It is an interesting coincidence that as Back Stage decided to reflect on British drama schools, and in particular what they could offer in terms of different training for stage and screen, a report about that very subject should be published.
The document derives from the National Council for Drama Training (NCDT), the U.K. body that seeks "to promote, enhance, and maintain the highest possible standards of vocational training and education" in the industry, and in part hopes to do so by accrediting courses felt to meet certain criteria.
What is fascinating in relation to film, television, and radio, as the NCDT itself has acknowledged, is that the parameters of what students need to be taught are always changing. As Back Stage discovered when interviewing the performers below about their drama school experiences, training in these genres was pretty nonexistent at one stage. Indeed, it is really only in recent times, perhaps in the last decade with the explosion of satellite television in the U.K., that there appears to have been more of a demand to feature screen acting in course criteria.
In contrast to America--where the theatre world has its home on the East Coast, while the TV and movie industries dominate the West--not all, but much of U.K. recorded media is based in London. NCDT Executive Secretary Adele Bailey is therefore hopeful that the capital's schools will take on board the report's recommendations during the next year--to ensure that students are as "employment ready" as they can be for TV and movie work. Bailey explains: "Students learn how to develop a character during a theatre rehearsal period of three to four weeks, but there is often hardly any rehearsal in a TV studio. They need to understand what these pressures are, what all the people standing around do, and to maintain concentration amidst all of that."
The performers interviewed here range from the experienced actor with years of credits to the young, aspiring hopeful only just out of drama school. All of them are or have been doing high profile work in the West End and beyond. Their views on training, and consequently making a break into TV and film, are just as revealing as any textbook can be, on whatever side of the Atlantic you decide to train.
Lisa Martland
Sasha Oakley--Learning the Process to Act
If Sasha Oakley had known what was due to happen in her first week of drama school, she might never have been brave enough to go. But ignorance was bliss on this occasion, for the year that followed changed her life.
In fact, as far as Oakley is concerned, she did not leave the Actors' Institute in London 10 years ago with only practical training. She took with her a philosophy that has never ceased to influence her both personally and professionally. Out of all the performers Back Stage spoke to about their experiences at drama school and the techniques learned for working in different genres, Oakley certainly turned out to be one of the most passionate.
Currently donning a uniform as Lieutenant Genevieve Marshall in the National Theatre's delightful production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific," Oakley is one actress who cannot wait to enthuse about her drama school experience. As she says, the Actors' Institute actually started in New York and, just as in London, the college mainly acted as a summer school, a place to do short courses. There was also a weekend course called The Mastery that was not just aimed at actors: "It was a personal development-type thing," Oakley explains. "There was a group of people, and a panel of leaders would help them to put their behavioral patterns under the spotlight. It was about getting to know yourself and your demons."
Having already done a degree course, Oakley was accepted into the first full-time one-year postgraduate course in acting. However, what she did not know was that her studies would be based around the philosophy of The Mastery, and the year would begin with a weeklong version of the course.
"It was big, scary stuff," she comments. "The idea is that if you don't know yourself and your inner demons, you can't take on another character. You want to do so without it being on top of your own personal baggage. There wasn't a day without tears, and some of the students had had extreme life experiences, all kinds of personal issues, which they were forced to confront. I discovered that that is what all acting is about, accessing human emotions, and sometimes emotions you haven't yourself encountered before."
All this may sound a little pretentious to some, but Oakley's enthusiasm is hard to argue with. She is obviously grateful that voice work, improvisation, singing, devising, and acting were also taught like at most other schools, but the underlying philosophy of the Actors' Institute was, for her, even more significant.
She continues: "It did not feel like the tutors were saying here is your training for TV, film, stage; more like here is your process to act."
It was more difficult to get casting directors and agents to come along to the Actors' Institute, compared to some of the bigger, more commercial schools, but Oakley still feels she left very equipped to face the audition process, particularly if it was workshop-style. "Some performers have a massive fear of anything that isn't scripted, or isn't a straightforward song or piece to recite. The course was about taking risks, being able to cope with being vulnerable, to have no fear of going into a room and seeing what happens."
A little fear did come into the equation, though, when Oakley got her first TV job--she has appeared in the cop show "The Bill" (a favorite place for drama students to get their first taste of camera work), as well as the comedy program "Reeves and Mortimer." "I was paranoid about being too big for the camera. I learned it was all about scale, but you suddenly discover that you use your hands a lot and your facial muscles go crazy! I had to hope that the director would be honest and patient with me."
Oakley's early movie credits include working on student films, one of the main routes by which young British actors seek the experience of working on camera. Very early on in one project, she had to start crying with no emotional build-up at all?technique-wise this meant learning a great deal. She had been used to developing a character in theatre via weeks of rehearsal--film turned out to be a whole different ball game. It is also interesting to hear her say, "I had not thought of getting into the film industry as a realistic thing to consider--the U.K. has such a small industry, really, compared to America."
Which is not to say that this is an actress afraid of a challenge; she longs to be cast against her "attractive middle-class lady" type, to do real work on developing great characterizations. It is for this reason that she is so proud of her recent lead role in the play "The Far Side" at the London Fringe theatre the Tricycle. Cast as a white, racist, alcoholic mum, Oakley had people coming up to her afterwards congratulating her on how real she made the character she played.
"I'm not sure if my school exists anymore, but everything has boiled down to what it was getting at--not about copying and pretending, but about creating on stage and doing things with integrity."
L. M.
Dominic Cooper--Right Out of the Box
It would seem like a dream to most aspiring British actors, working at both the National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company straight out of drama school, and Dominic Cooper has achieved this since leaving the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in 2000.
Cooper is about to appear as Puck in a new production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," opening on Feb. 20 at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon before going on a major U.K. tour. Credits already under his belt include a prominent role in the National's production of "Mother Clap's Molly House," the most recent play penned by controversial writer Mark Ravenhill (also responsible for "Shopping and Fucking"), together with small parts in the award-winning miniseries "Band of Brothers" and the Johnny Depp movie "From Hell," released in the U.K. this month.
While admitting that he has never really had a driving "must act or die" attitude to his craft, behind Cooper's modesty and refreshingly honest approach is an obvious passion for performing. He feels grateful that his schooldays were so encouraging in this respect: "There's that awkward period of time when you don't know what the hell to do with your life, but the school I went to had a wonderful theatre department combined with a lovely little theatre inside. It was there that my interest in theatre was nurtured."
Having heard horror stories about how hard it was to get into drama school, he was hesitant about applying, but the whole process of auditioning and being accepted at LAMDA happened relatively quickly. Cooper laughs now about the "ridiculous things" he chose as his audition pieces: "I was 18, straight from school, didn't know much, so I didn't think twice about attempting the 'Once more unto the breach' speech from Shakespeare's 'Henry V.' I didn't even realize that I was being disgustingly ambitious."
While the budding actor worked hard during these years, he slightly envied the social freedom of those friends of his at university. However, since 2000, when he entered the professional world of acting, Cooper has discovered what a good decision he made. As each job has come along--whether in TV, film, or on stage--he has constantly reflected on his previous studies. "I really didn't know what was going on sometimes at drama school," he comments, "but it suddenly makes a huge amount of sense when you're in the rehearsal room or on set. You learn all this stuff and you're never really sure what it's for and how it's preparing you, but it's stored and there ready to help."
Cooper was relatively satisfied with how the differing genres of film, TV, and radio were each tackled at LAMDA, but wonders whether the difficulties involved in transferring from one to the other are underestimated.
He adds: "The attitude was, if you can do a huge play or if you're prepared to work on the stage, it is a lot less work to then go and try film. But I found film extremely difficult; there is a lot to learn. It would have been beneficial to have done more work than we did.
"It sometimes seems easy to criticize TV actors, but just see how difficult it is to come in on a shoot in a day, pick up a script, and do the work straight away. You've got to be able to direct yourself; you won't always have a huge amount of help."
Cooper is also aware that some of the skills required can only be learned "on the job" by finding yourself on a shoot and watching other actors. In addition to taking on the role of runner on the sets of commercials, the performer has also paid close attention to the work of his peers. While on the set of "The Final Curtain"--the latest movie penned by John Hodge, writer of "Trainspotting" and "Shallow Grave," and due to be released this year--he naturally took time out to observe Peter O'Toole at work.
For the moment, though, the stage is where Cooper has been allowed more freedom to create a role, particularly while preparing for the Mark Ravenhill piece (a play originally given its first airing at LAMDA). "The part got bigger because it was written during the rehearsal process," Cooper explains. "After previewing, I was given a huge new speech an hour before I had to go on. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but things like that are good. Working with and developing the character was so interesting. I had such great fun getting up on stage, I suddenly realized why I was doing it."
But whatever happens, Cooper does not want to take the life of an actor too seriously. "People have said to me you can't be half-hearted about being an actor, which is quite right, but you also don't want to put too much on the line. It's such a scary business; you've got to be ready not to work for months after a job finishes." Wise words, but as Cooper heads for his first professional Shakespeare production, unemployment must be the last thing on his mind.
L. M.
Elizabeth Berrington--You Must Be Confident
For Elizabeth Berrington, currently part of a brilliant ensemble animating a revival of Caryl Churchill's polemical "Top Girls" (recently at the West End's Aldwych Theatre, but now back out on tour), there were lots of knocks before she found the confidence to start making a lasting impression in this fickle business. "I had quite a tough time after leaving drama school," she now recalls. "It was a year before I worked, and then it was an unpaid profit-share job. And then I waited another year before I got yet another profit-share job. And then six more months before I actually got a job I was paid for." But it toughened her up. "What I personally learned during that quiet time, and in subsequent quiet times I've had, is that you may have the best talent or ability in the world, but if you are not personally confident, then you can run into all sorts of problems. For a young actor, that's a lesson you need to learn very quickly. When you go for meetings or auditions, people need you to convince them that you're good enough for the job. In the early days, I assumed they would just know. But you need a more confident approach. So that was quite character building."
She graduated from Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 1989. Drama school training is, she says, "the accepted entry into the business," and remarks, "The top five schools in this country are RADA, LAMDA, the Bristol Old Vic, Central, and Webber Douglas, so that's what I went for." Accepted for Webber Douglas, she did the three-year full-time drama-training diploma there: "Unlike a university or college training, it is very specifically geared to the business, so that you're ready to enter it when you leave." Only, as she's already pointed out, it wasn't as simple as that.
Nor, with hindsight, was the training itself without complications: "It focuses on a very middle-class view of the theatre. If you had any regional accent, for example, you were expected to drop that and learn 'standard' English. So many of the things about the training I now think are quite phony; but having said that, on many occasions I now employ those skills I learnt as a result. If you're like me and quite versatile and lucky and can dip between the two--of being a working-class and a middle-class actor--you're okay. But it's only a few years after leaving drama school that myself and other contemporaries of mine started to realize that your strengths are your original strengths; and if you're lucky, you can get those back."
One of her first professional jobs, when her luck finally broke through, was to work on "Naked," a film with Mike Leigh, the innovative, improvisatory British film director whom she calls "a real hero of mine." Again, she speaks of having to unlearn some of her training: "The extraordinary thing about working with him was that it was about forgetting everything I'd learned at drama school. Instead, another strength of mine came into play, which was that as a kid, I'd always been involved in improvisation, and that's what he needs from actors. Your instinctive skills in getting involved in a character and following direction and translating what the director says to you have to come to the fore. That's very specific to working with him, and was almost like an education in itself. Once I'd worked with him once and I understood the process, that gave me a preparation for many, many other things." Not least, to work with Leigh again, which she did in "Secrets and Lies."
She also applied those skills to her approach to her award-winning stage work in a play called "Rupert Street Lonely Hearts Club" that (like "Top Girls") began as a tour and ended up in the West End in 1996. "It took me back to the improvisation I discovered with Mike Leigh. I'd actually seen a documentary about a young woman quite like the character in the play, and so I got the video from the BBC and spent time studying aspects of her to develop the character."
She is obviously an inquisitive actress, and speaks with admiration of American counterparts, who, she feels, "have clinched it with nailing emotional truth" in their performances. It's a quest she, too, constantly strives for.
Mark Shenton
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