‘Call Me by My Name’: inclusive actor training for second language users

Among efforts to decolonise and decenter the actor training studio, practitioners and scholars consider the barriers for students who speak English as a Second Language (ESL) and undertake text-based actor training in English. This essay draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of linguistic capital and habitus to examine the agency of ESL student actors in developing their acting skills in distinct ways, often against their embodied linguistic structures. Through a phenomenological assessment of how the linguistic habitus and capital of the student work in tandem with their training habitus and capital, the essay highlights the inevitable anxiety involved. A participatory action research model invites ESL acting students to embrace and lead the development of their acting skills alongside their language skills. Actionable interventions, such as the icebreaker exercise ‘Call Me by My Name’, prompt actor training institutions to develop pedagogies and curricula that acknowledge the individualised needs of ESL students and celebrate their contribution to English-speaking training. Giving the agency to ESL students to shape English-language actor training creates standards for what might be inclusive actor training for ESL student actors.