About
QAS
A Studio Created
By Introverts
For Introverts
Founded in 2025, Quiet Actors Studio is led by actors, directors and educators who consider thoughtfulness, introspection and reflection as primary functions of the effective actor.
We challenge existing structural biases within conservatoire and university training that overlook and underappreciate the value that quietness can bring to the trainee actor and their journey.
As increasingly divergent ways of cognitive processing and emotional regulation are being revealed within education, we aim to redress the quiet actor's ability to engage productively with challenging techniques and prepare them more appropriately for the demands of a career in acting.
Our Mission
Our work moves to empower quiet performers to shine bright on stage, screen, and beyond.
Through our bespoke acting appraoch we:
- Redress the actor-training imbalance between extroverts and introverts.
- Expose the bias within training environments towards the extroverted or outgoing actor.
- Celebrate and advocate the virtues of thoughtful, reflective and introspective actors
- Provide inclusive rehearsal conditions where quiet, reflective and introspective actors thrive.
- Promote acting methodologies where diversity of learning styles are included and celebrated.
- Reduce internal stress by relieving time pressure on actors to process complex psychological events
- Provide space for personal reflection on meaning and emotion
- Build a like-minded community of actors which become advocates for quiet actors in professional environments
Gavin Lister
Studio Director
Gavin gained a Leverhulme Scholarship to train at RADA, graduating in 2001. He also holds a PG Certificate in Performance Training from Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a Masters Degree, with Distinction, from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. He has taught acting and directed on various BA acting programmes since 2016.
As an introverted and shy actor he identified his own discomfort and that of other quiet actors within professional acting environments. He has since tailored his teaching, and created the QAS programme, to improve the experience of actors who, once in the rehearsal room, for whatever reason feel that they aren't 'seen'.
He is deeply interested in the psychological complexity of acting and actors. Alongside his work at the QAS he runs a theatre company for recovering alcohol and drug users, and has recently graduated in Psychodynamic Counselling from The University of Oxford.
Building a Supportive Community that Advocates for Quiet Actors
We are committed to building a supportive community of like minded performers, where the capacity to safely hold an audience, and each other, within space, stillness and silence is vital.
