Creative industries and the working class

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jan/29/creative-industries-working-class-education

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Julie Walters (and others) are right (Could Rita get to Rada? Probably not, says Walters, 24 January), and it’s a problem across the creative industries. Grants for drama school would help – but the bigger problem is what follows. The really difficult part (unless parents are already in “the business” with contacts) is those crucial early years, when aspirants have to work for nothing, build a track record and be seen, almost all needing to live in London to do it.

Our two children both qualified for creative fields (where did we go wrong?) and for years both were offered plenty of unpaid work on films and in theatres, but turned most of it down because they had rent to pay and needed to eat, since we couldn’t go on supporting them. The brief 1960s flowering of working-class drama and actors couldn’t happen now that access favours the middle-class, and this must feed through into how society is reflected by the arts.Christine ButterworthPenzance

• Julie Walters says that “people like me wouldn’t have been able to go to college today. I could because I got a full grant. I don’t know how you get into it now.” She’d be pleased to know that the grant system still exists at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and 18 other British colleges. Dance and drama awards (DaDAs), which are provided by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, offer means-tested grants to the most talented students and can cover up to three years’ full fees and a maintenance grant. DaDAs are available for a number of performance courses, including three-year diplomas in professional acting and musical theatre.

As a result the rehearsal studios at Mountview are filled with accents from across the land and 80% of our young actors have come to us from state secondary schools. It is time to redress the misconception that people from working-class backgrounds like Ms Walters (and me) can no longer afford to train as actors.Stephen JamesonArtistic director/principal, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts