Movieclip to carry on playing even when not on stage

Hi,

I have a movieclip called MC1 and within that 2 frames each containing movieclips called MC2 and MC3. The user can change between the two movieclips and MC3 has a animation within it. Once MC3 is activated, its animation plays but when the user changes to MC2 and then to MC3, the animation is back at the beginning, I want it to keep going even when the user changes to MC2 so when he switches back, the animation is still carrying on.

So basically, I need to know if there is way to have the movieclip playing even if it is not on stage.

Any help is appreciated!

Abs