‘National catastrophe’: drama school funding crisis in England sparks concern
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Actors Samuel West and Paapa Essiedu join calls for urgent action to protect and expand access to arts. World-leading drama schools in England are facing a financial crisis that threatens to turn back the clock, shutting down opportunities for talented young people from diverse and less privileged backgrounds, according to leading figures in the arts.
![[A postgraduate student in theatre design at the Bristol Old Vic theatre school.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/65441bb6dd047eb45c97f5cbcd52ee2c2d172ff7/0_271_5022_3014/master/5022.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The warning came after one of the most celebrated drama schools in the country, Bristol Old Vic theatre school (BOVTS), which opened in 1946 with the support of Laurence Olivier, has revealed it is closing all undergraduate courses from September. Postgraduate courses will continue.
![[The actor wears red and stands with his arms outstreched]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ecb072b476bc4e58fd4466aab44051ed7e992807/73_0_2878_1727/master/2878.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Elsewhere, another leading institution is offering its staff voluntary redundancy, while a higher education expert said the situation facing drama schools was so dire it risked becoming “a national catastrophe”. Actors, directors and leaders of other drama schools expressed shock and sorrow at the BOVTS cuts, and called for action to protect small specialist institutions, which are disproportionately affected by a spiralling funding crisis across higher education.
![[Actors on stage playing Antony and Cleopatra]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/331610c61615b4afcb3b0d81a600b873377f9a8e/0_0_2400_1600/master/2400.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The actor and director Samuel West, who is a trustee for the Campaign for the Arts, said: “Without the undergraduate course at the BOVTS, we might never have witnessed the extraordinary (and profitable) talent of actors like Olivia Colman and Daniel Day-Lewis, to name but two.
