(Three minute read)

Great communication is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasise about a world we aspire to.

So, I may have tweaked Willem Defoe’s great theatre quote just a little. But put communications in place of theatre like this and it’s a pretty good description of what I find exciting about working in comms.

Great communication makes you think and feel something new. Or, just as often, something old but in a way that feels new. It references the past and looks to the future.

As a drama graduate, I’m sure that the skills I learnt there have influenced what I do now and how I do it. This post is just a few thoughts on why.

All the worlds a stage

I’m now not surprised when colleagues say they studied drama. It feels like drama graduates are taking leading roles across the sector both in house and in agency.

When I was studying, I quickly realised that although the spirit of the theatre still inspired me, the reality of a career in the theatre didn’t.

It would be easy to wonder if you’d wasted years of your life… and I’m sure lots of creative arts graduates go through the post-graduation blues.

However, having built a career on the skills I gained there, I’d take the same path again.

Drama-types should recognise these three top transferable skills I feel studying theatre gives you, but I also wonder if non-drama types might find them useful to consider for themselves.

Three top drama skills for communicators 

1. Storytelling: theatre is all about telling stories; engagingly, thoughtfully and to an audience. Telling stories is your main weapon in comms too. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s not the place for you. Getting a thrill from seeing people respond to the story you tell is most of the fun. You may not get a round of applause, but watching likes tick up, making a sale, or seeing a change in behaviour, is the motivation to go again.

2. Collaboration: no theatre production can be delivered alone. Working together, listening to others’ ideas and being generous with your own is the only way. And that’s not easy. It takes practise and self-control to get it right. Particularly as a leader in comms, if you can’t collaborate, your team can feel unheard, unwelcome or underused. Ideas can be missed, skills not utilised and channels ignored. Great comms is produced by an ensemble cast.

3. Empathy: creating an atmosphere, sharing a feeling or inspiring an emotional reaction on stage takes audience understanding and empathy. It can’t be emphasised enough how important understanding people is for effective communications too. You need to step into the mind of your audience, particularly groups or individuals who differ from yourself. Just as on the stage, to design a successful communication you must imagine how it will affect what the audience will think, feel and do in response. And of course in both situations, sometimes the audience response still takes you by surprise.  

Snap up a drama grad

So, if you see Drama or Theatre Studies on a CV, rather than communications, media studies or marketing, don’t pass it over. You could miss out on a great team-player who can bring your audience into the room and tell a new story for your brand. 

Or if you are a theatre grad stepping off the boards and wondering where your skills could take you, the communications world might just be the stage for you.