Playing with Difference in Actor Training: A Method to Transform Policy into Pedagogy

This chapter speaks back to years of a tradition in actor training programmes that have historically excluded students from diverse backgrounds. The legacy of this tradition still weighs down on actor training programmes, which is evident from the centring of English and the erasure of vernacular English and other home languages present in the room. The method we document in this chapter seeks instead to embrace the unique identity of the actor and to help guide trainers who have not had the pedagogical framework to work confidently with the many identities, languages, and vernaculars present in the contemporary actor training programme. This chapter offers a practical guide to playing with difference in actor training by documenting a series of exercises and interventions that allow performers to embrace and ignite the full power of their unique identity. In so doing, it offers a method for transforming institutional policy positions that set out principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion into a pedagogy that empowers all students.