Jake Harders

BA, MA, MPhil, PGCert
Job title
Visiting Lecturer

Profile

Jake trained at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama where he gained a Distinction on the BA Acting Course. Jake also studied with and has been profoundly influenced by many of Jerzy Grotowski’s original actors at the Grotowski Institute in Poland. He is currently writing a PhD on the contribution of Grotowski to UK actor training.

Since graduating from Central, Jake has travelled the world working as an award winning professional actor in theatre, television, film and radio. He discovered that if you really want to understand how to act, you have to be able to teach it. As an acting instructor, he has worked at Central over the years as a Visiting Lecturer, guest theatre and film director, and recently as cover Community Drama and Diploma Manager. He also regularly teaches at Met Film School, Identity School of Acting and Fourth Monkey. Jake works practically, placing students and their individual needs at the centre of the training. He specialises in acting for camera, working safely with emotion, harnessing the expressive power of the body, and the psychology of body language. He devises and directs mainly using Stanislavski’s Method of Physical Actions, Active Analysis and techniques based on Grotowski. He regularly delivers international workshops and is Joint Artistic Director of The Makings of the Actor Project.

Jake teaches across all subject areas of the Short Courses at Central.

External Memberships

International Federation for Theatre Research

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy