Output details

Ethnicity and actor training: A British Asian actor prepares

Dr Dominic Hingorani has researched the relationship between actor training and ethnicity through both practice and research; disseminated in published work and conference papers. In his professional practice directing the premiere production of Blood at The Gate Theatre, a new play by a Emteaz Hussein, a British Asian woman playwright, produced by Tamasha Theatre Company, he applied an intra-cultural actor training methodology. The play was based on Blood Wedding by Lorca, but was re-located to the contemporary Pakistani community in the north of England. This intra-cultural approach takes account of, rather than disavows, the ethnicity or ‘cultural context’ of the actor and is detailed in: Hingorani, D. (2009) ‘Ethnicity and Actor Training – A British Asian Actor Prepares’, South Asian Popular Culture, 7(3), pp. 164 – 178. The article contextualises the historic lack of representation of actors from ethnic minority communities in post-war British theatre. The article sets out the actor-training methodology devised by Kristine Landon-Smith, co-Artistic Director of Tamasha Theatre Company, which addresses the ‘cultural context’ of the actor and explicitly aims to ‘help actors make a bridge between their own identity and the world with which they are engaging’; this methodology was explored in the development, rehearsal and direction of Blood. This approach has also been the subject of conference papers; (2008) ‘An Asian Actor Prepares: Ethnicity and Performer Training’ British Asian Theatre: from Past to Present University of Exeter, an invitation to give a lecture at (2010) The Stanislavski Centre / The Research Centre for Multicultural and Intercultural Performance at Rose Bruford College as well as directed readings at The Bush Theatre of new Asian playwriting for the South Asian Literature Festival (2012).