Constructing a Pedigree

Abstract

My first class in theatre direction at a university drama department began with the lecturer, who was also the head o f the theatre training course, introducing each class member according to their prior professional performing arts experience and/or that o f their family members. One student's mother founding member ran a ballet school. Another was a o f a contemporary performance company interstate. The lecturer couldn't similarly validate my background. I had thought that my introductory merit was evident in my having passed a rigorous audition process. This was a department that prided itself on intercultural discourse and teaching the work o f independent theatre companies and political playwrights. In short, the department had reputation a for being Left−wing. But for all the historical dramatic content concerning class struggle in the curriculum — Bertolt Brecht, Erwin Piscator, Joan Littlewood, Dario Fo and Franca Rame, Trevor Griffiths, John Romeril, Caryl Churchill — in the classroom, one could be applauded for having a middle−class theatrical pedigree. Show more