Page 246 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

The issue might be best illustrated by a conversation Emma Hands, interim head at Drama

Studio London, had with “a director who likened teaching Stanislavski to current students to

using a Ford Model T manual for running your latest electric car’’.

Hands sees elements of truth in the analogy, but points out that without the invention of the

Ford Motor Company, the car industry wouldn’t have the technology and expertise it has

today.

“There is still a nod to Stanislavski to acknowledge the roots of our craft, but our Approaches

to Acting classes also aim to reflect the wide range of practitioners who impact the profession

today,” she says.

“It’s a magpie approach, allowing each actor to explore and evolve. Recently trainee actors

have encountered Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, Mike Alfreds, Rudolf Laban, Nikolai
Demidov, Michael Chekhov, Jerzy Grotowski, viewpoints and headphone-verbatim to name

just a few from the list of practitioners and approaches that is reinvented each term.”

Sally Ann Gritton, director of academic affairs and head of undergraduate performance at
Mountview, says: “Actors no longer require a singular approach that is wedded to naturalism

and the illusion of the ‘fourth wall’. Contemporary work is most often meta-theatrical, which

demands a direct acknowledgement of the actors with the audience about the theatre

experience. Truth is at the core of our actor development irrespective of style. From clowning

to recorded-delivery verbatim work, we are teaching our students to discover the beating

heart of the performance construct they are working within.”

Will Hammond, head of acting at LIPA, agrees that, while tradition has value, evolution is

essential.

“The first year of training on our Acting (Screen and Digital) degree recognises core

principles, techniques and traditions and provides students with a robust understanding of

why we do what we do, but then it’s about the adaption, development and applying existing

techniques to different contexts,” he says. “For example, our students work with an

experienced TV director to generate sitcom scenes in our TV studio, taking classic acting