Monday, April 29, 2024
London’s Central drama school axes audition fees to end elite grip on the arts
Drama and dance | The Guardian: A key obstacle in the path of poorer aspiring actors is to be removed at one of the UK’s leading drama schools, the Observer can reveal. The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, one of the country’s top drama schools, where Dame Judi Dench, Andrew Garfield, Riz Ahmed, Jason Isaacs, Cush Jumbo and Martin Freeman all learned their craft, is to scrap audition fees for prospective students in an effort to broaden its intake.
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I have not so fond memories of sitting in my schools green room during lunch period and complaining about how expensive not only applying to college was but applying to art schools where you have to pay an additional (and often crazy high) portfolio fee. I am lucky enough to come from a privileged background but I understand that this is not always the case making theses fees a barrier to arts education An idea that jumped out at me in this article was the concept of how many talented young artists we have lost due to audition and travel fees during schools application processes. I like that is program elected to get rid of an audition fee all together as opposed to providing a waiver. I saw this with the shift in the free and reduced lunch program shifting from being something one had to apply for to something everyone automatically get access to in my high school. Application or wavers for fees involved in applications do a very good job at separating the haves from the have nots and although the barrier for those who need help to attend a drama program financially is removed there is still a rift created with the application process. Removing the fee to audition for a program for everyone fixes the issue creating a more united community.
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