Five-part Series Occuring Between October 14, 2023 and April 27, 2024
PAMA’s Education Committee is excited to launch a five-part Actors Wellbeing Webinar Series! This exciting series is being curated by Mark Seton, a PAMA Board Member based in Australia, and Alan Powell, based in the UK. Note that each panel will have at least one researcher that presents the issue with evidence, one practitioner and/or educator presenting an intervention i.e. one solution to the issue, an actor with lived experience of both an intervention and/or non intervention.
About each panel:
PANEL 1
Actors wellbeing in the workspace & their lifestyle
Saturday 14 October, 2023
Acting is a profession – in that many actors do seek to be paid for what they bring to a creative project. But that’s where the comparison to other professions becomes debatable, and that can have adverse aspects on actor wellbeing – both in the workplace AND as an identity-informed lifestyle (like many other demanding professions where work hours can be unpredictable and overlap into the rest of a person’s life). While drama schools may prepare actors for the profession* in terms of skills and aptitudes for creating work, they don’t necessarily prepare actors for the ‘necessary’ lifestyle that accompanies this unpredictable profession or support their mental health.
Join us for a discussion on the challenges and some innovative interventions that are being implemented in the workplace and in the actors’ lifestyle.
*Statistically significant is that many actors who identify as ‘professional’ have entered the profession without a formal degree or similar qualification.
PANELISTS
Mark Seton (Australia)
Dr Mark Seton is an Honorary Research Associate (Theatre and Performance Studies) at The University of Sydney, Australia. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to conduct a study tour of actor training healthcare practices in the UK. Arising from this study, the Equity Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, initiated an internationally ground-breaking Actors’ Wellbeing Study in 2013. Mark is a Board member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association, and a founding member of the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare. He teaches actor wellbeing in several drama schools and also coaches actors, dealing with highly vulnerable and potentially traumatising roles, through the Actors Wellbeing Academy that he has established online.
Ian Maxwell (Australia)
Associate Professor Ian Maxwell is an Associate Professor in the discipline of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sydney. In addition to being a co-investigator, along with Mark Seton and Marianna Szabo on the Actors’ Wellbeing Study, Ian has written extensively on the history of modernist and avant-garde theatre in Australia. He is also a director. His next project is a production of Sergeant Snow White, a review created and produced in 1943 initially by Austro-German internees who enlisted in the Australian Armed Forces in Melbourne. An earlier project involving working on a cabaret originally performed in the ghetto city of Terezin in 1943— —Prince Bettliegend—is documented in A Holocaust Cabaret: Re-making Theatre from a Jewish Ghetto, published this year by Intellect.
Kristin Sorenson (Norway)
Kristin Losvik Sorensen is a registered nurse, theatre instructor and drama teacher and has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences at Nord University in Norway, since 2015. Sorensen has 20 years of experience within healthcare, including rehabilitation, detoxification, and mental health. She is a PhD candidate in Science of Profession at Nord University, investigating actors and how their work affects and gets affected by mental health. Her research interest is in the field of mental health & performing artists, arts & health and addiction medicine.
Arielle Swann (UK) Arielle is a registered Dance and Arts Psychotherapist specialising in delivering a trauma informed approach. Arielle works as a psychotherapist with children, families and parents within the community at Barnet Council in the UK. Arielle has experience working across different communities including child protective services, rehabilitation settings and community mental health contexts. She is passionate and excited about providing trauma informed psychotherapy groups within acting training programs specialising in increasing wellbeing, regulation and performance abilities.
Ben Steel (Australia) Ben is an accredited Mental Health First Aid instructor who brings this training with his knowledge and 30+ years of work experience in the screen sector, alongside his personal lived experience with anxiety & depression to Screen Well – established in 2022 to improve mental health outcomes for the Australian screen industry. He is passionate about improving wellbeing for the screen sector, and has spent the last seven years speaking to arts & entertainment industry leaders and experts in mental health about the wellbeing challenges and solutions creative practitioners experience, an exploration which culminated in him making the acclaimed ABC documentary The Show Must Go On released during mental health week 2019.
Bill Key (UK) Bill is an integrative therapeutic counsellor who previously worked as an actor in film/TV and theatre for over 30 years. He has experienced first hand the pressures and stresses involved in the lifestyle of an acting career and has a great interest in understanding other artists’ processes. His client base includes performing artists with a wide range of issues including anxiety, low self-esteem, anger management and, alcohol/substance misuse, Bill is also co-host of ‘Artists in Depth’, a podcast that explores wellbeing in the arts. His creative outlet is through writing and recording original music as well as performing in independent film and audio projects.
Moderator
Alan Powell (UK) Educator and Coach, Actor Care® Specialist and Narrative Film Director for Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children (Canada). Alan’s research in Actor Care was initially driven by the question: Why do some actors struggle to be emotionally authentic in performance? After 16+ years directing actors in trauma-based educational narratives and six years of training in various therapeutic modalities he developed ACES (Actualising Characters by Expanding Self-awareness) a trauma-informed model inspired by TSM (Therapeutic Spiral Model) Psychodrama that supports authentic expression by prioritising resilience prior to accessing vulnerabilities. ACES has been presented internationally at the International Association of Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes, Musicians’ and Performing Artists’ Health and Performance (Norway), the Australian Society for Performing Arts Health, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Stanislavsky Research Centre (UK), and Association of Acting Coaches & Educators (Canada). Currently, ACES forms part of the resilience research at Rose Bruford College in collaboration with London South Bank University in England.
PANEL 2
Interventions in Stage & Screen Production -Sustaining the Centrality of Wellbeing for All
Saturday November 18, 2023
Workplace health and safety is a relatively new phenomena for many industries including the entertainment sector – and the definitions of what constitutes healthy work practices is still under debate. There are the obvious physical risk factors that can lead to career-ending or life-ending injury. But there are also psycho-social factors such as bullying and discrimination for both cast and crew. And there are also potential mental health challenges of either performing or witnessing an emotionally distressed character over extended periods of time. All of these factors need preventative, healing and self-care resourcing during a production.
This panel will bring into focus the need for support and what currently exists in the film/TV and theatre industries and how they are making a difference in creating a healthier workplace environment.
Panelists:
Paula Thomson (USA), PsyD, is Professor, California State University, Northridge and licensed Clinical Psychologist. She is Co-Director of the Performance Psychophysiology Laboratory and Professor Emeritus/Senior Scholar at York University (Canada).
Kate Drummond (Canada) From TedTalks to supernatural cult hits, blockbuster movies & video games, this Canadian Screen Award-winning actor is a former school teacher who proved it is never too late to follow your dreams. Kate has extensive experience working in film, television, voice-over, and video games.
Adam Noble (USA), Head of MFA Acting at the University of Houston and the resident Fight Director & Intimacy Specialist for the prestigious Alley Theatre. He is a recognized Intimacy Director with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators, and a Fight Director and Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors.
Lou Platt (UK), Artist Wellbeing Practitioner and founder/director of The Artist Wellbeing Company – an organisation and approach born from her unique synthesis of being a Dramatherapist, Clinical supervisor, Internal Family Systems Practitioner, and independent theatre maker/performer.
Sarah Bedi (UK) (she/they) Director/writer. Co-artistic director BAZ Productions (2012-2020). Director for Shakespeare’s Globe’s Ensemble (2019). An associate at Tonic Theatre and a Board Trustee for The Albany, an arts centre in Deptford UK known for their award-winning initiatives that support marginalised groups.
Alan Powell Moderator (UK) Freelance Actor Care® Specialist, Narrative Film Director for Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children (Canada), creator of ACES (Actualizing Characters by Expanding Self-awareness) a trauma informed approach to character development & performance.
PANEL 3
Interventions in Actor Education – Sustaining the Centrality of Wellbeing
Saturday, January 20, 2024 (90 minutes)
The desired professionalisation of acting, with the belief that actor training can be formalised and quantified has been a phenomena since the 20th century – acting, voice and movement have been the bedrock of most qualification-based drama programs, where often a conservatoire model seeks to embody skills over time to ensure well-formed actors that are employment-ready. But the gradual recognition of the industry that actors lack skills and wisdom about self-care in a formalised way has been very slowly adopted in drama schools, alongside music programs and dance programs. At the same time, both historical and contemporaneous accounts of abuse, neglect, harassment, bullying, and inequity in opportunities continue to circulate in the sector, producing generations of potentially traumatised and injured actors who struggle to find and sustain careers they have trained for.
Join us for a conversation on current initiatives that are addressing the wellbeing of actors in training by educational Institutions and organizations.
Panelists:
Andrea Moor (Australia) Associate Professor Andrea Moor is an actor, director, accredited Intimacy director, educator and researcher. She has worked extensively as an actor in theatre film and television and continues to juggle an active acting career with her academic career. Andrea’s research passion is actors wellbeing and consent training for performers. Andrea teaches in the BFA acting program at Queensland University of Technology. She is a NIDA graduate, a master teacher of Practical Aesthetics, a Churchill Fellow and holds a doctorate in creative industries completing the first comprehensive study on contemporary actor training in Australia. She has served on the boards of Queensland Theatre and Metro Arts and is a committee member of AusAct, the Australasian Actor Trainers Association. Andrea now lives and works on the lands of the Jagara and Turrbull people in Brisbane Australia after many years working and living in Sydney.
Kareena Hodgson (Australia) is a clinical Counsellor and Psychotherapist specialising in the entertainment industry. She splits her work between National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) as the senior counsellor and her private practice The Manifesto.Kareena was a full-time circus performer for 20 years. Working with Rock’n’Roll circus (now Circa), Circus Oz and DV8 Physical Theatre. Kareena toured internationally until 2006 after the birth of her children. Kareena has a Bachelor of Counselling and Coaching and a Masters of Counselling and Psychotherapy. She is uniquely suited to working in the mental health space within the performing arts due to her lived experience. She is passionate about shining a light on the wellbeing of artists and crew, and believes that help seeking, reflection and mental health support is a critical element of self-care for creatives.
Cheryl McFarren (USA) is Associate Professor of Theatre at Denison University in Granville, OH, USA, where she has taught since 2009. She holds an M.F.A. in acting from the National Theatre Conservatory in Denver, Colorado, as well as a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Colorado at Boulder. McFarren is an actor and director, who teaches acting and theatre making and writes about acting theory.
Theresa Tova (Canada), Recognized by NOW Magazine as one the Top Ten Toronto theatre artists of 2017 for her starring turns on stage while “proving an effective spokesperson about zero tolerance for sexual harassment in the industry”. Tova is sitting past President of ACTRA Toronto, Treasurer of ACTRA National, Chairs the EIC Entertainment Industry Coalition, Co-chairs AACE, the Association of Acting Coaches and Educators, is a founding board member of CASCU Credit Union and serves on the boards of CANCOM and Theatre Teatron. As co-administrator of AACE, Tova works alongside its membership to educate in consent based practices and standards ensuring that all coaches and educators are trained in the basics of; intimacy, consent, mental health, anti-harassment, and discrimination.. Tova is also an award winning actor, writer and singer, with Gemini, Canadian Screen Award and Governor General Award nominations. She is a Dora award and Tyrone Guthrie award winner and is a recipient of the Cliff Pilkey Labour Activist Award.
Dr. Jessica Hartley (UK) (she/they) is the Course Leader of the MA/MFA in Actor Training and Coaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. The programme is one of only two in the world that considers the pedagogical and andragogical narratives at the heart of actor training. Jess’ experience in circus and as a secondary school teacher supports her to recognise, antagonise and resist narratives that focus on the vulnerability of actors. Their recent publications have highlighted the urgent need for trauma-informed and critically conscious training, one that maximises the agency and uniqueness of each actor to shape their own work and careers. Jess is looking forward to discussing the intersectional feminist narratives of poetry, love, celebration and abundance in this panel conversation.
Pat O’Toole (UK) is a Trainer, Facilitator, Mediator and Coach for Business, Education and the Arts. She specialises in Personal and Professional Development, Communication and Management Development for SME’s and organisations as well as Managing Well Being, conflict and building Mental Fitness. Pat is a Course Director for Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance and a Theatre Director and Acting Tutor. “Oh, I’m also a neurodivergent dyslexic”. Pat works across many programmes at Rose Bruford College delivering professional development workshops and classes as well as being a Mental Health First Aider. She also runs workshops in managing stress and anxiety and building resilience and is a mental health ambassador, speaker and campaigner in the performing and backstage industry. Pat started her own theatre company in the early 1990s, producing and developing new writing. She continues to work as a personal development coach and trainer for business, education and the arts, working with individuals and organisations, and she is also a freelance theatre director.
Mark Seton (Australia) Moderator
Dr Mark Seton is an Honorary Research Associate (Theatre and Performance Studies) at The University of Sydney, Australia. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to conduct a study tour of actor training healthcare practices in the UK. Arising from this study, the Equity Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, initiated an internationally ground-breaking Actors’ Wellbeing Study in 2013. Mark is a Board member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association, and a founding member of the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare. He teaches actor wellbeing in several drama schools and also coaches actors, dealing with highly vulnerable and potentially traumatising roles, through the Actors Wellbeing Academy that he has established online. https://www.actorswellbeingacademy.com/
PANEL 4
Interventions in the Acting Process – Supporting Resilience & Vulnerability in Rehearsal & Performance
March 23, 2024
Investment in actor wellbeing has been overlooked in comparison to that of musicians’ and dancers’ wellbeing. Actor health and wellbeing has only been more recognised as worthy of academic scrutiny over the last 25 years or so – and many emerging researchers are often ex-actors who stumble into recognising that the questions they have of often painful lived experience have not been explored by psychologists or psychotherapists possibly because there didn’t appear to be an ‘audience’ who could do anything with the findings of research. Such neglect is often justified because music and dance ’injuries’ seem to be more physical and measureable than actor ‘injuries’ but surely actors, musicians and dancers all share many lifestyle health issues such as touring challenges, performance anxiety, addictions, body image issues, team stresses, and so on.
This panel will raise awareness of some of the current research being done, what has been done, what still needs to be explored and, where does it all lead – whether it’s new forms of educating/training the actor and/or how productions are executed e.g. codes of professional conduct, etc.
Panelists
Pat O’Toole Moderator (UK) is a Trainer, Facilitator, Mediator and Coach for Business, Education and the Arts. She specialises in Personal and Professional Development, Communication and Management Development for SME’s and organisations as well as Managing Well Being, conflict and building Mental Fitness. Pat is a Course Director for Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance and a Theatre Director and Acting Tutor. p.o.t@mac.com
Mark Seton Panelist (Australia) Dr Mark Seton is an Honorary Research Associate (Theatre and Performance Studies) at The University of Sydney, Australia. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to conduct a study tour of actor training healthcare practices in the UK. Arising from this study, the Equity Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, initiated an internationally ground-breaking Actors’ Wellbeing Study in 2013. Mark is a Board member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association, and a founding member of the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare. He teaches actor wellbeing in several drama schools and also coaches actors, dealing with highly vulnerable and potentially traumatising roles, through the Actors Wellbeing Academy that he has established online. https://www.actorswellbeingacademy.com mc.seton@bigpond.com
Alan Powell Panelist (UK), After nearly 20 years directing actors in trauma-based educational narratives for the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children (Canada) and six years training in various therapeutic modalities, Alan created Actor Care® to accommodate our new understanding of trauma and how it can and should be informing the acting process and the development of characters. He now supports actors’ resilience and vulnerability in the creative process as an Actor Care Specialist. He works with groups and 1-1 in education and production. Currently, Actor Care forms part of the resilience research at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance in collaboration with London South Bank University in England. actorcare@gmail.com
Danielle Louise Reddick Panelist (USA) Danielle is an actor, theater-maker, and somatic movement practitioner. During her time as an off-off Broadway performance artist, she became percussionist, puppeteer, and sculptor. Danielle toured with STOMP, then relocated to New Mexico where she became a certified fitness instructor, hypnotherapist, and completed trainings in both the Feldenkrais Method and the Nia Technique. After teaching group fitness for ten years, Dani developed a somatic practice called SoHyp. In 2015, she wrote and directed Circus Luminous for Wise Fool New Mexico. Danielle is a member of SAG/AFTRA and holds an MFA in interdisciplinary arts with a performance creation concentration. Currently, she is a company member of Theater Grottesco and the New Mexico Actors Lab. Danielle is co-owner of RedQuyn Productions; creating original works, and performance salons. daniquyn@gmail.com
Suzie Jarmain Panelist (Australia) Dr Suzie J. Jarmain is an actor-trainer and researcher. Specialising in psychological realism-based character transformation, Suzie nurtures acting expertise by diffusing enmeshments with the ‘make believe’ and personal. In 2016, she received the Phillip Parson’s prize from the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (AUS) for practice-led project – Faking it For Real, an examination of the autobiographical ‘self’ in character creation. In a three-decade long career, Suzie has performed with the National Theatre of Scotland (UK), BBC (UK), Traverse Theatre (UK), The Arches (UK), The Performance Space (AUS), La Mama (VIC) and worked with Melbourne Theatre Company (AUS), Victorian College of the Arts (AUS), Melbourne University (AUS), NIDA (AUS), Monash University (AUS). She has presented at AusAct (AUS) and Performance Studies International (CAD) and is a published scholar. In 2023, Suzie founded the Chekhov Studios (AUS) dedicated to training in Michael Chekhov technique, innovative practice, and actor wellbeing. suziejjarmain@gmail.com
Simon Ward Panelist (Australia) Simon Ward is an actor, psychologist and educator based in Sydney, Australia. Simon trained in musical theatre and voice at the Royal Academy of Music UK, at the Actors Centre Australia and with Estill Voice International. He has performed and directed in the UK, in London’s West End, New York City & toured throughout Australia in musicals, plays, opera and extensively in cabaret. Simon has four psychology degrees, works as a Clinical Psychologist and is a founding member of MEAA Wellness Committee. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, member of Equity UK and MEAA Equity Australia, and is Vice President of International Representatives for the Music Theatre Educator’s Alliance. Simon teaches singing & voice, and psychology for performance at NIDA, AMPA and JMC Academy, runs workshops and coaches internationally on psychology in musical theatre and dance performance, anxiety and the voice, psychology and teaching in the arts. simonward001@gmail.com
Kate Glasheen Panelist (USA) – Kate is an actor, voiceover artist, dialect coach, and voice & speech specialist. She is head of acting at Texas State University where she teaches vocal health and production, verse and scansion, text analysis, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), and dialects. Professionally, she has coached at major regional theaters including the Tony Award Winning Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Actors Theatre of Louisville and internationally in London, England. Kate’s research explores using existing performance methods to enhance health and wellbeing of the performer while also honing the actor’s craft. MFA Voice – The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, VASTA, PAMA https://www.youtube.com/c/KateGlasheenCoaching kateglasheen2@gmail.com
PANEL 5
Under the Spotlight – Research on Actors’ Health and Wellbeing
April 27, 2024
Acting craft is practically premised around ‘what works’ to achieve a particular result in the actor that makes a connection with an audience. And over the centuries actors (and more recently directors) have played with various ‘technologies of the body’ to see what could bring about the most efficient outcomes, often without addressing whether the ‘techniques’ were sustainable i.e. the technique didn’t create potential trauma or harm to the performer. Now, that actors are feeling empowered to acknowledge burn-out, or ‘emotional hangovers’ or ‘post-dramatic stress’, there needs to be a deeper enquiry into acting processes as to what helps or harms actors as they work through processes of creating meaningful, rewarding and connecting performances.
This panel will explore some of the innovative approaches that have been developed that prioritise actors’ wellbeing, as well as support their vulnerability when developing the emotional narrative of a character.
Panel
Alan Powell Moderator (UK), After nearly 20 years directing actors in trauma-based educational narratives for the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children (Canada) and six years training in various therapeutic modalities, Alan created Actor Care® to accommodate our new understanding of trauma and how it can and should be informing the acting process and the development of characters. He now supports actors’ resilience and vulnerability in the creative process as an Actor Care Specialist. He works with groups and 1-1 in education and production. Currently, Actor Care forms part of the resilience research at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance in collaboration with London South Bank University in England. actorcare@gmail.com
Mark Seton (Australia) Dr Mark Seton is an Honorary Research Associate (Theatre and Performance Studies) at The University of Sydney, Australia. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to conduct a study tour of actor training healthcare practices in the UK. Arising from this study, the Equity Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, initiated an internationally ground-breaking Actors’ Wellbeing Study in 2013. Mark is a Board member of the Performing Arts Medicine Association, and a founding member of the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare. He teaches actor wellbeing in several drama schools and also coaches actors, dealing with highly vulnerable and potentially traumatising roles, through the Actors Wellbeing Academy that he has established online. https://www.actorswellbeingacademy.com/ mc.seton@bigpond.com
Sara Lovett (USA) RSMT, is a registered somatic movement therapist, expressive art educator, writer, and performer. She holds a BFA in acting from The University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Depth Psychology with a somatic emphasis from Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she is also pursuing her doctorate. Through an art-based movement practice called Inscaping, Sara’s work with clients focuses on self-inquiry and ritual, on such issues as life transitions and body image. She also works with actors on their self-care as they deal with emotionally challenging roles.
Sara’s Ph.D. research asked the question, does the embodiment practice of Inscaping aid in the self-care of the actor? This research focused on embodiment, movement, self-inquiry, and a ritual walking in and out of character and its impact on actor well-being. Emergent themes were safety, clarity, closure, and resiliency. saralovett26@gmail.com
Zoë Glen (UK) (she/they) is a neurodivergent theatre practitioner, actor-trainer and researcher. Her research interests include inclusive practice, neurodiversity and access in actor training; neuroqueer performance and how phenomenology can be used in acting. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Kent, investigating the needs and experiences of autistic student-actors on BA acting programmes. zoeelizabethglen@gmail.com
Dr. Diana Dobreva-Hristova (Bulgaria) is an Existential-analytic counselor, researcher, and somatic practitioner of Emotional Body & Alba Methods. After 17 years working in the field of criminal psychology, profiling, peak performance and stress management in law enforcement, in the last 10 years, Diana has successfully integrated her specific expertise into independent counseling practice and research dedicated to providing creative sensitive counseling of performers and other creative individuals. Her research on the topic: “Existential Fulfilment and Full Human Functioning in Actors” explores the usage of the existential-analytic approach for enhancing psychological well-being, resilience and dealing with acting-related stress of the performers in the context of their unique existential cycle: “Life – Stage – Life”. She is currently conducting a study of the specific counseling needs of young actors and working on a project with the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA) to build a counseling center to support student well-being. dobrevadh@gmail.com
Dr. Denitza Kaprieva (Bulgaria) has different specializations and more than ten years of professional experience in counseling and psychotherapy with adolescents and adults. She is working with young people with high academic and artistic aspirations. Her doctoral dissertation was on the topic “Personality Characteristics and Professional Attitudes among Bulgarian Actors”. This study was the first vast empirical research among Bulgarian actors for around thirty years. Some of the results were published in different scientific articles. A book dedicated to the topic is soon to be in print. In 2023, Denitza Kaprieva presented some of her work results and analyses during two projects in cooperation with the Bulgarian National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA). One of the events targeted NATFA’s students and professors, and the other was part of EMPACT project workshops: “Empathy, Environment and Sustainable Development: What’s the Role of Arts and Artists?”. kaprieva.d@gmail.com
