Richard Delaney FRSA

Fantastic to see another BA Acting (CDT) alumna recognised! Congratulations to May Munuo, shortlisted for Best Performance: New Voice at The Speakies.

Always brilliant to see Royal Central School of Speech and Drama alumni making their mark across so many different sectors and genres.

Public hugely overestimate graduate regret and underestimate the economic value of universities while being wrong about tuition fees – new study - HEPI The public hugely overestimate how many graduates regret going to university and significantly underestimate the importance of higher education to the UK economy, according to a new study into percept...

Public debate on universities is shaped more by myth than reality. This new survey shows just how far perception diverges from fact — from graduate regret, to tuition fees, to the scale of universities’ economic impact.

Worth a read:

www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/publ...

When Celebrity Replaces Substance: The Shared Crisis of Art and Politics I have been struck recently by how both politics and the arts appear to be facing the same difficulty. In different ways, each is being…

Both acting and politics are being warped by celebrity culture. Merit and competence fall away in favour of charisma and spectacle.

In my latest blog, I reflect on how this shift is eroding substance — and how we might resist.

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A Dramaturgy of Pleasure: Compass, Craft, and Curiosity in Actor Training It is nine in the morning. A skills class is due to begin — voice, movement, text work — but the atmosphere is sluggish. Some students are…

Why do students rush to rehearsals but drag their feet to voice class?

New blog: pleasure as both compass AND craft in actor training. Learning to transform the “boring” into play.

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Wrestling with Uncertainty: Actor Training in a Post-Pandemic World Introduction: A Different Texture of Anxiety

“Students arrive with a deep hunger to learn, but also with a fierce resistance to making mistakes."

New piece on how pandemic anxiety meets educational marketisation in the actor training studio - and what we might do about it.

Wrestling with uncertainty as both challenge and craft requirement.

Why The Queer Must Queer Itself To stay radical, queerness must resist becoming settled — even when the performance of progress looks like freedom.

Not everything that looks like progress is liberation.

When queerness becomes a brand, a vibe, a legible performance—it risks losing its radical edge.

So what does it mean to queer queerness?

My new blog:

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

Collective Fringe is back Jan 2026! 🎭

Last year’s festival saw Phoebe Waller-Bridge funding & Bush Writers’ Group invites. Now they’re looking for writers & producers with plays in development.

Free space, dramaturgy, filmed recording & 70% box office.

collectiveactingstudio.co.uk/collective-f...

The £216 Price of Hope: How Spotlight’s Monopoly Exploits Britain’s Actors How Spotlight’s casting monopoly creates a two-tier system where struggling actors pay the most for the least access.

I’ve spent the last 48 hours thinking about what the Spotlight ruling means for actors.

The fees keep climbing, opportunities keep shrinking — and the people who can least afford it are paying the most.

Here’s my take.

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

On the Edge of the Possible: Reform UK, Farage, and the Future of Higher Education and the Arts Why neutrality is no longer an option for higher education and the arts under a potential Reform government.

Silence isn’t neutral. Neutral isn’t action. And action is now nothing but urgent.

Farage and Reform UK’s rise poses an existential risk to higher education and the arts.

🔗 Full piece:

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

On the Edge of the Possible: Reform UK, Farage, and the Future of Higher Education and the Arts Why neutrality is no longer an option for higher education and the arts under a potential Reform government.

Silence isn’t neutral. Neutral isn’t action. And action is now nothing but urgent.

Farage and Reform UK’s rise poses an existential risk to higher education and the arts.

🔗 Full piece:

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

Burnout by Design: Why UK Higher Education Needs a Student Basic Income Why student burnout is a matter of policy design, not personal failure.

UK higher education demands full-time hours.

But students are forced to work nights to survive.

Burnout isn’t inevitable. It’s designed.

Here’s how we fix it:

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

Trump’s rebrand from Dept of Defense to Dept of War is deeply concerning.

Words matter in diplomacy and leadership—this linguistic shift from defensive to offensive posture sends a clear signal globally.

The 1949 change to “Defense” was intentional, post-WWII healing. This reversal is troubling.

Rayner was right to resign, but Labour is much weaker without her authentic working-class voice against populism. With Reform and Farage surging, losing that connection to Labour’s base - & beyond - feels like a critical blow.

Hope the deputy leadership brings someone who can speak to the left.

Interesting to see voices and commentators claiming that @equityuk.bsky.social’s pursuit of this court case has been a waste of members’ fees. To have not pursued it, for me, would have been a dereliction of duty by @paulwfleming.bsky.social et al.

The only question in my mind now, is what next?

Now, this is the kind of strategic thinking I can get on board with!

Your priorities are spot on!! 🍸

The £216 Price of Hope: How Spotlight’s Monopoly Exploits Britain’s Actors How Spotlight’s casting monopoly creates a two-tier system where struggling actors pay the most for the least access.

I’ve spent the last 48 hours thinking about what the Spotlight ruling means for actors.

The fees keep climbing, opportunities keep shrinking — and the people who can least afford it are paying the most.

Here’s my take.

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

Seen more of @zackpolanski.bsky.social this week than any other @greenparty.org.uk MP since the election. His voice is cutting through—but media still sideline diverse voices. In today’s landscape, headlines get attention before substance does.

I really hoped we’d seen the last of Nads.

Patrick Vallance hits pause on Research Excellence Framework Science minister announces review of controversial changes to research environment assessment

“We must not get bound down on measuring things that we cannot.” Patrick Vallance on REF 2029.

Valuing People, Culture & Environment matters, but can we really score research culture? Muscatelli says no.

How should REF recognise culture without creating more bureaucracy?

#HigherEducation #REF2029

Collective Fringe is back Jan 2026! 🎭

Last year’s festival saw Phoebe Waller-Bridge funding & Bush Writers’ Group invites. Now they’re looking for writers & producers with plays in development.

Free space, dramaturgy, filmed recording & 70% box office.

collectiveactingstudio.co.uk/collective-f...

Why The Queer Must Queer Itself To stay radical, queerness must resist becoming settled — even when the performance of progress looks like freedom.

Not everything that looks like progress is liberation.

When queerness becomes a brand, a vibe, a legible performance—it risks losing its radical edge.

So what does it mean to queer queerness?

My new blog:

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

Structure as Compassion: Considering a Necessary Framework for Actor Training The Political Economy of Compassionate Structure

In actor training, mystique is overrated.
Clarity isn’t bureaucracy.
Scaffolding isn’t patronising.

Done with care, structure is compassion.
It’s what makes risk possible.

medium.com/@mrricharddd...

Home Office tells foreign students they will be removed if they overstay visas About 130,000 to be contacted for first time in response to ‘alarming’ spike in numbers claiming asylum

The UK HE sector is already on its knees after Brexit.

Now the govt is resurrecting “hostile environment” tactics — targeting international students who prop up our universities and local economies.

Short-term posturing, long-term self-sabotage.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

When Learners Become Customers: Expectation Management as Core Pedagogy “It is only when the learner is unhappy that the customer steps forward.”

Happiness in higher education = reality ÷ expectation.

When reality falls or expectations inflate, the learner becomes the client. Unless we manage that ratio, pedagogy collapses into customer service.

Read more:

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Thanks! 🙏 Freelancers often feel like they’re emailing into the void. A clearer way to share EOIs would let people put themselves forward where they’re best suited - and help us cut through mismatches. Feels like a win all round.

Hiring freelance visiting tutors in drama schools can feel precarious & opaque.

I don’t want to just lean on my network — I want a fairer, more transparent process.

Freelancers: what helps you feel included, what barriers exist, & what would fairness look like?

Two weeks off seemed perfect in theory, but I’m hitting restlessness with a week left to go.

Anyone else get anxious during extended time off?

What’s the sweet spot for actually recharging?

The Enemy of Art? Rethinking Social Media in Actor Training A provocation about presence, addiction, and the radical act of slowing down.

Actor training asks for presence.

Social media is built for distraction.

My latest blog asks: what if students stepped away from social media during training, to reclaim the attention their craft depends on?

Read more here:

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A Playful Pedagogy for the Future What a truly playful pedagogy could mean for actor training — and for learning more broadly.

What if playfulness were a principle, not an afterthought? Blog 6 - and the final instalment in the series - imagines a playful pedagogy for the future of actor training.

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