort of stand around for eight hours. Quite feet numbing, if you have to do it in heels. So it wasn't my favorite. And it also paid really badly. I look back on that now and I was like, and I was paying way too much rent. I could not make ends meet and I had to work five or six days a week. So if I got an audition, I just couldn't really pay. And there wasn't really an option to pick up any more. So that one was a tough one.
How does your day job feed into or oppose your creative pursuit?
It feeds into it because I am singing all the time. Our baby and toddler classes [are] all sung. I'm vocally quite secure now. What I will say is it has changed my vocal setup entirely. I used to be your big belter and now I can do your Wheels On The Bus all day long in the most beautiful head voice but there's not much else.
And also, sometimes we do get kids that are like remarkably talented but also a part of our inclusivity is like we're not necessarily pushing for pushy stage school kids who are going to classes five days a week. They only come to us for two hours on Saturday, the older ones. But you see they've got a passion for it, and you can really hone that. And that's exciting and you want to show them this world but also you have a bit of power there to show the world in a better way than I was taught it when I was younger. We can show them more shows where they're going to feel represented or feel seen on stage and stuff like that which is really exciting.
In terms of contradicting my creative pursuits, it's just because it's my own business it’s taken up all my time.
Do you have any advice for anybody looking to pursue a creative career?
Don’t! No.
That's actually the most common answer.
Of course it is. I don't know if I would say don't as well, actually. I'm not even sure that's true.
You know, when I was growing up, my school in particular, when I said I wanted to become a performer, that actually wasn't really a job. They really didn't know what to do with me. They were like, huh? And I wish I'd had better advice then. But actually now it's much more commonly accepted to be a creator because the creative industry is so much broader.
And I hate to sound like the geriatric, but like TikTok didn't exist when I was growing up and stuff like that. The birth of that, the bandwidth of a full-time creative is so much wider. It seemed like a crazy thing to do then, to be a sort of full-time performer and go into acting with other people. Like, you're crazy. Whereas now, you could argue just the same other way.
So actually I probably wouldn't say don’t. I would just say, yeah, I would try and create a life that you really enjoy out of it.
However, I think if I had my time again, also don't be afraid to throw yourself into it. Fully immerse yourself in it and take those risks because I think I was always a very sensible, level-headed, like very old beyond my years. I think I worried so much all through my 20s and I was worried about what would happen all the time. And I do look at people that are much more carefree who now are very, very successful because they just, they took risks. They did stuff that, you know, might not have worked out or might have done.
So I would say maybe, yeah, worry less than I did.
What is your creative dream?
Oh god, that's pretty scary. There’s like one or two roles that I would love to do. If I ever did those you could stick a fork in me, I’d say I'm done. But I would also I'd love to have written my own show. I do know that's kind of where my soul lies in some way. And so I feel like I'm doing myself a disservice if i didn't explore it.
And then beyond that, like, yeah, I really want the business to be able to sustain me. That's the ultimate goal, is that like, I want to be able to decide my own life.
What is your dream day job? Now, I understand you have a pretty good setup, so I'll let you know how I would answer this question, which is: my dream day job is to be a question setter on University Challenge.
What is my dream day job? It's something like, correcting pandas when they're falling over or something, isn't it? Righting tortoises that have fallen over, probably. Something in that nature.
I think I'm such a realist now that I'm like, yeah, every job's got its drawbacks. I'd love to be, a backing singer for Adele or something like that. But then I also think, the travel, you know? That's also because I just love Adele, so just the chance to be in her aura would be absolutely stunning.
But I also think that sort of session singing must be quite nice because you just get to sing nice stuff in a booth somewhere and you never actually have to, you know, no one's asking me like, what do you mean by this? Where's your character coming from?
Actually, I do know the answer to this. In the arcades, they have, these machines that you put pennies in, like, two ps, and it pushes. The p nudgers. So I would love to be the person that might reset the machines. So maybe that, but then also I do think the coins are dirty and it's dark in there. So I don't know that it’s that ideal. But I do have a passion for the 2p nudgers. Also like a sour patch kid tester or something like that.
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