Communication and Resilience in Acting Students: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines communication practices within two Australian actor training institutions, investigating strategies employed by actor-trainers to build resilience in students. The study suggests that resilience is beneficial to acting students for two key reasons: (1) to help them navigate the challenges within conservatory-style actor-training institutions and (2) to prepare them for industry-related challenges. The research adopted a qualitative, semi-inductive design and employed semi-structured interviews that were conducted with four trainers and four third-year acting students (in total) from two Australian actor-training institutions. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data. The study found that all participants placed value on the role of resilience in both training and in the acting profession. The trainers were able to describe strategies and language used in order to cultivate wellbeing and resilience in their students. Some discrepancies were found between the students’ experiences and the trainers’ intentions. Although some institutional practices are in place to attend to student wellbeing and resilience, more might be done at an institutional level to support both trainers and students.