Acting for screen: Bristol School of Acting

Bristol School of Acting graduating students’ production of Fefu and Her Friends at Bristol’s Tobacco Factory, directed by Bristol Old Vic’s new artistic director, Nancy Medina

Does the world need another drama school? As we built the foundations of Bristol School of Acting, sometimes those words have echoed in my ears. With the closures of the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and the Musical Theatre Academy in the last year, as well as the impact of Covid, the industry backdrop has been volatile.

Despite this, what we are doing has never felt so right. In the 1990s, I remember being astonished that many schools didn’t teach Drama as part of their curriculums. Even today, our curriculum is still based around white British theatre history – with the Greeks thrown in for classical good measure. Most students will spend their time focusing on plays by Plautus or Restoration comedies. When 80 per cent of a young actor’s work will typically be in film and TV why do we spend so little time training them for the camera?