ANNOUNCING BADA’S SYMPOSIUM: MARCH 15TH – 16TH 2026 | LONDON

‘Why don’t you just try acting?’: Theatre, Marginalised Communities and the Encounter between UK and US Actor Training

Sunday 15^th March – Monday 16^th March in London (at the British American Drama Academy and Shakespeare’s Globe)

On the set of Marathon Man, Dustin Hoffman admitted to not having slept for 72 hours. His sleep deprivation was an acting technique – a tool that would allow him to accurately portray his character. In response, his co-star Laurence Olivier asked him, ‘why don’t you just try acting?’ This, possibly apocryphal, story encapsulates the supposedly oppositional attitudes taken by Americans and Brits – method acting for the Americans and highly technical approaches developed for classical texts for the Brits.

Bringing together scholars and practitioners, the symposium will challenge such simplistic binary narratives and explore how encounters between acting systems and theatre cultures have been enriched by the transatlantic movement of marginalised communities. Through interviews, panels, and performances, we will explore how innovation and identity intersect across borders.

Panels

Stonewall to Soho: Transatlantic Exchanges in Queer Theatre and Performance
Jewish Acting Methods: How Jewish-American Practitioners Influenced Contemporary British Actor Training
Beyond the Hollywood Ten: ‘Un-American’ Americans and the British Theatre Industry
‘Lifting It Up’: Hip-hop, Shakespeare and African American Speech Systems

Keynote Speakers and Additional Sessions

Phylicia Rashad and Joseph Mydell (BADA’s patron) in conversation.
Further speakers to be announced.

Performances

Deep Azure by Chadwick Boseman (at Shakespeare’s Globe)

Join us for two days of timely conversations, performance, and reflection.

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Online participation will be available for sessions taking place on Sunday 15^th March which include:

Stonewall to Soho: Transatlantic Exchanges in Queer Theatre and Performance
Jewish Acting Methods: How Jewish-American Practitioners Influenced Contemporary British Actor Training
Special guest speakers to be announced.

Registration opening in January