Selected Professional Practice & Industry Work
Before entering academia Jeremy had a substantial career as a performer. He was a core member of John Doyle’s award-winning company of actor-musicians from 1995 to 2001, starring in productions including Moll Flanders at York Theatre Royal, winner of the TMA Award for Best Musical 1995, and Cabaret at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, TMA nominated for Best Musical 1998. He appeared in the original London cast of Crazy for You at the Prince Edward’s Theatre, winner of the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Musicial, in Threepenny Opera at the Donmar Warehouse directed by Phyllida Lloyd, in Pirates of Penzance at West Yorkshire Playhouse, and in television productions for the BBC and in the Warner Bros feature film De-Lovely. He does not come to academia as a theorist writing about a form from the outside, but as someone who has performed on professional stages for fifteen years.
Professor Harrison’s work has directly influenced over 900 artists from countries including Norway, Finland, Italy, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Poland, and Cyprus. Specialist actor-musicianship provision has emerged across multiple countries in direct response to his methodology, and that influence continues to grow.
His work has also reached the level of industry recognition: actor-musician is now formally acknowledged by Equity as a distinct category of performer, with specific contractual rights and protections, a development that traces directly to the field-building work Harrison has led.
Awards, Recognition & Media Profile
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Industry Collaborations & Partnerships
As a Lead Artist for Kent County Council’s Playground, an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, Jeremy has pioneered interdisciplinary practice at the intersection of the arts, early years development, and inclusive provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Working with a team of 20 sessional artists, he designs and co-leads provision reaching thousands of families annually across Kent. His work with Playground artists has attracted NHS referrals and has been observed by senior figures at Arts Council England.
In 2026 he worked on The Garden, a Playground commission, collaborating with Makers of Imaginary Worlds and the University of Nottingham’s Mixed Reality Laboratory and the Turing AI Fellowship project Somabotics: Creatively Embodying AI, exploring how soft robotics and arts-led approaches can support relationships between babies and adult carers. The installation was housed at The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury from April – July as part of the Playground Festival.
His work as Musical Director and Composer on Oily Cart’s sensory show Space to Be, which toured to the homes of families with disabled young people aged 0 to 18, won the 2021 Fantastic for Families Impact and Innovation Award.
He is Special School Advisor for the Primary Shakespeare Company where he leads their annual whole-school Shakespeare project in Kent as well as engaging with schools across North London. His work with the Primary Shakespeare Company at Riverside School in Orpington and Wyvern School in Ashford, contributed to the schools’ achievement of Platinum Artsmark status and was featured as an Artsmark Case Study by Arts Council England.
Teaching & Mentorship
Professor Harrison leads the Actor-Musicianship and Theatre for Children and Young Peoples’ pathways on the College’s MA Performance programme. He teaches on the BA Actor-Musicianship across all year groups and contributes to other BA and MA provision across the college. He leads an annual sensory theatre project that brings together postgraduate and undergraduate students in a unique collaboration with the Primary Shakespeare Company, Riverside and Wyvern specialist schools.
Research & Knowledge Exchange
Jeremy’s research interests lie in the intersection between the notions of mutuality and musicality in actor training and performance. He has interest in the pedagogical approach to actor musicianship rooted in the Eastern-European traditions that have developed from the work of Gardzienice.
These interests are now crossing borders into work with children and young people and Jeremy is exploring the development of this co-creative practice.
Jeremy is currently working with the Primary Shakespeare Company on a three-year project funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, embedding arts practice as a tool for whole-school engagement at Wyvern Special School.
Selected Publications
- Book: Actor-Musicianship, published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama in 2016, is the foundational text in the field and remains the only publication that comprehensively covers actor-musicianship as a discipline.
- Article: ‘Actor-musicianship, musicality and story-making for audiences with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities’, by Dr. Gill Brigg & Jeremy Harrison, XVI Theatrical Arts Research Forum for Children and Youth, published in Serbian and English by Subotica International Festival of Children’s Theatres, 2026.
- The Sound of Stars: How the music for Space to Be was made using the sound of real stars, Oily Cart, 2021.
- ‘Down the Rabbit Hole, the work of Oily Cart’, ASSITEJ magazine 2016
- ‘Making Musgrave Dance: actor-musicianship in process’ – Music on Stage, ed. Jane Schopf, Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2015
- ‘When Acting Like Children Becomes Acting for Children’ – Sidcup Papers, Theatre Futures, Rose Bruford College, 2011.
Education / Academic Qualifications
- MA Theatre Practice, University of Manchester
- BA Humanities with Music, Open University
- Diploma in Acting, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Additional
- Fluid Ways In Between: children’s ways of perceiving & artists’ ways of making performances for children, workshop and presentation at ASSITEJ Korea, International Summer Festival, Seoul, 2026.
- Actor-musicianship, musicality and story-making for audiences with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, paper given in collaboration with Dr Gill Brigg, Subotica International Festival of Children’s Theatres, Serbia, Sept, 2025.
- Fostering Participation and Engagement Through Musicality: an approach to co-creating with babies and children with SEND, paper/presentation at Participation, Engagement and Creativity in the Performing Arts, 11th Annual Conference of School of Performing Arts, University of Malta, 2025
- Actor-Musicianship in Practice: practical workshop and key-note speech, Musiikkiteattteri Festivaali, Helsinki, Finland 2024
- The Endless Possibilities of Sensory Work for Artists: panel member, Sensory Theatre Symposium, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Interplay Theatre, 2023
- Actor-Musicianship in Practice: 14-day residency for Japanese artists, Rica Rica Festival, Okinawa, 2022
