Being Black and British: Before, During and After Drama School

by Dermot Daly (Editor)

Overview

Being Black and British: Before, During and After Drama School is about being Black, being British and being an actor before, during and after training.

Written by Black writers working in and around the British performative industries, this book offers practical and theoretical tools to take into the classroom, studio, rehearsal room, mind, body and heart, focalised unapologetically through being Black in Britain. Structured across three acts, it covers themes present on the road to drama school such as youth theatre, the texts studied and early experiences in theatre spaces; drama school training with practical suggestions to encourage and embolden Black actors; and the world of the profession, ensuring that mental health, making work and a sense of what can be offered by Black actors is made clear.

This book is a call to action and a challenge to all those who teach, lecture, direct, parent, produce, cast and/or train Black performers in Britain – and those performers themselves, to listen more, ask more, feel more and be more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032824406
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/22/2025
Series:	Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dermot Daly is a senior lecturer in the School of Drama at Leeds Conservatoire and a lecturer in the Leeds School of Arts, Leeds Beckett University, UK.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Voicing Experiences Beyond Academia: Recognising Black British Actors and the Industry

How Valuable Is It To Your Work To Have Black British Actors Who Are Connected To Their Black Britishness?

Why Is A Book Like This Important To The Performance Ecology?

 

Prologue

0.1 Being Black In Britain

 

Act One: Pre-training

1.1 The Canon

1.2 School To School: A Journey

1.3 Youth theatre

1.3a Youth theatre: #BlackIs...

1.4 Attending Theatre

1.5 Toolkit

 

Act Two: Training

2.1 What Traditional Training Has Not Considered

2.2 Being Black In Training

2.3 Voice

2.4 Acting: Empowering Black Performers

2.5 Moving Whilst Black

2.6 Embracing Diasporic Difference: Rejecting limitations of Black characterisation in acting training

Act Three: The Profession 

3.1 Making Your Own Work

3.2 What Is A Director Looking For?

3.3 My First Job

3.4 Mental Health

3.5 Dreams

 

Epilogue

4.1 A Parting Note

4.2 The Future