Musical Theatre Academy avoids closure after Go Fund Me campaign
Hattie Fisk
Monday, August 2, 2021
London’s Musical Theatre Academy (MTA) has staved off closure and secured a stay of execution after a crowdfunding campaign and support from benefactors; they are now asking teachers and youth leaders to nominate underprivileged students for 10 paid-for slots their October 2021 intake.
MTA (2013)
In early July, the MTA announced its closure, blaming Brexit for a lack of student intake and the loss of the Professional and Career Development Loans Scheme in 2019, which the school said made it harder to attract students.
Students began a Go Fund Me campaign following the news of MTA’s closure that has now raised more that £16,000. MTA said: ‘private benefactors have offered us sufficient funds to ensure that the class of 2022 will be able to graduate from the college’.
MTA’s principal Annemarie Lewis Thomas said: ‘We have also been donated other help in kind, in a bid to help us to find a way to make the MTA viable moving forward, without compromising our training.’
Despite the positive outcome of the campaign, Lewis Thomas said vocational training ‘is really under attack right now” and that ‘elite training is slowly being eroded into crowd control’.
The principal has previously called on Spotlight and Equity to re-evaluate criteria surrounding the school, as its two-year diploma is currently labelled a graduate course; as a consequence, Equity and Spotlight are preventing students from ‘getting any of the various bursaries that they endorse or manage’.
‘We are aware we still have a fight on our hands and we’d value your support moving forward as we continue to fight not just for us, but for all the independent colleges like us’ she said, addressing Spotlight and Equity and asking them to revisit criteria around entry to their graduate list.
MTA are now offering ten fully funded places for their October 2021 intake. The school are asking teachers and youth leaders to nominate talented people from under represented groups who would usually not have access to MTA's training due to their financial situations. The first auditions are on 9 August. If you would like to nominate a student, email MTA at info@theMTA.co.uk . More information below:
Let’s ensure that the right people get to hear about the fully funded places. Pls help us to spread the word #theMTAway #creatingcareers #college4life pic.twitter.com/4GAMQXhFfT
— The MTA (The Musical Theatre Academy) (@theMTAonline) July 31, 2021