“Too many actors and too few jobs”: A case for curriculum extension in UK vocational actor training

Abstract

This article questions the current situation for vocational acting training (VAT) in the UK. It aims to provide an update on the report into burgeoning provision of acting training (and the attempt to address subsequent high rates of actor unemployment) that was originally undertaken by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (CGF, 1975) in their publication entitled Going on the Stage . The article will suggest that the continued proliferation of VAT offered at tertiary level, allied to the dearth of career opportunities for graduates, means that the current training offer is not entirely fit for purpose. It will further propose that VAT requires a widening of the curriculum offer in order to provide meaningful vocational workplace readiness for course graduates at a time when, as Malcolm Sinclair, president of the British actors' union, Equity, acknowledges, 'there are too many actors and too few jobs' (in Clark, 2014a: 17). To address the question of VAT and employability in the UK, this article will reconsider the three questions initially posed in Going on the Stage (CGF, 1975: 7). These were: why is drama training necessary, to what extent do the present arrangements fall short of the ideal, and what should VAT entail? By re-posing these questions, this article will present the contemporary context of VAT, review the status of progression rates into employment, and propose a case for curriculum extension in light of the findings.