Playing to type: industry and invisible training in the National Youth Theatre’s ‘Playing Up 2’

Abstract

Alongside its core actor and stage technician training activities, the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain runs training programmes targeting specific ‘socially excluded’ groups. This article examines the 2009/10 iteration of the social inclusion actor training programme ‘Playing Up 2’ (subsequently suspended and reinstated as ‘Playing Up’), drawing on a period of rehearsal observation and interviews carried out during and after the final showcase performance The Block. This play was set on a fictional London housing estate and included several stereotypical archetypes of inner-city, working class characters (the black drug dealer, the mentally ill young racist, the benefit claiming single mother). This article begins by considering the politics of casting in The Block project; it then focuses on how the notion of ‘social inclusion’ mediated participants’ understanding of the relationship between their personal and professional identities. It demonstrates how asking young people to embody stereotypes closely related to their ‘real’ identities caused significant tensions within the training process, exacerbated by the ‘socially excluded’ label. It reveals how the organisation of the programme and interactions with tutors operated as ‘invisible’ elements of the training process, reinforcing the ideas about ‘industry’ that participants were exposed to in the curriculum.

Keywords:

• actor training
• social inclusion
• race
• class
• casting

Notes

¹ This project, part of a wider PhD exploration into social housing estates and their representation, underwent ethical review at the University of Leeds. All participants, including the writer and director, were briefed on the parameters of the project, which included thinking about the ‘social inclusion’ role of the programme. All participants gave permission for their interviews to be used in publications arising from the research, and were given the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any time.

² In this article, the names of participants and some identifying details have been changed in an attempt to protect identities. I acknowledge that some identities may be impossible to conceal entirely ‒ where this was the case, participants were made aware that I could not guarantee anonymity.

³ Courses for 2017 ranged from £450 to £989. Accommodation is charged at between £465 and £950 (NYT 2017).

⁴ In April 2017 six-day master classes in Acting for Screen, Audition Technique and Performing Shakespeare were advertised on the NYT’s website for between £299 and £329 (NYT 2017).

⁵ The NYT’s website lists alumni as including actors Dame Helen Mirren, Daniel Craig, Colin Firth, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Day-Lewis, Orlando Bloom, Catherine Tate, Sir Ben Kingsley and Sir Derek Jacobi (NYT.org.uk 2016).

⁶ In 2012 it was widely reported in the national media that the NYT was facing severe financial challenges due to funding cuts and an administration error, which left the company with debts of £650,000 (see Clark 2012, Dunbar 2012).

⁷ The Quality Audit was an internal document produced by the NYT to evaluate the PU2 programme as they developed their portfolio. It included justification for the programme, figures on completion rates, narrative accounts of the programmes’ benefits and the impact on participants. It was sent to me by the NYT as a follow-up to my attendance at The Block rehearsals. It is not, to my knowledge, published in the public domain.

⁸ Parts of this article expand a shorter piece I wrote for the journal Research in Drama Education (Beswick 2015).

⁹ See Beswick (2011, 2015) for more details on the performance.