Help with best route to becoming a drama teacher.

[tikka]

Ds loves acting and does acting things all the time. He doesn't really know what he wants to do full time, except act! He's not likely to get in to the top drama schools so I'm trying to think of backup plans....

He would love to run drama sessions in a theatre, or join a small touring theatre group. If he wanted to teach drama, possibly in a secondary school, but maybe freelance what would be the best route to take?

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks
tikka

[pg]

I think freelance would be a question of slowly building up a reputation and getting pupils by word of mouth. He could also investigate the franchises like Stagecoach and Helen O'Grady (no relation ).

He could investigate offering after school drama clubs in partnership with a school?

As a teenager, my ds worked as an assistant at the Saturday drama school he had attended since he was small and learned a lot from the experience. If he sees this thread, he might expand on that!

He has just started offering private tuition and I do think he is a good teacher (certainly an excellent director). He is just "putting the word out" really, be he might be able to tell you a bit about his experience so far.

Other freelance teachers I know tend to be those who either have industry experience (as actors or directors) or are ex-teachers.

Teaching drama in a secondary school would mean doing a PGCE after a Drama/English degree I would think (I'm sure there are those better qualified than I am to advise!). As far as I am aware, drama teaching at secondary is quite competitive with quite a few after the jobs, so being qualified to teach something else as well might be useful.

My brief experience of running workshops in schools and from talking to a good friend who teaches drama at secondary school, leads me to believe that it is not an easy job. I'm sure it depends on the school - but unlike a Saturday school there will be lots of pupils who are not very interested in the subject. I know at ds school there were quite a number who considered drama a soft option and just mucked about in the lessons.

There would also be the option of teaching at a primary school and getting involved in school/class productions?

There are quite a lot of Theatre in Education companies around, but again they tend to employ actors by the show rather than permanently, and with jobs so scarce it can be fairly competitive for actors. CragRats and Theatreand are two based in the North but there are companies all round the country. Being able to drive is highly desirable. These jobs are quite often advertised on Casting Call Pro and the Equity website. There are quite a few companies listed in Contacts I think. I had my first Equity job (before I went to drama school) with CragRats (though it was a corporate job rather than TIE). They used to be the biggest employer of actors outside London, with several tours on the go. TIE could be a profitable line of enquiry, though it's tiring work and I don't think many actors stick it for all that long.

The more prestigious TIE work (RSC for example) tends to be as competitive as any other acting job and is cast on a show by show basis.

Getting some experience as a director might be useful, as would volunteering to help with youth theatres.

Small touring theatre groups almost always employ actors on a show by show basis - unless it's a co-operative set up by the actors themselves. In either case, it's a fiendishly difficult way to earn reliable money. I know one company I worked for had several hundred CVs submitted for one job, and of course it isn't a permanent job so you have to go back to the drawing board once it's finished. At least they tend to be contracts of several weeks, sometimes even several months. Small regional/rural touring theatre companies do have a small team of permanent employees, but these are either office based or the artistic director or crew.

Regional theatres often have education departments that run workshops etc. He could try writing to ask what sort of experience they would look for in an employee - he could even ask if he could volunteer to help with some of the workshops they run.

[tikka]

Thanks PG.

You are so helpful, its much appreciated. Hard being a parent who has no experience of the world of acting, except as the audience!

tikka

[Welsh Mum]

You may also want to look at the DATE course at Central - my DDs friend does this and really enjoys it.

http://www.cssd.ac.uk/study/undergradua ... -education

I know its very well respected.

[tikka]

THANKS WELSHMUM

looks interesting

tikka

[paulears]

The only thing to think about is to do early years or stay older - The older the kids, the more meaty the productions. If you teach in college, then you can do full length complex material from Shakespeare to WWRY. At High School, it will be simpler to cope with the GCSE drama/BTEC Perf arts needs for level 2, and at primary - it's just fun.

If he loves acting, he could be seriously fed up with simple stuff. Music people have the same issue. Do you want to work with grade 8 kids, or 2! Same with dance.

The Drama/English uni degree is common, but so are specific performing arts degrees. Many will let a graduate do their PGCE in the graduate entry scheme - but who knows in a few years?

[tikka]

Do you need any specific qualifications to teach drama in a college? In a school I expect you need a degree and a PGCE in drama.

tikka

[Son of PG]

Thought I’d throw my sixpence in as well (is that the saying? Now I look at it don’t think it is). Of course I agree with everything pg has said, as is to be expected.
There seem to me , at it’s simplest, two routes one could take, although after university/drama school they probably become even more. One could begin the process from an analytical point or from a practical one. The obvious versions of this are English at University or studying performing at an accredited Drama School.
I took the Drama School route, as I wanted to be an actor primarily, but I always knew it was a dodgy business and so made sure I went somewhere that would give me a BA. Although I haven’t gone on to do a years teacher training I know that option is still open to me, as are a few others; I could work for a TIE company as an actor (because I have ‘trained’), I could work in their Education/Workshop department (if they’d have me), I could look at Education departments in other companies (RSC, Shakespeare’s Globe etc), work for a Drama Club, or do private tutoring (as I am doing). Although I do not think for a minute I could walk straight into these jobs, I think they may at least look at my CV, because I have ‘trained’. As pg said, the touring TIE companies will most likely go for ‘trained’ actors, and I could be wrong, but without some ‘training’ I think the private tutoring that I’m doing may be a little harder to get in to.
With an English degree, the easy route would be through the teacher training, and straight into an English/Drama dept at a school. I have a feeling you still need to have trained as a teacher to teach in a college, certainly for A Level.
Gosh that was all a bit ramble-y.
I’m loving private drama tuition, I’ve missed working with young people very much since I left my old job at a Drama Club to go to RADA, and am very glad I’m doing it again… I also feel I’m a much better teacher, having learned an awful lot more through much better people than me in the profession.
Experience in any form is a must, even Drama teacher’s teaching GCSE, which isn’t really about acting at all, should have some experience, Drama isn’t just studying the words and the full stops, it’s about storytelling. So whether it’s Drama School (were you don’t stop doing plays) or University (where you have the potential to not stop doing plays) it’s the experience before, during and after which will help your son decide exactly what he wants to do.
What I mean is, he should grasp every possibility to write, direct, be in things that he can.

[tikka]

Thanks 'pg and son'! I am starting to undestand the set up, and I'm pleased that ds is fortunate in being part of a brilliant theatre group and is hoping to help assist teaching there once he is 18, and is already devising new work and performing it.

When you say 'trained' then I'm assuming that's becuase you went to an accredited drama school. If you do a BA in Acting at a Uni (thinking of Bath Spa for example) would that count as 'being trained', or is that term only applicable to the drama schools, such as the BOV?

Thanks for taking the time to advise.
tikka

[Welsh Mum]

My DD had a part time job working in a youth theatre group in her gap year and really enjoyed it. However, it also taught her she enjoyed performing even more . However, she still helps out there in her holidays.

[paulears]

If you teach in a college, then the usual qualification requirement for full time work is a PGCE plus your uni qualification, whatever that is. In most cases, for college work they want specialists, so if you want to teach music, somebody with umpteen years experience on the road as a musician earning a living, is more important to them than a BA in something non-music. As much of what they do is split into units or modules, then they may want you to specialise in areas others cannot manage. That's how I started. They had music and Media & Communications at A Level, and their existing teachers could manage most of it, but music evolved into having 'technology' attached, and media & communications had all sorts of technical things added in - things alien to the two people who up until then had done it all on their own. So I went and did the bits with plugs, but soon, things grew and Performing Arts was on the list of things to do - so that became mine too. I wasn't interested in Drama, but putting on shows was what I had been doing for years. The system works pretty well because teachers in schools can be very isolated from the real world, but in college - students are of an age where they can spot blank spots in the staff's knowledge.

[Son of PG]

By ‘Trained’ I mean an accredited Drama School. I think this is what most people mean by it. I put it in commas as actually being trained in the profession comes from so many different sources, I have lots of colleagues and friends who are doing brilliantly and according to some have never ‘trained’.

[pg]

Of course I agree with everything pg has said, as is to be expected

... just goes to show that there's a first time for everything

[Nicola]

Son of PG wrote:
Of course I agree with everything pg has said, as is to be expected

... just goes to show that there's a first time for everything