Exploring ‘Teaching Excellence’ in Vocational Theatre Training: What Role Does It Play in Enabling Student Success?

Abstract

Theatre training establishments in the UK have long prided themselves on educating the ‘elite’ talents in the fields of performance, design and production. This study aims to explore the notion of ‘teaching excellence’ within technical theatre training, through interviews with both students and teachers at Guildford School of Acting. Participants noted that excellence was an important aim of teaching and fitted well with the industry facing and professional focus of the drama school, and that excellence should be measured and improved. However, our research found that excellence is a hard term to define meaningfully and difficult to measure fairly. We believe that further research is needed to move closer to defining, planning, implementing and measuring teaching excellence in this sector.