Sheila Moylette
I’ve worked professionally as an actor on stage and screen for nearly two decades, but the reality of that journey is that I also work separate part-time jobs.
One is in The Castlecourt Hotel at home in the west of Ireland, where I once waitressed weddings and now take calls on the switchboard. Hotel work means you’re exposed to a wide variety of people. You see people on their best and worst days and you quickly learn a lot about human nature
Sometimes when working in the hotel, I think of a Brendan Gleeson Q&A where he was giving advice to student actors. He said “how can you portray real life if you haven’t lived it? Any experience is training for acting.”
So even though I love acting, I really do feel grateful for my part-time hotel work. Such exposure to an array of people - customers and colleagues - has been invaluable to me as an actor. And even on a more practical level, I’ve just finished making my first short film and The Castlecourt Hotel kindly offered free catering to the crew of 20 people and linked me to someone who ended up as an essential crew member!
I feel even more grateful for my other part-time job, which is more directly related to my craft; I teach acting in Bow Street Film Academy. I originally studied there in 2012 as one of the OG students. It was called The Factory then and Barry Keoghan was among my classmates. (He was absent from an early stage because he was already off working.)
I consider that 2012-2013 year as being literally life-changing. Not only was I working with wonderful Irish directors each week alongside some very talented classmates, but we had visits from guests such as Cillian Murphy, Saoirse Ronan, Tim Roth, Danny DeVito, and the aforementioned Brendan Gleeson. It was there I got the chance to meet casting directors, get auditions, and I started to book work. Once I graduated I signed with an agent and continued to book work. All the while working part-time.
My part-time work as a tutor in Bow Street Film Academy has kept my ‘acting muscle’ flexing and I feel I’ve gained some unique insights from teaching students. After all, it is said that “to teach is to learn twice.”
In teaching, you have a limited amount of time in a session or term – less than you might have in rehearsals – so you have no choice but to ‘trim the fat’ and get to the true heart of the scene right there and then. You not only have to get there yourself, but your students/actors must get there with you, so you need to communicate and collaborate with great clarity. The clarity is then present in the acting and storytelling.
I ask the students to not only be curious about acting but also about themselves. Whenever I have a new student sitting in front of me, my first question is always “why do you want to be an actor?”
Some will have the honesty to say they enjoy having an audience, or that they enjoy attention. I nod because I can certainly work with that level of candour. Others will say they want to be like a certain actor and again I nod because I can relate to the fun of ‘being someone else’ or trying to emulate an idol. Fewer then will say they want to act because they love stories and want to be part of a story. I nod and smile with delight in that particular answer because I feel storytelling is the most pure and true reason as to why we actors, directors, writers, and all who work in the arts, do what we do. We’re not primarily serving ourselves or the audience, but the story. Then the rest will follow.
Storytelling has connected people since… well, since there were people! The richest of cultures have been preserved and built upon by history and mythology; true, embellished, or fabricated stories. Fables and folktales have weaved the moral fibres of societies. So whenever I am offered an acting job, I weigh it up by asking myself ‘Is this story worth telling? Is it worth someone’s time, even just for the sake of entertainment? Do I want to be part of telling this story?’ If I say yes to those questions, I say yes to the job.
It was very easy for me to say ‘yes’ was when I was offered the part of Alma in Ardent Theatre’s production of STRIKE! It was staged at the Southwark Playhouse in London during the Spring/Summer of 2023 and I joined an ensemble cast of 13. We were telling the story of the one of the most iconic strikes in history.
In the Summer of 1984, ten young Dunnes Stores workers in Dublin’s inner city, aged between 17 and 24, refused to handle goods from apartheid South Africa because of how their government treated black people. This courageous and selfless act led to a strike lasting two years and nine months. They held their ground against the police, picket breakers, the church, and their formidable employer for the sake of millions of oppressed people they had never met. And they won. These young people forced the Irish government to ban the import of all South African produce and they created a ripple effect around the world.
Had Tracy Ryan not written the script and had Mark and Andrew at Ardent Theatre not produced it, I don’t know if I would have ever known this incredibly important and inspiring story. What a privilege to tell it to a modern audience. Given the reception we received after every single performance, I feel they appreciated it as much as my brilliant cast mates and I did!
So, to summarise my own experience, especially for my fellow actors out there:
Even when you’re not working as an actor, everything around you can still contribute to your craft, even your other jobs and people. You bring your life experiences to your acting. (I really have leaned on this during lulls in acting work!)
Ask yourself why you want to be an actor. Be as selfish as you can be with your answer. Then keep exploring the question until you arrive at your love for stories/storytelling.
Everyone involved in a production is ultimately serving the story. Always.
Here's to telling stories in 2025, and I wish you all every blessing in the new year.
ABOUT SHEILA
Sheila is an actress, writer, and director based between Dublin and her native Co. Mayo, Ireland. She holds a BA (hons) in Performing Arts and an MA (hons) in Drama and Theatre Studies. She is a graduate of Bow Street Film Academy’s (formerly The Factory) acclaimed Screen Acting Programme, and she currently works in Bow Street as an acting tutor.
Previous film and TV work includes ‘Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope’ (RTE), ‘Hardy Bucks’ (RTE), ‘Ripper Street’ (BBC), ‘Black ‘47’ (Fastnet Films), and a series of MACE adverts with Irish rugby icon Jonathan Sexton. Sheila has just wrapped on her short film ‘Our Father’ which marks her directing and screenwriting debut. Produced by Western Front Studios, this project was commissioned under Screen Ireland’s 'Actor as Creator' scheme, a highly acclaimed initiative in partnership with Bow Street Film Academy.
Previous theatre work includes ‘STRIKE!’ (Ardent Theatre), ‘Conversations on a Playwright – Tom Murphy’ (The Lir Academy), ‘Conversations, Exhortations, Exhaustions’ and ‘Which Absurd Cat Are You?’ (Theatre Lovett), and ‘Love Song’ (Smock Alley).