Our Guest today is Dr. Jessica Hartley

Jessica was a successful drama teacher and Head of Drama in comprehensive schools across London and the South East of England and has worked as a freelance director and educator specialising in circus training and contemporary performance.

She trained as a director at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London England under the mentorship of Catherine Alexander, and was subsequently short-listed for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award on four separate occasions.

Jessica has worked for Portsmouth University, The University of Greenwich, Brunel University, Tara Arts, Surrey County Arts, The Why Not Institute - and ran a few bars in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. In 2013 Jessica found a permanent home at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama working with pedagogy and risk-taking. Currently she is Course Leader for the MA/MFA in Actor Training and Coaching.

She also delivered the Keynote address ‘Vulnerabilityin a Crisis: Pedagogy, critical reflection and positionality in Actor Training‘ at AusAct 2019 at Queensland University of Technology.

Jessica’s areas of expertise are;

I’m still getting my head around what we talked about, but I can tell you it covered her areas of expertise, and it rocked my world. For Bill and I, it was an inspiring and very engaging conversation – so much so that I couldn’t edit anything out   – so this episode is part one of two…  and if you have time after the podcast check out her TEDx talk

Catch part two of Dr. Jessica Hartley in Episode 5 of Artists in Depth.