Actor-musician Jeremy Harrison started his career with John Doyle's celebrated company at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, creating and performing work which broke down the barriers between story, music, song, and text.
He now leads two MA programmes at Rose Bruford – Actor-Musicianship, and Theatre for Young Audiences – where he has been forging collaborations between primary schools, SEN schools, further education colleges, and the artists he trains.
FM: What excites you about actor-musicianship?
JH: Our whole educational culture, particularly in the case of the arts, is based in specialism. Music and drama are taught as separate things, since schools are set up in different departments. With actor-musician work you find this synergy, this overlap, and at the centre of that is something interesting to me, the idea that the creative voice expresses itself in lots of ways. For instance, the most creative people I meet express themselves in a myriad of ways – they might draw, they might write, or they might be a musician as well.
FM: How does that feed into the courses you run at Rose Bruford?
JH: When I started the MA, it was very clear to me that it was about experimentation and the development of actor-musicianship, not just equipping students with skills for existing ways of working. I wanted them to take a classic text that doesn't necessarily contain music and find ways in which music can enrich and unlock the themes and ideas in the narrative. If you do that, you also make it much more accessible for younger audiences.
FM: You recently adapted Chekhov's Three Sisters for an Early Years audience, how did that come about?
JH: ‘What do we offer our young people? Why do we censor some of the stories we share with them? Why aren't they exposed to complex material?’ – when it comes to creating performances for younger children, these are the questions that surround the theatre.
‘What happens if we take Chekhov to a reception class?’ seemed to me to be a profound provocation for everybody involved, so that's what we did. Our students also worked with students at LSEC college, to ask: ‘Is Chekhov relevant to this audience and how?’
FM: I'm sure many teachers would love this kind of opportunity in their school, where do you suggest they start?
JH: Young audiences offer unique challenges to artists. But drama school students might not be interested in it, partly because of the way we frame this kind of work. On the other hand, you will find that most funded theatre companies are open to the possibility of working in the community because it's part of the conditions of their funding. Whether they know how to do it is another question.
A lot of artistic processes challenge the hierarchies that classrooms require, and not all children can cope with that freedom. The project is about fostering a relationship that understands the needs of the two parties. It's important to start the conversation early enough, so that it can be built into the work project itself.
FM: So it's partly about managing expectations?
JH: I think its helpful to be clear about what expectations both partners have – teachers need to help frame that experience, in a way that's profitable for both. What's exciting is that we’re doing work with children who have a range of educational needs and artists who have a range of disciplines. These kids require more from us as artists – they stretch and challenge us and open up new possibilities.
In the children's theatre sector, they say it is for children, by children and with children and I'm really interested in the with. I wish we’d stop seeing young people as an audience that we must do something to, and understand that we need to share space with them.
Above: The Actor-Musicianship MA course at Rose Bruford frequently takes its work in to schools. Inset: The course nurtures performers who play a variety of instruments.
Oily Cart training programme: Jeremy Harrison is one of the leading theatre trainers at Oily Cart. He helps budding theatre makers to create sensory performance www.oilycart.org.uk.
Actor-Musicianship Book: Jeremy's book on actor-musicianship, published via Bloomsbury, can be found online at: www.bloomsbury.com/uk.
Rose Bruford MA: For more information on the courses featured visit: www.bruford.ac.uk/courses