Re-positioning the field : performer training in regional theatre and university partnerships

As HEIs seek to demonstrate clear employability links in their academic programmes, so partnerships with the theatre industry have increasingly become desirable as a key component of the teaching and learning strategy for many theatre and performance related courses. However, for many university programmes these partnerships raise significant questions about the nature and type of training currently offered, its purpose and its future development. This is further complicated by the well documented consequences of a marketized approach to HE (Bunce, Baird, & Jones, 2017; Molesworth, Scullion, & Nixon, 2011; Naidoo & Jamieson, 2005) and the perceived lack of value of arts-based courses within the mainstream media. Focussing on a detailed study of Derby Theatre and University of Derby’s 'Learning Theatre' model and drawing on Bourdieu’s notion of cultural fields, this paper interrogates the shifting dynamic between industry ‘professional’, academic and student in the training environment and its implications in the changing landscape of university-based performer training