Director training and education: models from Brazil and the UK

Abstract

This paper presents a conversation that took place via Zoom on 6 September 2022, between Adriana Schneider Alcure and Bruce Adams, curated by Pedro de Senna. In it, Alcure and Adams discuss their experiences, respectively, at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Middlesex University, London (MDX). Both universities offer BA courses in theatre directing, but follow very different models. Both universities also offer MAs in Theatre Arts (MDX) and ‘Artes da Cena’ (UFRJ), with similar interdisciplinary ethea. Mediated by de Senna’s experience of both cultural contexts, Adams and Alcure talk about commonalities and differences, addressing two key pedagogical questions: in what ways can directing be taught, if at all? And: what is the role of theatre (and theatre directors) in society? The conversation is not directly transcribed, but edited and organised by de Senna, drawing on the themes explored, and addresses contemporary theatre director training from an intercultural perspective. The exchange touches on questions of academic and artistic labour, student cohorts, curriculum design, interdisciplinarity; and the relationship between ‘training’ and ‘education’, when it comes to the performing arts in general, and theatre directing in particular: are these terms even adequate? It is clear that these questions are imbricated with those relating to the purpose of, and access to, the arts and education more broadly, in societies that, while very different, have more in common than might at first be acknowledged.