In which we think about Drama Schools and University Drama Departments and work our way through ‘Falling Off A Wall: Degrees of Change in British Actor Training’ Ben Frankombe's essential paper on the History of Actor Training between the 1970s...

In which we discuss how Philip Hedley came to join the first cohort of East 15 Acting School in the autumn of 1961 and examine something of the complex relationship between the school, it’s founder Maggie Bury and the work of Joan Littlewood’s ...

In which we celebrate the Sixtieth Birthday of East 15 in the first of two special podcasts. The cover shows blossom in the grounds of the Debden campus earlier this year. 

In which we prepare for a new term by reading Chapter 8 of Nicolai Demidov’s book ‘The Art of Living Onstage From a Theatre Teacher’s Laboratory  Translated by Andrei Malaev-Babel and Alexandra Rojavin. The studio: ...

In which we discuss Nicolai Demidov and his School of Acting with Andrei Biziorek of the Demidov Studio London.Links for the London studio and the Demidov Association can be found here : The studio:

In which we discuss the career of teacher and intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien and understand why Michaela Coel chose to thank Ita for her work when she won the leading actress award at the 2021 Baftas. These are some of the intima...

In which we discuss the professional life of Penny Cherns.Penny trained on the Directors’ Course at the Drama Centre after completing a sociology degree at the University of Kent at Canterbury. She worked as Joan Littlewood’s assist...

In which we talk about Doreen Cannon. One of the most important figures in the history of British Actor training. With very special guests Annie Tyson and John Bechizza. John BeschizzaJohn is the Lead Acting Tutor at Rada a...

In which we compare two experiences of the British Drama School and prepare for conversations about Doreen Cannon. 

In which we read John Gielgud’s views on Stanislavsky. From January 1937. 

This episode includes an extract from Vladimir Mirodan’s excellent paper The first class: Harold Lang and the beginnings of Stanislavskian teaching in the British conservatoire. 

In which we discuss Jean Benedetti; Rose Bruford and Lamda’s recent NSS results and why Stanislavsky really wrote his books. 

In which we read Saint Denis’ essay on the application of the Stanislavsky approach, and it’s American interpretation as the method, to the plays of Shakespeare…and perhaps understand something about the ideas underpinning the teaching at the L...

In which a special guest tells us the story of how a young Chinese Couple became amongst the tiny number of people who studied at the London Theatre  Studio in Islington just before the outbreak of the Second World War and of how they brou...

In which we look to understand something about the nature of the London Theatre Studio the school founded by Michel Saint Denis in a disused Methodist Chapel in Islington in 1936. Cover picture is of a  woolwork by Merula...

In Memoriam Oliver Neville 1929 - 2021. Rada's Principal from 1984 to 1993. 

The image is of candidates for the Academy of Dramatic Art auditioning in 1911. 

Tanmay Dhanania is an actor. He studied Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley and then trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has acted in UK tv shows like New Tricks for the BBC, Indian Summers for Channel 4 and The Durrells...

An investigation into the only consistently successful institutional actor training of the 19th Century: Sarah Thorne’s Theatre Royal in Margate including an account of Winnifred Dolan’s training there in 1890. 

In this episode we revisit Clive Barker’s essay from 1995: What Training - for What Theatre? And wonder how far we have come in the intervening 27 years. 

A conversation about acting and training, choices and chances with the actor Michael Balogun, who graduated from Rada in 2017.   

Isabella Verrico, King Boateng, Naz Yeni, Che Francis and Robert Price participate in a conversation about the possibilities and risks of training in the Drama School recorded on Saturday 27th April 2021. The discussion was facilitated by Dr. S...

As we move towards a kind of deregulation of Actor training we establish the relationship between the CDD and NCDT find out how they relate to the Gulbenkian Report and discover what happened to Drama UK.