Patsy Rodenburg – Craft: Sweat and Joy

In the first two podcasts of her series, Patsy Rodenburg and her colleague, Eliot Shrimpton discuss the erosion of craft in teaching, artistry and leadership. Practising and teaching craft takes a mixture of resilience and humility. Craft requires hours of repetition and reworked correction when taught to inexperienced students. It takes time and is therefore expensive to teach. However, the benefits of learning an embodied practice are limitless; not only in maintaining excellence in the performing arts but in the actual process of physical learning. Craft is about doing; it is beyond explanation or a reading list. It is learning that can’t be bluffed or taken from A.I.. The results are clear and seen; heard, felt and experienced. Through repetition craft becomes organic. It frees and focuses the imagination. It allows the craftsperson to pour their body, mind, heart and spirit into what they are making. And with the hard work comes the joy. The joy of achievem