Research in Actor Health and Well-being

Round two, LESSGOOO 🔥

Head Coach T was recently re-invited by the Equity Foundation and ASPAH [the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare] to join a panel on research in actor health and well-being. A big thank you to Equity and ASPAH for kindly letting us share this recording with the Dojo community, and an even bigger thank you for hosting these critical panels.

Expect discussions of:

• Landmark research done.
• Pioneering research currently underway.
• Essential research still needed.

Overview

Investment in actor well-being has been overlooked compared to musicians' and dancers'. Actor health and well-being has only become more recognised as worthy of academic scrutiny over the last 25 years or so, and frequently, emerging researchers are ex-actors who stumble into recognising that the questions they have – of often painful lived experience – have not been explored by psychologists or psychotherapists.

Such neglect is often justified because music and dance "injuries" seem to be more physical and measurable than actor "injuries", but surely actors, musicians, and dancers all share many lifestyle health issues such as touring challenges, performance anxiety, addictions, body image issues, and team stresses.

Panellists

Tahlia Norrish
Tahlia Norrish is an Aussie-Brit actor, actor coach, and MPhil Candidate at the University of Queensland's School of Sport Sciences. After graduating from The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (Distinction, Acting & Musical Theatre) and Rose Bruford College (First Class Hons, Acting), Norrish founded The Actor's Dojo – a pioneering coaching program centred on actor peak performance and holistic well-being. This year, Norrish's research focus is the applicability and efficacy of a sport psychology-derived mindfulness modality in actor training, supported by a world-class advisory team in Prof Mallett, A/Prof Rynne, and Dr Richard.

Karen Stringer
Hailing from a musical family, Karen Stringer found a love for music and musical theatre from a young age. Performing in numerous productions gained her invaluable experience, including landing the title role in Annie at just 11 years old. She trained professionally in both Musical Theatre and Acting, and completed her qualifications with an MA in Acting at the Guildford School of Acting in Surrey, England. Due to a high attention to detail and an innate striving for perfection, Karen ultimately found herself being cast in leading roles in Europe, such as Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, where critics hailed her as "a force to be reckoned with onstage". Upon returning to academia, Karen examined the impact of the psychological contract in a creative educational context: the relationships and expectations between student actors, acting teachers, and the conservatoire drama school in which they operate.

Kristin Sorensen
Kristin Losvik Sorensen is a registered nurse, theatre instructor, and drama teacher and works as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Nursing and Health Sciences at Nord University in Norway. Sorensen has 20 years of experience within healthcare, including rehabilitation, detoxification, and mental health. She is a PhD Candidate in Science of Profession at Nord University, investigating actors and how their work affects and gets affected by mental health. Her research interest is in the fields of mental health & performing artists, arts & health, and addiction medicine.