The Search for Talent

To situate acting as a form of work, it is necessary to consider the prestige attributed to the actor as a cultural figure. With the establishment of a commercial permanent theatre, successful actors from the time of Garrick have sought to demonstrate that they are of outstanding worth as personages. What is affirmed by the accompanying efforts at self-promotion and publicity is that the star or para-star possesses exemplary professional skills and a natural talent. Even if the terms remain vague, as we shall see, the claim to a special status as a performer was meant to correct the historical view of the actor as a semi-skilled strolling player eking out a hand-to-mouth, vagabond existence on the fringes of respectable society (Bradbrook, 1962).