The Performer’s Toolkit #1: The Best Performers Never Stop Learning

The Performer’s Toolkit is a recurring series exploring the skills, habits and mindsets that help  performers build long, fulfilling careers. Drawing on conversations with actors, casting directors,  movement specialists, producers, coaches and other industry professionals, each article brings  together practical lessons from across the performing arts. 

After more than twenty years teaching drama, there is one phrase I have probably used more than  any other: “Every day’s a school day.” 

Perhaps that is the teacher in me. I have said it to students after auditions that did not go to plan, to  young performers frustrated by a rehearsal, and to actors who feel they should have “got it right” by  now. It is usually followed by the reminder that learning does not stop because you have landed a  role, completed your training or spent many years in the industry. 

Recently, however, I found myself needing to take my own advice. 

Over the past few months, I have deliberately placed myself back in the role of student. I have  attended acting workshops, auditions and industry events where I was not leading the room,  offering feedback or working as a coach. I was simply another performer, hoping to do good work. 

If I am honest, I felt nervous. Not because I doubted the people leading the sessions, or because I  questioned whether I should be there, but because I had forgotten what it feels like to enter a room  as the person learning rather than the person teaching. 

It reminded me of something I tell my own students regularly: the best performers never stop  learning. 

The More I Listen, the More I Hear the Same Message

Alongside acting and coaching, I hostThe Drama Coach Podcast, which gives me the opportunity  to speak with people from across the performing arts industry, including actors, casting directors,  movement specialists, producers, choreographers and coaches. 

The subjects they discuss can appear very different. One conversation may focus on movement,  another on casting, self-tapes, performance psychology or career development. Yet the underlying  messages are often remarkably similar. 

Again and again, experienced professionals emphasise the importance of curiosity, preparation,  continued training, openness to feedback and a willingness to learn from people working beyond  their own discipline. 

It does not seem to matter whether someone has worked in the industry for five years or forty. Those  who continue to develop are usually the people who remain interested in the process, rather than  assuming their experience means they have nothing left to discover. 

Experience Does Not Replace Curiosity

It is easy to believe that experience should eventually produce certainty. We imagine that, after  enough training, auditions and professional work, we will reach a point at which we feel entirely  confident, stop making mistakes and always know how to approach the work. 

I am no longer convinced that this is what experience gives us. 

Experience offers perspective. It teaches us that there is rarely one perfect way to approach a  rehearsal, an audition or a performance. Another actor may interpret the same scene differently and  still produce something truthful. A familiar technique may prove less useful in a new context, while  an unfamiliar approach may reveal something unexpected. 

It also teaches us that many of the challenges we once found intimidating can become strengths.  However, this development is only possible when we remain willing to reflect, adapt and question  our own habits. 

The longer we work in the industry, the less important it becomes to prove that we know  everything. Instead, confidence can begin to look like an ability to acknowledge that there is always  more to learn. 

Some of the Best Lessons Come from Outside Our Own  Discipline

One of the unexpected benefits of speaking with professionals from different areas of the industry  has been recognising how transferable many of their ideas are. 

A movement director’s perspective on physical storytelling can transform the way an actor  approaches a character. A casting director’s advice about preparation may be equally relevant to a  dancer entering an audition. A producer’s thoughts on professionalism matter whether someone is  working on stage, on set, backstage or in a rehearsal room. 

The performing arts naturally encourage specialisation. Actors train as actors, dancers as dancers,  and musicians as musicians. Yet remaining entirely within our own discipline can limit the range of  influences available to us. 

Some of the most valuable additions to a performer’s toolkit may come from listening to people  whose practice initially appears very different from our own. Their language may be different, but  the principles of preparation, communication, discipline and storytelling often overlap. 

Choosing to Become the Student Again

As performers, we spend a great deal of time demonstrating what we can do. Auditions, rehearsals,  performances and professional opportunities frequently ask us to present ourselves as capable,  prepared and confident. 

There is value, however, in deliberately entering spaces where we are not the most experienced  person in the room. 

Becoming the student again requires a particular kind of confidence. It means asking questions,  attempting unfamiliar work and accepting that progress may initially feel uncomfortable. It also  reminds us what our own students, colleagues and less experienced collaborators may be feeling.

For me, this has been one of the most important lessons of the past year. Every workshop I have  attended, every audition I have entered and every conversation I have recorded has reinforced the  same conclusion. 

Talent, training and experience all matter. However, perhaps the most valuable tool a performer can  carry is curiosity: the willingness to remain open, to keep asking questions and to recognise that  development does not have an end point. 

The moment we believe we have finished learning may be the moment we stop growing. In an  industry in which so much lies outside our control, our willingness to continue learning remains one  of the few things that does not. 

About the author

Lisa Southam is an actor, drama coach and host ofThe Drama Coach Podcast. Through  conversations with professionals from across the performing arts, she explores the practical skills,  creative processes and working habits that support long and fulfilling careers in performance.

Photo sourced in Canva

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