A Practice of Faith: Actors and Rehearsal (A Tragedy in One Act)

Abstract

An Australian actor completes actor training, leaves drama school, and accepts low-skilled, casual employment while he begins auditioning for performance roles. Finally he lands a role in a theatre production. What does this 'landing a role' mean for him? What does it mean to win a job and become a legitimate player in the theatre scene? What does it mean to enter rehearsals—to be in the enviable position of rehearsing? Drawing on a sociological analysis of actors entering the industry, as Well as fieldwork studies of actors in rehearsal, this paper seeks to account for the place 'rehearsal' has in the life of a jobbing actor. Presented in the form of a playscript, it charts the story of Peter (a median actor), his girlfriend, and his agent, as Peter struggles to win, and eventually loses, a role in a theatre production.