Brian Dennehy on Theatre Schools and Stratford

So I bumped into Brian Dennehy the other day.  (Yes, that does happen in my life…)  I had a serious question to ask him, but I kept expecting him to pull down his lower eyelid, showing me glowing silver alien skin underneath.  (Yes, I’d recently re-watched Cocoon…)

But, trying to be all professional, I said I’ve noticed some problems with the kids coming out of theatre schools lately.  They’re lacking a lot of skills.  I don’t know if the school’s are just missing the boat or they’re not getting the education that they should be.  Are you finding that at all?

At first playing the perennial crotchety old man he says “In my business?  To me, anybody who’s under 25 seems to have landed from another planet.  I look pretty good for as old as I am, I mean I should be dead.”

(See?  I’m not the only one bringing up aliens…) 

But he settles in.  “If you go to theatre school, that’s the first mistake.” 

“Fair enough,” I say as I bite my tongue and don’t tell him that I went to theatre school in New York.

“Because,” he continues, “there’s very little you can learn in theatre school that’s actually going to… look, there’s one theatre school that makes absolute sense and that’s the conservatory at Stratford.  They take literally a handful of people, 8 or 9 people, who are already extraordinary actors and what they do is spend a season or two seasons playing real parts, getting paid.  You don’t spend money going to the conservatory, you actually get paid.”

I clarify: So it’s basically an apprenticeship?

He nods in agreement.  “An apprenticeship.  And it’s very, very difficult to get in.  You really have to be a good actor.  Now, what that means is, of course, you’re actually learning from the best teachers there is, which is the audience.   And your other actors.”

He takes a perfect Pinter pause then continues.  

“Invariably I ask the very same question of acting teachers: if you’re teaching acting, why aren’t you acting?  You know, the answer to that is because it’s easier to get a job teaching acting than it is to get an acting job.  But the fact is, unfortunately, what’s happened in acting schools is the universities, especially in The States, have found that they’re a great profit centre.”

Sure, I say.  ‘Cause everybody wants to be the next big star.

“Well, ya, nobody wants to study history, or languages, or math or geometry; let’s study theatre arts.  How hard can that be?  Anybody can get up there and make a fool of themselves, and maybe they’ll get lucky.  The fact of the matter is, it’s not a real academic atmosphere.  The best way for an actor to become an actor is to study hard, languages and ideas, literature in particular.  Thinking.  Take some physical courses -stretching, the Alexander method, but kids that study scene study.  I don’t get it.  Nobody listens.  What happens is the universities have found they can make a lot of money, they don’t have to give the teachers and professors tenure, they just hire them a job for as long as they can use them.  

He gets reflective when he adds: “You know I have a couple friends, been in the business 30, 40 years, and they’ve now become acting teachers.  And they know they’ve done it for all the wrong reasons.  But I don’t think anybody should be an actor anyway..  I don’t think it’s a serious profession anymore.  I mean, there are a handful of places, Stratford’s one of them, those people out there are dedicated, serious, constantly studying, professionals.  There are a few other places where that exists, and that’s it.”

Our gem.

“Yes, it’s a hidden gem.  And keep it hidden.  It doesn’t hurt.  What you have there is extraordinary resource.  The first year or two Guthrie brought in Alec Guinness, Maggie Smith, Brian Bedford.  A couple years later Plummer started.  In ’55 or ’56.”

Don’t forget Bill Shatner.

“Ya, Shatner too.  They did a lot of Shakespeare, but they did a lot of other things as well.  Because they started out with such a high quality, now there’s no place like it in the world.  Twelfth Night is an absolutely beautiful production, the best of the Stratford actors are in it: Tom Rooney and Ben Carlson and Stephen Ouimette.”Not to mention, Mr. Dennehy himself.  You can catch him in all his crotchety brilliance till October 30th at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario.  Yes, the place Bieber’s from.