Welcome back to It Pays the Bills! Today’s guest is Lucy Buncombe, an actor and workshop facilitator. We chatting about Lucy’s various and varying day jobs, her current pursuits (including facilitating weekly play reading workshops!), and more.
A bit about Lucy:
Lucy Buncombe is an actor based in London who graduated from Mountview last year. Her recent credits include INK Festival, NewsRevue, Real "Improvised" Housewives of Clapham. Recent short films include TICK, Troubleshooting, and The Last Drop.
In the condensed transcript below, I’ve italicized my questions and comments. Enjoy!
What is your creative pursuit and how did you get into it?
I'm an actor. I recently graduated.
When I was about 15, I was kind of on the track to do like MT, musical theatre. I auditioned for the Brit School, thought I was going to be Jessie J. And then I was just like, oh, I don't think I can act. Like I could kind of sing and get away with a bit of dancing, but I just could not act.
I found this local drama club that a couple of my friends were going to. And I met a wonderful woman who still runs it. It's called The Actors Workshop. And it's in Bristol. It's run by a wonderful woman called Clara. And I auditioned singing Nothing from A Chorus Line. And she was like, “I think you should go for acting rather than MT.” And I was like okay, well, cool. I just kind of took her word for it and I found acting really hard. I just didn't know how people did it. And I think because it was new and a challenge I was like, oh, I've got to do this. Because it was just kind of this unending well of stuff that I couldn't figure out.
I trained for a couple of years with them, started auditioning for drama school when I was 17. It took me four years to get into drama school. I went to a different drama school before Mountview for when Covid was on. And just, yeah, it was a shame. It wasn't anything about the drama school, but we were all on Zoom for our first term.
So I decided to defer my place, audition again for a couple more schools and then ended up at Mountview, which was cool. And then I just graduated. So that's kind of my journey into it.
What made you decide to stick with it for so many years, to audition again and again and again without getting discouraged?
Yeah, I don't know. I think there were moments where I was discouraged. It wasn't a complete plain sailing for years. There were definitely moments where it's really hard and it's expensive and you’re kind of left without many answers. When you audition for drama school, you just get a no rather than feedback or whatever.
But I think I just really, really wanted to train and explore the craft. I didn't see myself doing it any other way. I didn't have any connections within the industry at all. My parents were both teachers, so we were just kind of very disconnected. I know, like, looking back, I'm like, there are other ways in. But for me, it felt like the only kind of option, I guess.
And I just really wanted to spend three years, like, waking up every day doing what I love to do. Like, what a privilege. How incredible is that, to get the opportunity to do that? So I just kind of thought, I’m gonna get in eventually. Like, it's gonna happen. And to be honest, it turned out to be the biggest blessing ever that I got in when I did, because we dodged the Covid stuff.
What is your current day job and how did you get into it?
So when I graduated, I started doing like events hospitality through an agency, which drained the life out of me. And I did that until about Christmas, and that was just running around London in a tie and like trousers and a shirt and my hair scraped back. It was just a bit of a time. I found that really challenging because sometimes you're not treated very well on the shifts, they could send you anywhere. I didn't know what my weeks were going to look like and I found that really hard. Like I was losing all sense of routine. The nights were really long. Sometimes you'd have shifts until 3am and you'd be coming back and potentially working in the morning the next day. So that just didn't work for me.
But I know that that can work for certain people. Like I met a lot of wonderful actors like on that job.
And then I teach and I have done since like I started at Mountview, on the Saturdays. So I picked up a couple more shifts with that company, picked up a couple more like drama clubs with another company. And I've also got a job at Pizza Express. And I also run a play reading group with Lonesome Workshops. So kind of a mix of things.
Real mix at the moment but I feel it definitely works for me. I've had a lot of actor friends that have gone into nine to fives and that's really worked for them because it's like stability and more of a routine and structure, and I think that's really great. But for me I just didn't want to be in one place, doing one thing all the time.
What do you teach?
I do drama and singing. So I do Lambda exams, but I do singing with the students on Saturday and then drama games. And so I play Splat many times a week. It's quite hard I feel like I'm joining in with all the games and I really should not be. Like getting way into Zip Zip Boing and like making it to the final two. I should be letting the kids win.
What age group do you teach?
Some of my youngest ones are like three and then up to like year eight so I guess that’s 13, 14? So a mix of students, which is nice, I think.
Because I've taught there at one of the places for a couple of years, it's nice to see the development. I used to do Stagecoach when I was in year five and six, and I always remember my stage coach teachers, so it's nice to think I’m probably that to them.
You mentioned the play reading workshops, can you talk a bit about that?
Honestly, it brings me so much joy, the play reading sessions, and I’m so chuffed that it's a thing. It started in either June or July - I just put something on my Instagram story and I was like. does anyone fancy coming over and reading a play around the dining table? I'll make some vegan banana bread. My good friends Damien and Meg came to the first one, so it's just the three of us reading like a Simon Stevens play. And then people started popping up and being like, oh, I'd be super up for this, like I wasn't around this week or whatever.
So then we got a group chat and it turned out to be about 50 actors from various circles and workshops and schools and whatever. And then kind of went on for about seven weeks just around my dining table and it was a really beautiful thing.
And then, I applied for like a kind of, what's it called? It was a series at Theatre Deli. It was like an offer of free space for kind of community-based projects. So I just applied on a whim just because it came up on my Instagram feed. And they accepted the application.
So we had like October to December space there to do the sessions, which was just amazing. It just really opened up.
And then that offer ran out. And Niall got in touch with me about taking it under Lonesome Workshops, because I've been going to Lonesome at that point for like a year and a half. So now we do it on Zoom on a Tuesday morning, which is really cool because it means that anyone can do it from anywhere. And it's kind of evolved into a more, the discussions and the sight reading technique feels more tangible, I guess. And it feels more detailed and we're looking at a wider range of playwrights than I probably would have considered before.
I'm just excited that it's still happening and it's still a thing that people are enjoying and coming back to. I just love plays. That's what it comes down to. But yeah, it's a lot of fun.
It's very low stakes and I think that's what I wanted it to be from the start. Because actors are often in rooms and workshops with like a casting director or a director and those spaces are wonderful. But, at least in my experience, it's been very high pressure and you're always aware of that presence in the room. But this just felt really like there was kind of an organicness to just having actors connecting over the work and it not being for anything but to explore something that they really enjoy.
What have your previous day jobs been and do you have any favorites or least favorites?
So when I was like 14, 15, I worked as like a pot wash, a KP in a pub for like, God, like a year. And then I kind of did a bit of waitressing there as well. My back just went one day. I was like putting on my shoes I don’t know what happened but I couldn't walk or anything. So my mum, bless her, cycled to the pub, which was like 20 minutes, like over this hill. And she did my KP shift for me. And that was like the last time I worked there, which was effectively my mum working that shift for me.
So after that, I went into like other hospitality jobs when I was kind of in sixth form. When I was auditioning for drama school I worked in a warehouse, I worked in a wholesale warehouse for a year and I wore my steel cap boots and it was just always dusty. It was an interesting time of my life there, because I was also doing the Foundation course for the Actors Workshop. There were a couple of months where I signed up for this course with the National Theatre and I used to finish my shift - it was like I don't know 6am to 11 or something and then I'd get the bus to London to go and do this workshop.
From Bristol?
Yeah, I was just like, I need to just go and do these things. I used to go there and then get back really late on a Thursday night and be in work the next day on a Friday. So I did that for a while.
And then I moved out to Bristol after I got back from the first drama school experience. I worked like two jobs. I worked in a cafe in the day that would take these sandwiches around to all the universities in Bristol. So I used to open up this cafe for this international school, serve all the like staff members, students on their break. They’d all come in for a coffee and then I'd get these sandwiches that we prepared in all these bags and carry them around Bristol city centre. And then I'd finish that at five and then walk up the hill - that took me half an hour - quickly have something to eat. And then I'd have another job at the Mexican restaurant six to eleven. And I just kept doing that before I went to drama school and just like saved up a load of money.
And before that, I was working in Amazon, packing loads of boxes. I did that for a month. And then I tried to be an Amazon delivery driver. And that was like the scariest of my life because I had people's valuable Amazon purchases in the back of my car. It was my responsibility to deliver it. Like it was a really stressful time.
But on my first shift, I turned up and everyone was very confused why I was there because they don't train you. You just download an app and decide that you want to do it. So I turned up to this warehouse. It's my first shift. There were all these men there with their big cars loading up their boots. They all knew what they were doing. I eventually worked out which were the parcels, loaded up my car and set off. And it was meant to be a four-hour shift. They follow it around on your app. I didn't bring a phone charger with me, so my phone died on my last three parcels. And I was stuck on the outskirts of Bristol on the complete other side from where I live, in the dark. And I had to sit in this man's van in a garage to charge my phone. It ended up being like a seven hour shift because it was just like completely malfunctioned. Anyway, they didn't do that for very long.
So yeah, I think my least favorite was probably the Amazon, just because the stress and also I didn't didn't massively love the warehouse.
How does your current day job or day jobs in your case feed into or relate or oppose your creative pursuit?
I mean, like the teaching, I think, is kind of both in a sense, because you are doing something you enjoy. Like the singing - it means that my voice is like warmed up because you’re singing and you're talking to children and having to kind of navigate that. You're playing drama games, you’re playful, and that's really important. And it's also helped me kind of learn about holding space, holding a room in a different way.
I think with acting you are always learning and like it's a never-ending thing but it's so special to be at that early stage of it where you’re learning the games for the first time and you're like experiencing what it is to be in an ensemble or to be like improvising with your friends and like doing those silly things and not taking yourself too seriously. And all the beautiful things that come out of that environment.
But also it's just like, I want to be doing the thing. I'm very fortunate in the sense that because the teaching allows space in my days, I get things filled up with acting projects and whatever. So I'm often going from meetings or whatever I'm doing to that job. Sometimes that's wonderful because you have more energy for it and you give loads to the students and you're there. Sometimes it's like, oh my God, I just want to be doing the thing all the time. It is very fulfilling. And when they're all enjoying it, you're like, yeah, great, cool.
Do you have any advice for anyone looking to pursue a creative career?
Oh God, I don't know. I guess a couple of things. I think personally what held me back so much was that I was always self-sabotaging and getting in my own way so much. And it, like, was so second nature to me that I just didn't realize I was even doing it. And other people were noticing it. Like, I'd meet people and they'd go, oh, she'd be great. Like, if only she wasn't self-sabotaging herself. And I'd be like, what are they on about?
And then, you look back and, re-evaluate your work and what you're offering to a space and, how you're kind of turning up. It's just, like, why, I don't know, just being overly concerned about what other people are thinking or like how good the work is. Or, I don't know, have you done enough prep or like not like taking up enough space because you’re just like worried about X, Y and Z. And it's all just like unhelpful.
And so I think if you're in a place where you're not completely like, I don't know, maybe you don't have to always be like completely 100%. But I think to really like take time and working out what what are those things that make you feel a bit like a kind of a smaller version of yourself. At least for me was really really helpful, and like really interrogating, okay, why do I feel really buzzy and sparky in that room as opposed to in that room. What was the difference? I think that was really useful.
Also, with creative projects, I found in the last six months that you just have to go for things and you don't always have to know the answers of how things happen, how things are going to materialize, how the project's going to unfold. You just have to leap and the net will present itself in some way. You just have to like go for it. And at the end of the day, what a gift to be doing what we're doing. I think it's the most wonderful thing in the whole world. You know, acting, the arts, it's so special. We get to wake up every day and be an artist. I think it's just so cool.
What is your creative dream?
It's not like one specific thing. It used to be, say, like RSC, The National. I think those things are still so important to me for various reasons.
But I think the creative dream is just to be doing something every day that is the thing. It just makes no sense. But that fills that kind of part of you that's going like, yeah, I'm an artist, and like I'm connecting with work I love. And that was one of my 2025 resolutions, to just do something every day to make it count.
And I think that can be so many different things. It’s not dependent on whether you're employed as an actor or not. It feels really like within your grasp to do something every day and sometimes that will be like reading a play or going to a class or sending an email or filming a scene with your mates. Or it'll be, I had this really great conversation with a stranger on the train and now we’re mates and that felt really creative and connected.
So I think that's the creative dream. To just be doing something every day that lights my soul up a bit and to do that for as long as possible. And mainly that's the acting stuff. It's like when you're with a script and you're telling a brilliant story with brilliant people, that's the thing. But in the times where it's not, finding those little joys. That's the dream.
What is your dream day job?
I think my dream day job, and it's something I'm looking into at the moment, is taking the play reading into old people's homes. I love to do that. And I think that would be really cool.
When I learn a bit more and I'm a bit further down the line, I'd love to kind of like coach actors potentially, but I don't really feel like I'm in a place to do that at the moment.
I've never worked in a clothes shop.
Do you think it would be very different from your other hospitality jobs?
No, I don't think so, but I can never get an interview at a retail job.
Yeah, I don't know, really. Maybe, a hot air balloon instructor or, a travel tour guide or something would be so fun. Something where I get to talk to people and, like, be outside as well would be nice.
I think also I'd love to run like, I really like hosting little events for my friends. So I'd love to run like a little vegan retreat or something. We'll see!
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