Performing Scarcity: Sarah Robbins on power and privilege in theatre training
"If they've got what it takes, it's gonna take everything they've got!"
... so says the trailer for an iconic movie called Fame, which follows a group of brilliant and beautiful teenagers through their careers at New York's High School of Performing Arts. The training is tough, but it forges them as people and artists. As their graduation anthem they "Sing the Body Electric" alluding to Walt Whitman's poem of the same name. "I glory in the glow of rebirth/
Creating my own tomorrow/When I shall embody the Earth," goes one verse. The song concludes: "In time, we will all be stars."
This month's presentation looks at the real-life experiences of Canada's theatre trainees at the university level. Has anything changed, in the real or ideal pursuit of fame since 1980s, when the film made its premiere? What – if anything – is distinct about the Canadian experience?
My webinars in 2026 will include many wonderful examples of how artistic training can transform lives, but this month's presentation will ask a critical question: what happens when more and more people want to be artists, but opportunities and resources don't keep pace?
My guest:
Sarah Robbins is an artist/educator from Toronto, Ontario. She completed her doctoral degree at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies in 2022. She studies the relationship between gender and performance in theatrical institutional culture, and the pedagogy of actor training.
Dr. Robbins is the project manager for Gatherings: Archival and Oral Histories of Performance. She co-authored “The State of Acting Training in Canada” in 2019, and the study was was foundational for the Got Your Back Acting Educator’s Conference in May of 2019. More recently, she co-organized the inaugural Association of Acting Coaches and Educators (AACE) Conference in May 2023. The first of its kind in Canada, this new association offers community and training opportunities to those who teach acting privately and within institutions.
She has taught theatre history, performance theory, and acting training courses for the University of Toronto, Mount Allison University, the University of Windsor, and the University of Waterloo.
Her work has been published in alt.theatre Magazine, HowlRound Theatre Commons, Intermission Magazine and Canadian Theatre Review.