Acting students from Stratford-upon-Avon College are celebrating securing offers from a range of top drama schools and universities.
Second year Acting students have spent the last academic year auditioning for their favourite training establishments and are excited to be accepting offers to continue their performance education.
Jack Hobson,17, Stratford-upon-Avon local and youngest in the class, is delighted to be attending Rose Bruford College to study a BA (Hons) in Acting. Interested in a career in Acting from a young age, Jack has shined in his performances, both at college and in a range of professional and amateur productions, including performing for the Royal Shakespeare Company in productions such as The Boy in The Dress, A Christmas Carol and Richard III.
He has thrived studying at the College: “Having such a prominent performing arts department so local was brilliant. The effect of an almost full-time study on just one subject has been fantastic in letting myself focus in on my skills, passion and interest in the industry and craft.”
He is ecstatic to be accepting a place at Rose Bruford: “It seems like a great environment for me to train and learn in such a positive and focused space.”
His dream for the future: “The centre of my career will hopefully be as an actor in theatre, but I hope to eventually venture out into directing and writing, as well as with songwriting and musical theatre. I hope to be working in the west end and in regional theatres such as the RSC – somewhere I have already been fortunate to have worked.”
Samuel Stacey, 18 from Coventry, has accepted a place on the BA (Hons) Acting & Physical Theatre course at East 15 Acting School.
He has always wanted to be an actor. He chose Stratford-upon-Avon College as he had heard great things from older students at his drama group, Highly Sprung: “What attracted me most was the personalities and teaching style of the lecturers, and the freedom to explore my own performance styles.”
This creative freedom has allowed Samuel to develop and refine his skills and performance style, but he has also been able to grow a wide range of skills to prepare him for the future: “The skills college has helped me develop most is the ability to research, explore and learn on my own without direct guidance from an authority. Stratford has taught me how to have autonomy over my work.
Additionally, College prepared me for continuing my journey after my course by dramatically improving a large range of my acting and performance skills. It also taught me about many new practitioners and styles. More specially, the course gave me audition preparation which helped me get on the course at East 15.”
He is excited for his next step: “I am excited to study at East 15 because I love their ethos and learning environment. Additionally, I get to develop my unique skill set with a group of people with the same passion.”
Samuel hopes to continue developing his craft so he can work as an actor in the theatre and TV and Film industries, with a future aim to start his own performance company.
Thea Jones, 18 from Oxfordshire, is returning to her Oxford roots by accepting a place at the prestigious Oxford School of Drama.
Ever since she discovered that Acting could be a career, Thea knew that she wanted to do it! Choosing the College for a multitude of reasons including the location, the collaborative nature the course encourages, the balance of independence and teamwork, and the opportunities such as trips and workshops with widely known companies, Thea has found the course to be the prefect training ground.
Being able to explore her capabilities on stage and screen through a range of different disciplines alongside peers who shared her passion has allowed her to develop a drive to push herself and to experiment with technique.
She has learnt a lot from her time at College: “College taught me that persistence is crucial for success and effort will be rewarded. In addition, being yourself in auditions as well as bringing authenticity and energy to your characters whilst performing is essential in the industry- creating strong first impressions with panels and life to characters with a real-life story to tell.”
She is delighted to be studying on the Foundation Acting Course at Oxford School of Drama: “I believe Oxford offers me a great chance to gain individualised training in a supportive and professional environment. I am excited to execute new approaches to acting in many forms, continue to develop my strengths whilst aiming to identify and target my weaknesses.”
Though she originally envisioned a career focusing on Screen work, after being involved in regular theatre projects at college plus working for the Royal Shakespeare Company in a production of Henry V, she hopes to have an expansive career performing for both the stage and screen.
Hannah Burke, 18 from Solihull, is delighted to have accepted a place at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on the CertHe Acting for Stage & Screen. Ever since she played a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz when she was eight, she knew performing was for her.
Hannah has found her time at college to be incredibly useful: “The training we have is intense but it’s so fun and I definitely think I have learnt so much from these two years more than any other acting training I have had.”
A strong reason for accepting her place at Birmingham Conservatoire was its similarities to her College course: “It was very similar to my Stratford experience and I went to the audition and looked around and I knew it was the place for me and that I would have so much fun there.”
Her hopes for the future: “I hope to be able to do what I love which is acting and have many opportunities to show what I can do!”
Isla Patterson, 17 from Birmingham, is ecstatic to be taking her place at Central Film School on the BA (Hons) Acting for Screen course.
Inspired by countless film nights with her dad growing up, Isla was eager to turn her passion into practice and chose to study Acting at the College: “I chose Stratford-upon-Avon College as I had never seen a college like it. From the facilities to how comfortable it made me feel just from the Open Day, I knew it was the best way to develop and use my skills.”
She has enjoyed her experience: “My favourite thing about studying on this course is the creative freedom it allows us to have, as well as being able to work with such fun and collaborative people.” She also details how it has prepared her for her next steps: “College prepared me by training me how to be more confident, and improved my knowledge on the arts in general. It has also enhanced my skills as well as giving me new ones. We have done a lot of audition preparation on top of this which definitely helped me with not only drama school auditions but every audition in general.”
I am excited to attend this place as I will get to work on my screen acting more, personally I love both Screen and Stage so much, so the opportunity to dive into Screen in detail is so exciting, as well as the amount of opportunities that may come in London!”
Isla hopes to grow her skills on stage and screen and work in both industries during her career.
Lovisa Hicks, 18 from Warwick will be attending Performance Preparation Academy (PPA) to study BA (Hons) Acting for Stage & Screen. It was as early as year 3 at school that Lovisa knew she wanted to perform – her first major role at Primary school being Dr Who in a time travelling show.
When choosing where to train after school, College was the perfect place: “I chose Stratford because of the course. I’ve never been the most academic person, I’ve always loved performing, so a course that offered me acting without any exams and allowed me to focus on performing was perfect.”
She has blossomed as a performer due to the creative freedom and versatile performing opportunities: “I have developed and achieved skills in versatility within characters and dynamic performance in not only stage but also screen acting. I have also picked up Directing skills, from being given the chance to direct our final show of Year Two which was an incredible experience.”
She is incredibly excited to take this next step to PPA and thanks the College for preparing her: “College prepared me for the audition process and encouraged me to research drama schools and universities to ensure I made a decision that was right for me. The monologue work, and redirection skills prepared me for presenting my monologue in an audition, and the skills classes helped prepare me for self-tapes, displaying emotion through the slightest of expressions.”
She hopes to work as a screen actress in the future.
Robson Smith will be attending University of Warwick to study Theatre & Performance Studies. He has loved his time at college: “My favourite thing about the course has been the creative freedom and the chance to explore different styles of performance. I’m taking away more independence, confidence, and stronger collaborative skills as a performer.”
Choosing a course at university was the ideal direction for him: “I’m excited by the balance between academic study and practical performance work on the course.”
He hopes to pursue a career in both screen and stage acting in the future.
Oscar Mort, 17 from Warwick, is delighted to be taking his talents up north and attending Sheffield Hallam University to study Acting & Performance.
Being passionate about Acting form a young age due to its transformative nature and the opportunity to enter different worlds and perspectives, he chose to train at Stratford-upon-Avon College on the Acting course.
He has had the opportunity to develop skills in physicality and naturalism and learnt to develop character through rehearsal, plus learn how historical and political context help to further characterisation.
A favourite element of the experience was the chance to focus on your own ideas: “My favourite thing has been getting the chance to direct and have our own ideas be presented through festivals like ‘Stratfest’.
Oscar is eager to be heading to Sheffield Hallam University: “I’m excited to study there because the course focuses on political and social theatre and this is what I am focused on for the future. Also, the course will give me the opportunity to further discover where I want to take my career after university.
He credits the course for preparing him for this next step: “College prepared me by looking at all different sides of theatre, helping me develop overall skills and being strong in each area of theatre. It also gave me confidence to take forward and to believe in my skill set and know what areas I am best working with.”
Congratulations to everyone celebrating the next stage of their exciting journeys!
