V Log 2

V-Log 1

Theory of Diversity

This evening I'm going to attempt to hold an online Q&A with teachers concentrating on what to look for in their HE options for their more talented students.

Having been a member of a teacher's FB group for a while, I've been struck by a) How passionate the majority of the teaching staff are around the performing arts subjects. Without a doubt putting in more hours than the other humanities/sciences etc.  All those after school rehearsals start to add up you know. b) How much they are relying on outside information to inform their recommendations to their students specifically looking to go into performing. However c) that outside information isn't actually available.

What we have instead is hearsay and history.  eg Teachers are still talking about accredited courses..but there are no Drama UK accredited courses anymore.  This is just one of a number of examples...but how on earth do teachers find out these basic facts, when they are already snowed under with additional work?

Anyway you get the idea - I felt really sorry for those teachers desperately trying to do the right thing by their students, but a lack of basic information was not easily available.

Then I was walking my son to school the other day, and as always I'm struck by the diversity of ethnicity in his playground...and as ever, how lovely it is, that at primary school level anyway, the innocence of childhood means that everyone is equal.  Society hasn't yet taught them how to be racist. Parents of different nationalities mix. . . and the children see for themselves that 'we are all equal'...we don't automatically become ghettoised.  They are all taught to have the same dreams and aspirations.

So this thought popped into my head that I'd like to share with you. I'm assuming that most schools these days have a great cultural mix (unless you're a small village school out in the country somewhere). The ethnic diversity is acknowledged and celebrated.  So why aren't we seeing this diversity come through to drama school level?

I would hazard a guess that the largest percentage of ethnic minorities that end up in vocational HE come through youth group links, be that at National or Local level.  Drama has long been the saviour of disenfranchised teens, whatever their cultural background.

My suspicion is that bad career advice might be coming into play, and therefore has an impact on the diversity in vocational training.

We need to educate parents and teachers that a course that offers 16hrs contact time/week should not be considered if that student is truly talented.  We need to start shouting from the rooftops that you don't need a degree to become an actor.  Students who might be struggling academically to get the 'grades' for a degree course might be the most talented students...and there are courses dead right for them.

As an industry we need to be shouting about the courses that are not getting students ready for the industry.  Courses taking 30+ students a year under the pretense of getting them industry ready, are no doubt teaching their students valuable lessons...but they ain't getting them ready for a career in performing.

I did some work with a group of 3rd year students not so long ago at one of these courses.  They could not even warm up their voices properly!! It wasn't their fault....they had barely received any teacher contact time.  Their final performance was not at the level of a year one, term one piece at a vocational college.  This was of no fault of the students or the lecturers actually...it was the fault of a money making course, selling false promises, and parents and secondary school teachers falling for these promises under the pretense of 'it was a degree course therefore it must be good'.

So let's 'inform' parents and secondary school teachers of what's really important. The universities need to rename these Mickey Mouse, Money-Making courses, as a life skill degree (for which it would be good value for money actually, as drama truly does provide you with those skills), and let's start looking at the courses that truly deliver and offer true value for money.

Let's not forget, that all of this nonsense of 'let them get a qualification behind them' is actually costing parents £27k.  So let's scrap those courses, get the student finance being ploughed into them redirected over to the vocational sector, and maybe we'd start seeing a true representative of the modern day Britain in our auditions?

Finally

So today it feels like the world has finally caught up with what I've been shouting about for years:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/26/university-fees-regulator-tuition-students?CMP=soc_3156
This article advocates for the 2 year accelerated model - time to point out that we've been doing this at The MTA since 2009. It also shouts out asking for transparency...again something that I've been shouting about since opening the college.
So let's reflect shall we?
I said years ago that Mental Health was a huge factor in the arts, and we in the training sector had a responsibility to face it head on.  Fast forward to July 2016 and the launch of #time4change and we're finally getting somewhere. We need dance colleges to embrace this and the 'straight' acting courses. We need the the CDD to lower themselves to join us in a united fight...BUT we're getting there.
A big shout out in this blog to Backstage, the US Casting Directory launching over here, taking on Spotlight. Unlike Spotlight who refuse to get into a conversation about #time4change, Backstage have already signed up.  So I say use them - and stop Spotlight monopolising our industry. Let's have some healthy competition at long last.

I always named Drama UK as a drain on resources, providing nothing other than a launch website for 'the club'.  I called them out when they started taking jollies to NY and China. . . under the guise of 'brand awareness'. Fast forward to 2016 - Drama UK is no more.  There is no organisation really governing drama training in the UK anymore. I'm pleased that we didn't pay the thousands of pounds they were asking for to be 'tested' by them, or indeed the £6k/year they wanted if you qualified to join 'their club'.

I've always said that the drama colleges moved to degree courses to get additional funding, creating this ludicrous situation where parents now believe that a degree is better for their child than a diploma. Whereas in reality it makes no difference.  What that move did do though was put true vocational colleges into the same arena as the traditional uni drama course. Courses that are saying that they're getting their students industry ready, but with as little as 16 hours contact time/week that's impossible.

I visited a course a while ago where 3rd year students couldn't even do their own vocal warm up - such was the inadequacies of their training. Yet when I asked them what they were going on to do after graduating, they all confidently told me that they intended to be professional performers.  In reality they did not have a clue - their course and their college had completely let them down.  £27,000 in tuition fees for what? Life experience? Wouldn't their parents have been better off giving them the cash and telling them to go travel the world? Ironically it would have made them better performers too!

I've been on websites discussing this degree issue with parents - but they just don't get it, and in fairness to the 'Joe Public' parent, I understand it.  Surely degree = quality training = career. However those of us in the industry know that this isn't the case. It's training + connections + business acumen = the possibility of a career. That piece of paper that says degree means nothing.  Yes it's useful if they end up needing a 'fall back' career - but aren't we setting our children up for failure if we're providing them with the full back before they've tried the real deal? Let's not forget that the safety net that you're giving them will cost you in excess of £27k.  Once that's in place you're looking for the same again (or more) for the actual career that they want.

The 2 year model is bloody hard work - I know, I've been on that carousel now for 8 years. It's relentless. There's no long breaks where staff can just regroup and do a nice bit of admin for a few weeks. We're continuously needing to look into the next term in order to keep the thing moving.
I read someone on twitter just this morning extolling the virtue of the long Summer break - their students can earn money they cry.  Oh let's face it - they can't earn that much, and they'd be better off ploughing through and saving a year's tuition and living costs.

I hope that the colleges are forced to become transparent, as our industry will have some serious questions to answer I believe.  The audition scam, the additional courses that don't really do anything other than provide an income, the faculty members paid to do very little....let's get it out there and see what's really going on shall we?

We've always had open book accounting. Most of my staff are freelance in order to get the best value for money for my students, and because every subject is so 'specific' - I can't just hire generic teachers to do a bit of everything.

I get that The MTA is different, as it was 'my baby', therefore it's my responsibility to do the 19 hour days that I've been doing for the past few years, in order to get us up and running.  We worked out my hourly rate the other day - £1.75/hr max.  I'm not advocating that (in fact I'm really strict with my staff to only work their allocated hours)...however I am saying that if you're being paid X amount of money to do full day's work, that's what you should do. I'm also saying that if you're a uni literally filling your courses with a bunch of naive wannabes who are there because parent's preferred them to get a degree...shame on you.  Similarly though, if you're a drama college who moved across to the degree system to get more finance, use the financial gain to give the students more contact time, not to get in more admin staff. Better still - buy in some more mental health support, as we all know that we need it.

The Silver Spoon

It's the BAFTA evening, and already the broadsheets are carrying stories of woe about how theatre/performing is becoming an exclusively middle/upper class occupation.
The fees are extortionate, they cry, how can a young person afford them, they persist.  Then once they've graduated how do they support themselves without a lucrative bank of mum and dad to support them?

Well I hate to be controversial, but I think that it's always been like this. There's no difference to when I studied 30 years ago.  More than that why aren't all the people shouting about it and commenting about it on social media giving back to STOP it being like that?

I've written about this before however to reiterate:
a) ALL students these days going into HE can expect to hit debt city unless their parents are in a position to help them out. Lawyers, doctors...you name it, the debt is real.  Of course the difference is that you'd expect them to land a well paid job really quickly and to start paying it back, but actually in this day and age that is not always the case.
b) If some actors were more savvy with their acting careers, they too could get rid of some of the debt by not waiting around for an elusive, well paid film role, or theatre role.  Use your skillset and get some money behind you.  Some of my lot are currently working all over the world, earning a blooming fortune, paying their CDL's off early, getting money behind them ready to return to the UK and have some saving's in anticipation of the struggles that they're about to face.  
c) You don't have to sit tight in London for the first two years because that's the only time that a CD is interested in you. We know that because every CD that's come into college for a Q&A has named it.  In fact - they've all said...get some performance experience behind you.
d) The difficulty and reality is, to survive in our industry you need to find your perfect 'crap job'. The job that you can tolerate doing more that your real job. Personal trainer is a popular one at the moment, freedom to book and schedule clients around auditions, whilst taking control of your own life (and earning considerably more than the minimum wage). I have one student currently training to become a book keeper as they know that they can do this remotely wherever they end up working. As you'd expect lots of teachers.  Basically you're looking for the job that pays more than the minimum wage (as that is not a livable wage in London), and one that gives you flexibility.  If it's attached to the industry all the better, as you still get to live in 'our world'.

We negate the brilliance of a lot of our actors and writers as we still beat the 'angry young men' drum of the 60's. They 'rich kids' are not winning awards, gaining roles because they're from privileged backgrounds, they're getting them because either their good, or they put bums on seats.

This whole issue is so much more complex than 'the poor can't afford to train'. This is an educational matter that needs addressing. For as long as I can remember, schools have not considered a career in the performing arts a viable, sustainable career.
When I went to my career's officer as a teenager, I was told to join the army, as they'd encourage my musicianship and I'd get to play a lot of music. Seriously. That was the only advice that I received.
I'm from solid, Welsh, working class roots. My parents didn't have a clue about theatre, let alone the endless possibilities of having a career in theatre. I played the piano therefore I must become a music teacher.  Back then, even that just felt like a pipe dream.
After leaving college and I started to make my own career path, my parent's despaired as I did bigger and bigger shows, whilst continuing to earn no money.  It was hardly a good 'sell' to reassure them that I was OK. They didn't understand a creative hunger or need.  For them it was simple. Get a job that pays you regularly and life is sweet.  They had heard all the stories of theatrical unrealiability from us never getting a mortgage to never getting car insurance.  Nobody could tell them an alternative.

I was lucky, my parent's just went along with it (although I had my dad for 20 years practically begging me to get 'a proper job'). They didn't understand it, but they could see that I was happy.
Eventually a pay cheque landed and life looked a bit 'safer'. I found the perfect 'crap' job in teaching, so had found a way to be viable.

They didn't really have the money to help me out, nor did I want them to. They worked long enough hours as it was.

Am I a better performer because of my struggles? I don't know. Am I more resiliant and realistic because of them? Yes. Do I have a hunger for work because of my upbringing? Yes. Disclaimer: This is also true of some people who are from more privileged backgrounds too. I'm talking in hyperbole because that is how the media are approaching this topic.

I once offended around half of one of my year groups at The MTA, when I dared to name that the reason that they were being so awful, was because that they were spoilt brats, never knowing what it was to work for something.  So their general work ethic was appalling.  Whereas their classmates who were holding down up to 3 jobs in order to survive at the college were soaring - because they understood hard work.

There will always be a clique (hell Drama UK held onto that idea for as long as possible and now the CDD have stepped it up a notch). You are always more likely to be seen if you were trained at RADA than if you went to Drama Studio...there's the privilege right there. Yet in fairness RADA, and a lot of the colleges give over a large percentage of their places to the 'working class' straggler. Whether that be social conscience or clever PR who cares? It happens.

So what's the answer?
Schools (yup...including your bog standard Comprehensive) need to understand what careers are open to people in the arts.  They need to stop putting people off, instead support them to dare to dream. Harsh reality is killing more careers than your demographic.
Parents need to learn about the realities of the industry - maybe drama colleges could do more to support this?
We need to stop writing that the working class voice isn't being heard.  As I believe that as soon as that's published we muffle the voice that is attempting to break through.  Instead let's read the articles about all the great things that are being done in the UK to develop break through artists.
We need to understand that this is a societal problem, not an industry problem.
The 'working class' kids that want to do this need to talk to the colleges that they're interested in going to and find out what's on offer for them. If they're giving up at the first hurdle, they're probably not right for our industry anyway.
Finally why doesn't Equity use some of it's subs from the successful actors to 'give back'? If you're mega successful (and let's face it, we are in a career where you can literally go from stone broke to millionaire in one step)...give back. Chose a college (and please don't all chose RADA, they are really well supported)...and give yourself the tax break of giving some money to an up and coming street urchin as opposed to the Inland Revenue.

My next mission statement for The MTA is to have 50% of my places as sponsored places.  I could achieve this by just 260 people donating £10/week to the college. Donate your daily Starbucks coffee to the college and that's it...dream complete. It's not going to happen though is it, because those of you bleating about this cannot see that paying forward might need a donation, as opposed to a demonstration. I get it - it's your hard earned money, why should somebody else get it? Of course that's exactly what the parents of the privileged children that you're now being angry at thought too.

Here's the harder question. Aren't we just hacked off that some people have it easier than us? Aren't we resentful that they don't have to work to 'survive'? We dress it up as a social conscience, but in reality we're all OK...we're doing it. Or for those people fighting to get in and blaming their social standing....could it be that you're just not good enough yet?

Whatever the answer is - the debate is tedious and getting us nowhere.  Donate your 'anger' and resentment to The MTA, rather than hypothesising the situation over your Starbucks.  I have students in dire need of that money...maybe you could actually help them?