UK Actors: Too Much Study, Not Enough Work?

On the eve of the Conference of Drama Schools’ annual actor showcase, Lyn Gardner of the UK 'Guardian' detects some rifts in drama education. Gardner asks, “how well prepared are these young actors to succeed in a profession in which 80% earn less than £10,000 a year, and is three years at drama school still the best way to enter that profession? It's a question worth asking when it increasingly seems that the entirely untrained can just stroll up for an audition and get a shot at stardom in a reality casting TV show.”

Interviewed was Jonathan Holloway, a director for over 25 years who had experience of the higher education system when he was head of performing arts at Middlesex University. He says "There is now a real tension about the way actors are being trained, because the industry has entered a new era. Actors can't just act any more. If they want to work they have to be entrepreneurial: they have to make work, build companies and find spaces for that work. The graduates from universities are good at this. They are able to make context for the work, not just work itself."

Read the full article here.