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Act now to save drama school, big stars demand



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Published Date: 22 May 2008
By Tim Cornwell
Arts Correspondent
THE Scottish actor James McAvoy yesterday urged ministers to step in to secure the future of the drama school where he trained, as he joined stars including David Tennant and Alan Cumming in signing an open letter to Alex Salmond.
Speaking to The Scotsman from the set of his latest film, McAvoy described how the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) schooled him in his trade – including how to play characters other than an "angry working-class boy". He added: "It has changed my life."

He is the most high-profile figure yet to step into the growing row about a funding gap at the RSAMD, in Glasgow. Saying he was proud to have trained in Scotland, rather than London or New York, he urged the Scottish Government to act.

Earlier this year, the RSAMD warned it might have to make staff redundant to close a £600,000 budget deficit. It has complained that current funding levels cover only half the cost of training drama students.

The row over the RSAMD's future comes as Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh has stopped accepting drama students. It offers Scotland's only other accredited professional drama training course. It has partly blamed "perennial and severe underfunding".

McAvoy told The Scotsman that two music teachers who first drew him to the arts as a Glasgow schoolboy had trained at the RSAMD. "I couldn't afford to go south of the Border and a lot of people I know couldn't afford it," he said. With the QMU "winding down", he said, "there's going to be nothing left in Scotland other than the academy." He added: "It's not a hell of a lot of money they're talking about."

McAvoy paid tribute to two RSAMD-trained music teachers at his school who first got him interested in music and drama.

"They were responsible for changing my direction when I was 15 or 16," he said. "But it's not just actors that are getting trained there."

He yesterday signed an open letter to the First Minister and the Scottish Government about RSAMD, published in The Scotsman today. Other heavyweights among his fellow RSAMD alumni who signed the letter are Dr Who star David Tennant, actors Brian Cox and Alan Cumming, director David McVicar, pianist Malcolm Martineau and singer Karen Cargill. "We are appealing to the Scottish Government to take action to address the immediate £600,000 gap and to work with the Scottish Funding Council to assess the long-term needs of the RSAMD," the letter says.

It warns the repercussions of inaction could "severely damage Scotland's reputation on the international cultural stage".

A Scottish Funding Council (SFC) spokeswoman said it was meeting the principals of both colleges "to explore whether the scale, location, facilities for and type of drama-related provision in Scotland is appropriate".

The intense training offered by the RSAMD, and until recently QMU, is far more expensive than a traditional university course. QMU has its own successful alumni, including Ugly Betty actress Ashley Jensen.

Vicky Featherstone, the National Theatre of Scotland director, stepped cautiously into the row yesterday, saying the NTS believed that "conservatoire performance training is vital to the future of the arts and fully endorses the need for this training to be available in and for Scotland".

BACKGROUND

STUDENTS claim cuts of £600,000 – announced earlier this year – could compromise the RSAMD's reputation as well as their classes. Campaigners claim the academy, which boasts well-known actors James McAvoy, David Tennant and John Hannah among its former students, faces losing key staff if there is no increase in funding.The academy blames long-term underfunding for its current financial position.

The students have staged a musical protest at the Scottish Parliament.

Springboard to success

JAMES McAvoy's recent film roles have included Becoming Jane and The Last King of Scotland.

But it was Atonement that arguably made him Scotland's best-known screen actor today.

McAvoy, who was raised by his grandparents after his parents' divorce, applied to the RSAMD after winning a small part in a film about child prostitution.

"It made me a much better actor," he said. "I went in there able to do an angry young working-class man, and I came out being able to do a hell of a lot more. I wouldn't have had the career diversity."

He is currently in Germany filming The Last Station. He stars as Valentin Bulgakov, a naïve young secretary sent to work for Leo Tolstoy, played by Christopher Plummer, in the last turbulent year of the great Russian writer's life.

The full article contains 770 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 22 May 2008 12:38 AM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Red Tower,

Dunoon 22/05/2008 07:44:56
This is an ideal project for the Scottish Government to become involved in. Particularly if we want Scottish Culture to be seen as an ongoing thing and not merely something that is a hangover from a rich and glorious yesteryear.
2

,

22/05/2008 08:22:28
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
3

Jings Crivens,

22/05/2008 08:29:14
2 Mac Power

Totally agree but this stance is quite common with stars who expect the public to fund something from which they have benefitted from.

I would have more respect and time for them, if they started an trust fund and made regular contributions into it.
4

Boy Wonder,

22/05/2008 08:37:52
Without RSAMDA and the terrible decision of QMCU to drop its Drama dept, Scottish talent will be forced to go South for training in the Dramatic Arts. And don't be fooled ... because Music will follow. Then where will we be? Only well-off students could afford to take that up. The poorer but eqally talented student, like James McAvoy would have nowhere to train in Scotland.

The Scottish Government needs to act now (pun intended) to save the future of Drama and Theatre students in Scotland.
5

Denise_W,

Edinburgh 22/05/2008 09:38:25
They claim that there are fewer and fewer places for younger people to belong to and discover their skills so now we want to close all the options?

Maybe this is a chance for the talent from Scotland to do something above and beyond the Government and become large scale patrons and support the place themselves?
6

Lance Boyle,

22/05/2008 10:24:11
Yes, the SNP's cuts bite deep.
7

Toom,

22/05/2008 11:01:03
From RSAMD website :- "All eligible Scottish domiciled students should apply to the Student Award Agency for Scotland (SAAS) each year to get their tuition fees paid."

Charge realistic real-money upfront fees or top-up fees. Require the students to back their choices and investment in their own future with their own money. Make loans available to those who need them.

The same approach will solve the funding problems of most of our higher educational institutions - it works in other countries.
8

elh21,

Glasgow 22/05/2008 11:50:14
Toom, almost all RSAMD students already land themselves in huge debt funding their studies, so there is no question that they already put their money where their mouths are. The RSAMD itself has been trying to make the books balance for many years by robbing Peter (the music school) to pay Paul (the drama school). Now the only way to protect one of Scotland's leading international institutions, and its teaching staff, is for this historic underfunding by the Scottish Funding Council and the Scottish Government to be addressed. Is Scotland to become England's poor relation in music and drama too?? If the SNP truly harbour dreams of an independent Scotland they should be supporting an institution so crucial in terms of raising its international profile and enhancing its cultural identity. Do you own a telly? Ever listened to the radio? Good music and drama enhances and educates everyone.
9

Julia 73,

Edinburgh 22/05/2008 12:37:16
Regarding the comments of Mac Power, Jings Crivens, and Denise, it is not up to the .001 % of actors who make it big in film to fully fund the university's theatre programme any more than successful investment bankers should fully fund a university's business finance programme. (Although at least there would be MORE ultra successful graduates to share the burden.)

The arts are intrinsically different from other fields of study in that a very small number of people become rich. James McEvoy, David Tennant, and Alan Cumming alone are not responsible for funding RSAMD. Hopefully they do or will make generous donations or fund scholarship programmes to make it possible for up and comers to attend university. But your suggestion that artists should fund the university themselves is beyond ridiculous.

When people study the arts they do so primarily because of their passion for that art and they also do so knowing three things that some Scotsman readers don't know

a) Culture is important to any society and that there is and always has been a need for subsidy and patronage from the government. (Shakespeare's company was called The King's Men).

b) Theatre is expensive to produce and the number of seats in a theatre is finite. The need for government subsidy of theatres grows and grows with each passing year, in other words. The most expensive cost in theatre is labour, but it's also the area where producers can keep costs down--by underpaying. The electric bill comes first.

Therefore,

c) MOST artists will probably be struggling financially throughout their careers. The vast majority will probably never be able to give back financially to their alma maters. For this reason, theatre artists are particularly grateful that these programmes are funded by the government.

The universities (RSMAD and Queen Margaret College University--don't count that battle as over yet! I wish James McEvoy had attended Queen Margaret!) were counting on the fact
10

Jings Crivens,

22/05/2008 13:10:34
Julia 73,

You have completely missed the point that I made and I did not suggest that that courses should be self funded, The point I was making is that these people are so quick to join the campaign and then do not make any contribution to supporting their old Alma Marta in their funding shortfall.

However bear in mind that all parts of the education service in the UK are struggling for funding and many more subjects (such as science, engineering, medicine, etc) are more important to modern society and will bring employment to the people studying these subjects. You admit that most of the artists studying art and drama will be unemployed most of the time thereby demonstrating the necessity to reduce the number of students taking these courses and diverting funding to more worthwhile courses
11

Toom,

22/05/2008 13:11:54
#8
Aye, but your forgetting that if that particular actor hadn't been saved by RSAND, there's a thousand other employed and unemployed actors who could have taken his roles. And for centuries we had many good actors and no acting schools. Many of the best talented actors, by definition, don't need several years at college - they have a natural talent for acting.
12

,

22/05/2008 13:37:36
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
13

Toom,

22/05/2008 13:45:18
#8 "Do you own a telly? Ever listened to the radio? Good music and drama enhances and educates everyone."

Aye, I've got a telly. And I'm a classical musician with a degree in music - I did it in my spare time when working and I paid real-money fees. Classical musicians certainly needs many years of professional training - since a career in that has a financial feedback, and it otherwise gives great personal satisfaction, then it's perfectly reasonable to expect to pay real-money fees.

Acting by comparison, if you have any natural talent for it, is a doddle. Again, I speak from personal experience.

14

Julia 73,

Edinburgh 22/05/2008 16:51:46
I'm glad I wrote in if for no other reason than to flush out Toom (and the vast number of people who believe that all you need is a "natural talent" to succeed in the theatre, but it takes REAL training to become a musician. So thanks for putting that in writing. It's an arrogant notion shared by a lot of people who know nothing whatever about theatre training. I have 3 degrees in theatre, by the way--the last of which I did over several years while teaching full time. And I did that degree in the US so I paid a pretty penny for it. If only I'd known that my natural talent was enough, I could've saved $40,000.

Mac Power, your point is well taken, however. Shameful about people who COULD give back, but don't. Of course, we don't know if McEvoy, Cumming, or Connery for that matter, have offered financial support. At least I don't know. Perhaps you do. If they don't, they certainly should/could.

It's amusing that it came off like I was supporting rich celebrities; I would never stand firm to defend rich celebrities! I was simply disagreeing with the poster who asserted that rich celebrities can afford to make up the shortfall at RSAMD. It did seem to imply that the solution to a long-term problem is as simple as a celebrity donation. To my mind, that was missing the point entirely! The issue is a large one and should be bandied about as we are doing.

And as to the notion that there are "TOO MANY UNEMPLOYED ACTORS" so maybe fewer people should be training in it... WHAT? Perhaps there's a genetic test we can do prior to birth to locate the next Olivier, you know--based on his natural talent--and save everyone else the time and trouble of pursuing a career. It doesn't work that way. How silly can you get?

And what I didn't mention when I said a vast majority don't make a huge salary was that, though many make a living in the theatre on a tight budget and sometimes while supplementing by doing other jobs, most of the artists I know wou
15

steve52,

Kinfauns 22/05/2008 17:52:58
Tough luck I say. There is more need for Doctors, Dentists, Nurse and Police officers on the beat than this lot. If those rich and famous 'actor' etc. wish to donate money to help out their fellows then fine.

Hey Julia...when there were too many unemployed coal miners they had to retrrain and work at something else. Why should unemployed actors be any different. Get a real job and stop poncing off everyone else I say. I know a couple of unemployed actors and doing other work would be demeaning for them as they are 'actors' and a breed apart from the rest of us.

 

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