Acting pedagogy in the British conservatoire
Life, work and teaching
Doreen Cannon was an American acting teacher whose work became an important part of British conservatoire training. RADA's account of Jennie Buckman identifies Cannon's leadership among the academy's acting teachers and the continuation of her teaching through colleagues and students.
Buckman joined RADA's acting team under Cannon in 1987. RADA places this teaching within the continuing development of Stanislavski's system for contemporary theatre. The account also identifies Cannon's daughter Dee among the teachers who contributed to that later work.
The actor's study
A teaching tradition reaches actors through sustained classroom practice as well as through a published system. Cannon's place in this history makes that transmission visible: individual teachers work with individual performers, and their colleagues develop what they inherit.
For your study, keep Doreen Cannon and Dee Cannon distinct. RADA's institutional account provides evidence of the relationship without reducing either teacher to the other's name. Read this history beside the entries for Stanislavski and Yat Malmgren to see different strands of British actor training.
