For many graduates, the obvious next step after drama school is auditioning for theatre, television, or film roles. But the reality is that performing arts careers are far broader than becoming a traditional stage or screen performer.
The skills developed during professional training – communication, creativity, collaboration, adaptability, voice, movement, and confidence – can lead in many different directions. Some performers even combine several roles throughout their careers.
Here are five routes worth considering after drama school.
1. Voice Acting and Audio Performance
You don’t need to be visible on screen to build a career as a performer. Voice actors work across animation, video games, audiobooks, commercials, radio drama, podcasts, and other recorded media.
The fundamentals of acting remain essential, but performers also need to understand how to communicate character, intention, and emotion using their voice alone. Microphone technique and the ability to take direction quickly are particularly valuable.
For actors who enjoy character work and experimenting vocally, audio can become an exciting specialism alongside stage and screen roles.
2. Teaching and Coaching
Some of the most rewarding performing arts careers involve helping other people develop their skills.
Drama school graduates may progress into teaching acting, dance, musical theatre, voice, or movement. Opportunities can exist within performing arts schools, community organisations, youth programmes, workshops, and private coaching.
Teaching also draws on many of the skills developed during training. You need to communicate ideas clearly, understand technique, adapt your approach to different people, and create an environment where students feel able to experiment.
For experienced practitioners, postgraduate study can provide an opportunity to develop this area further. Italia Conti offers specialist postgraduate pathways including MA/MFA Teaching and Coaching: Physical Performance and MA/MFA Teaching and Coaching: Voice.
3. Directing and Creating Your Own Work
Actors understand character, text, storytelling, and the rehearsal process, all of which can provide valuable foundations for directing or creating original work. You might establish a theatre company, devise a production with other artists, develop a short film, or eventually move towards professional directing.
Creating your own work also gives you greater ownership over the stories you want to tell. Increasingly, being proactive and creatively independent can be an important part of building a sustainable career.
4. Movement, Choreography and Intimacy Work
Performers with a strong interest in physical storytelling may find their career gradually moving towards the creative work happening around a production.
Choreographers, movement directors, fight professionals, and intimacy practitioners all contribute specialist expertise to theatre and screen productions. These are distinct professional disciplines that require further specialist training, but an understanding of performance and the rehearsal room can provide a useful foundation from which to explore them.
5. Creative Arts and Community Practice
Performing arts skills can also make a difference far beyond conventional theatres and film sets.
Creative practitioners work within community projects, arts organisations, education, outreach programmes, and participatory arts. Projects might involve working with young people, schools, local communities, or groups who have traditionally had less access to the arts.
These careers combine creativity with communication and leadership, allowing practitioners to use performance as a way to connect, educate, engage, and contribute to wider society.
Your Career Doesn’t Have to Follow One Path
One of the biggest misconceptions about performing arts careers is that you have to choose a single job and stick to it. In reality, portfolio careers are common throughout the creative industries. An actor might perform professionally while also teaching, directing, recording voice work, or developing their own projects.
That makes versatility particularly valuable. The broader your technical skills and understanding of the industry, the more ways you have to shape a career around your strengths and interests.
Preparing for Life Beyond Drama School
At Italia Conti, professional training is about preparing students for the industry rather than one narrowly defined job. Across our courses, students develop technical ability alongside collaboration, creativity, professional discipline, and the confidence to build their own careers.
Our BA Hons Professional Arts Top-up Course is a bespoke professional development experience, equipping you with the skills, insights, and resources to build a successful and sustainable career in the industry.
Drama school may be the beginning of your professional journey, but it doesn’t dictate where that journey has to take you. With strong training and an openness to different opportunities, a career in the performing arts can take many forms.
