The Entrepreneurial Actor: A Study of Training Programs in Anglophone Countries Abroad

Abstract

Over the last decade entrepreneurialism has become a significant learning outcome for training actors. Institutions worldwide are exploring pedagogies that offer student actors the skills, knowledge, and empowerment to undertake entrepreneurial activities towards professional achievement and fulfillment. What methodologies are being deployed in this vein and who are the leaders in training the entrepreneurial actor? What is today’s marketplace for actors and how can trainers and teachers customize their pedagogies accordingly? In what ways can we forge a new direction towards training the twenty-first century actor?

This essay addresses these questions through an ethnographic examination of leading drama schools in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The fieldwork at these schools entailed studying institutional archives, observing classes and productions, and conducting personal interviews. The assembled research suggests an entrepreneurial approach is necessary for preparing actors for the current job market. As such, among the best practices gleaned from the case studies are a curricular structure for student-led projects as well as comprehensive training in acting for film/screen. Other recommendations include empowering students to identify and foster their artistic voice, providing them skills in independent producing, and creating a supportive work place and community within which students and faculty alike support and challenge each other towards evolving as artists.