Forget trying to stand out from the crowd - at Stage School you’ll be wearing black from top to bottom 99% of the time. You can forget ever having enough clothes to do a whites wash so it’s probably easiest just to let your white clothes gradually turn black…

You may dream of leading the line in Les Mis, but the reality is that your first break will likely be in something low-budget and probably a bit weird. If you don’t believe us, just look out for an exceedingly well-oiled Jason Statham in Shamen’s ‘Comin’ On’ video…

Actors frequently need to do other ‘normal’ jobs whilst they build their portfolio, and even if they’re at Stage School those bills still need to be paid. Star Wars actor John Boyega can be seen smiling out of photos on the University of Nebraska website - part of a stock photo shoot he took part in during his training.

You will quite literally run a mile. And the rest. A typical day at Stage School can be harder work than being a Premiership footballer - and considerably worse paid. Whether it’s dance routines, choreographed stage fights or learning to move and speak or sing at the same time, your body will be put through its physical paces.

This is as far from a 9-5 as you can get. Most stage performers work in the evening, but will also have to fit in auditions and rehearsals during the day. You’ll have to train your body to cope with different sleeping patterns and keep going despite physical and emotional fatigue.

Actors and Performers can receive hundreds of rejections before landing their first role. The process can be exhausting and depressing - especially if you receive call-backs that raise your hopes, only for them to be dashed again. You need to treat each rejection as a learning experience and stay positive. As long as you believe in yourself, eventually someone else will too.

Every actor or performer needs to be able to do different accents. In fact Aidan Gillen manages to do several different varieties of the same accent in each episode of Game Of Thrones. Watching a TV show will never quite be the same again, as you can annoy your friends and family by constantly trying to nail that Belfast twang.

Stage School teaches you to be an all-rounder, but the reality is that everyone has their strengths and recognising which are yours is really important. Auditions are hard enough at the best of times, so make sure you’re not bringing your B game along and wasting everyone’s time.

When the time comes, you’ll have to try and persuade an agent to take you on. A good agent can be the difference between rubbing shoulders with the great and the good in the West End, and playing the rear of the pantomime cow at the Chatham Central Theatre.

People will probably not stop asking you this until you’ve won at least your second Tony award and been asked to present the Oscars. For some people, performance arts will never be as good as a real job. But you will almost certainly be having a lot more fun than they are.