Page 243 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

Spencer, O’Loughlin and Frankcom all talk about how what they are doing is
responding directly to the needs of students who are currently at their schools. It is
about serving the more diverse cohorts who are entering training and reflecting the
changing ways of theatremaking. That means working in collaboration with
students, rather than passing down knowledge as if it’s written on tablets of stone.

Callow is suspicious of such ideas. “It’s a democratic notion to suggest training is
not about giving students something. But if you were going to a music school or a
dance college, wouldn’t you want to be taught by people who have an expertise that
has evolved over many generations, and who know that if students follow these
practices and techniques they will become empowered? That you will be in charge of
your voice and your body and in a very good relationship with your emotions?” He
adds dryly: “I really don’t think if – when I turned up at Drama Centre all those years
ago – they had said: ‘We want to learn from you’ that I’d have felt much confidence.”

But when theatre is transforming and becoming far more collaborative and attuned
to hearing all the voices in the room and welcoming different ones in, isn’t it
necessary for approaches to learning to change too? It’s not that there is no room for
Stanislavski, but that room must be made for a far broader range of skills, which
equip actors to go out into the industry. For many students, the work of Phoebe
Waller-Bridge, Michaela Coel and Jasmine Lee-Jones is likely to be more of a driver
for them to apply to drama school than the undoubted achievements of Judi Dench.
They are training for a very different industry than that which Callow trained for 40
years ago.

‘ O u r s t u d e n t s a r e h u n g r y t o t r a i n – t h e y a l s o
c o m e t o u s w i t h s o m e t h i n g t o s a y ’ – D i r e c t o r o f
d r a m a a t G u i l d h a l l O r l a O ’ L o u g h l i n

“The days have gone,” says Chesterton, “when actors were trained to shut up, listen
and please the director. They have, and want, much more agency, and that includes
making their own work.”

O’Loughlin adds: “The actor as artist is the direction of travel. What does it mean to
be an artist in the 21st century is the top line here at Guildhall for students, whether
they are in the acting or the music or the production department. What do you have
to say? What are your responsibilities and what is your relationship to the community
and the world? These are all questions at the very heart of that.”

Price accepts that the dominant curriculum in many schools “doesn’t train
somebody to be a self-creator”. He argues that it is not necessarily a bad thing “if we
have a few places where the student intake still has an eye on a conventional acting
career”.

He continues: “There is still a demand for that in the industry. I’m really glad if there
are more places where people can go and do other things and self-create if that’s
what they want to do, but I don’t see it as a problem if there are still some
extraordinary places left in a city such as London that train people who dream they
might work at the National Theatre one day and on a series for Channel 4 the next.”