Case study: Globe Education Practitioner

 Q: What is your job role?

Globe Education Practitioner.

Q: Can you explain what you do?

I run workshops for students and teachers at the Globe theatre which focus on the Globe playing space and how it relates to a particular Shakespeare play.

Q: Describe a typical working day. What did you do today?

Today I had two workshops for key stage 2 students, one based on the Tempest and one on Macbeth. The visits involve a workshop of an hour during which we go through several exercises that focus on the Globe for actors, the play and its language, and half an hour in the theatre putting it all into context and going onto the stage. Then I went to the dentist!

Career journey

Q: What did you do before this?

I came to Globe education after drama school having briefly been a guide for the exhibition at the Globe. I’d had a couple of acting jobs that involved taking workshops for children, and had done some music workshops whilst at university so I always wanted to get into the education side of the Globe. I’m an actress as well as a Globe education practitioner, and I do various other freelance work as a performer.

Q: What training/education did you go through, and do you consider it to have helped you in your career? If so, how?

I did a degree in music at Manchester University and then a post-graduate acting course at drama studio london.  It’s been enormously helpful but as an actor and a workshop leader you have to keep learning all the time and doing courses along the way has been just as helpful if not more.

Q: How did you learn your trade/craft? Who helped you?

I started in the 6th form at school doing school plays, then did them in my spare time at university.  I had a fantastic english teacher who gave me my first part in the first school play there had ever been at my school and I was hooked at that moment.  I learned about taking theatre workshops ‘on the job’ and was helped by the BBC Philharmonic education work I did at university.

Q: Did you get any funding or financial assistance that enabled you to support your career development? If so, where?

I took out a career development loan to get through drama school, but no grants.

Q: Would you have imagined you'd be doing what you do now five years ago? Ten years ago?

Yes, I always hoped I would be doing this.

Q: What has been your proudest achievement?

"Know it’s going to be hard work, and be prepared for instability in your work but persist because it’s worth it." Alice Barclay, Education Practitioner, Globe Theatre

Many – at the Globe I’ve been very proud of the community project work I’ve been involved in which usually culminates with the clas performing on the stage.  Watching them overcome their fears and perform is very moving.

Q: Looking back over your career, what (if anything) would you have done differently?

I would have taken three years at drama school instead of one.  At the time I wanted to get on with it, but training is always the most valuable time and you shouldn’t rush it.  Two more years at college would have made the first few years of boing an actress more fun and successful.  At the Globe as a practitioner I wouldn’t change anything.

Professional development

Q: Have you taken any useful training or personal development that has helped your career?

Many acting courses and training at the Globe in terms of how to teach workshops.

Q: Who have been your mentors?

Too many to mention

Q: How important is professional development to you and do you know where to go to get this?

Very important, and yes I do know where to get it.

Advice to others

Q: What advice would you give somebody interested in getting into your industry?

Know it’s going to be hard work, and be prepared for instability in your work but persist because it’s worth it.  Be better organised financially than I am and save for the bad times when there’s not much work.

Q: If someone was applying to work with you what skills and qualities would you be looking for? 

Enthusiasm, ability to communicate well, empathy, genuine interest in what other people think.

Q: In interviews, what mistakes do people make most often?

I haven’t seen many from the other side but in the ones I have seen - they don’t let their own personalities come through enough.  People are employing you not just your qualifications.

Q: Why do you think so many struggle to get into your industry?

It’s very competitive – there simply aren’t enough jobs!

Q: If you could offer one piece of crucial advice for people wanting to progress further in your industry, what would it be?

Keep positive, and don’t ever let an opportunity pass you by without doing the best you possibly can.  Each student is having a potentially life changing day.

The industry

Q: What do you think are the issues affecting your industry at the moment?

Changing in teaching practice – keeping up with the schools’ changes. 

Q: What do you think needs to be done to tackle these issues?

Training, as we get at the Globe.