Acting | The Guardian: Our arts industry, like our country, is class-ridden. And yet to talk about class is often seen as a throwback. For decades, politicians have been trying to tell us that class doesn’t exist, possibly in the hope that we’d all conveniently stop looking at the unequal ways in which the UK’s wealth continues to be distributed. What does it mean to be “working class” anyway? And how do we fairly and authentically measure that?
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If there is one thing I can’t get enough of talking about, it is the inherent class divide that becomes abundantly clear when attending CMU, let alone the School of Drama. If there is one thing taking Design and Production actively demands of you, it is the ability to be able to purchase new materials whenever a project is thrown your way, and be able to financially support yourself on the fly, with high-end tools, paints, and materials. One thing that specifically was a slap in the face for me when coming here was just how present this class divide was in active discussions in the classroom; people talk all the time about the shows they are going to watch and about their brand new materials for the next project, and it is almost draining sitting in the room as someone who is not financially sound, listening to everyone talk about their ability to throw money around like it’s nothing while you use the few supplies you could find in the supply cabinet. When coming to theatre school, a lot of people have the expectation that class will simply disappear once they “make it on Broadway”, and for some people born into the lower classes, that reality simply isn’t possible. People born into poverty and debt often stay in poverty and debt, often without much choice of their own, because the constant strain of accessibility and inflation keeps lower class citizens from rising through the ranks. There will always be more bills to pay, or debts to pay off, and without proper incomes for work, there will always be a discrepancy between money earned and money spent on bills, and it is extremely difficult to rise from that debt. Drama classes make it seem as though having sufficient funds for expensive materials is almost mandatory, which is a super frustrating and stressful mindset from the perspective of a low-income student.
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