For a start you need dramatic talent, flair and an ear for dialogue as well as ideas and a good vocabulary to write a play. And I'm still not sure. But, as always it's probably a case of not…
From ages 4 to 94, whether aspiring to be an actor, director, opera singer or dancer, if you want to study Greek
Drama school audition fees are a scandal. They are immoral and unfair. Drama aspirants should not be punished for their passion.
The open air season will soon be upon us. "If winter comes, can spring be far behind? as Shelley puts it. And no one does open air theatre with more hopeful enthusiasm than the lovably daft …
While there are myriad ways to become a theatre director, as any professional will tell you, if you are looking for specific
I've thought and written a lot about performing arts foundation courses lately. It's the time of year when students are looking at possible options for September and course providers are try…
If you work with under-18s developing performance skills (along with confidence and all those other useful transferables) then Samantha Marsden's new book is likely to be very helpful.
Let's hear it for pub theatres. Unheard of when I was a London teenager in the 1960s, there are now over 70 of them across the capital and they're beginning to mushroom in other big cities t…
Should you take a full degree or just top up an existing qualification? Susan Elkin finds out why the quality of the
I've seen several plays recently (no names no pack drill) in which I have missed an occasional line. There is nothing, I repeat nothing, wrong with my hearing.
So what do you do with theatre programmes aka playbills (in the USA)? They make nice souvenirs of an evening out but what if you're in the theatre working three or four times a week? You'd s…
To Kill a Mockingbird. Oh dear. The production which originated at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in 2015 before touring nationwide including to the Barbican, is now dead. It was due to…
For school leavers who have their minds set on a career in the performing arts but are not ready for the transition
Surely it's part of good, thorough training to prepare students for the critical world by letting them experience it before they graduate " even if you invite in only those critics you can t…
A daunting array of options are available for further training. Susan Elkin asks course leaders across the country for their best advice
Theatre critics have diaries bubbling with commitments. There's some sort of press night or performance almost every day and often more than one. Clashes are surprisingly common. Getting to …
Parents often tell me they're worried about offspring who want to train for a professional performing arts career. They fret about future uncertainty, especially unemployment. My advice to t…
Yes, I know we're in a fiercely competitive industry. Everyone trying to make a living in it has to do everything possible to promote themselves and their wares. Social networking might have…
I often see top "A team" critics looking miserably impassive as if they'd rather be anywhere but in the theatre. Is there some code of practice that I'm not party to which requires you never…
As the deadline for UCAS applications approaches, Susan Elkin speaks to the tutors who will be receiving them to find out what
This year, for the first time in decades, I decided that I'd choose my own Christmas shows and arrange to review them rather than waiting for editors to impose them on me. And I'm having a l…
Joanna Lumley, given all your aforementioned useful qualities, you could get attention from lots of influential blokes and get this thing off the ground in a way that I can't. How about a Jo…
Theatrecraft, the annual careers fair, which I attended last week, is doing a fine job by getting around a thousand young people through the door every time.
It isn't every day I stumble across a strong new vocational training opportunity which is almost free to the participants. I refer to the Lyric Ensemble which piloted in the 2017/18 academic…
New two-year technical programmes are planned to equip young people for employment. Susan Elkin gauges opinion on how the courses will work,