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Method Studio based at Conway Hall |
Stage school dramatic end
RECESSION has forced a respected Holborn stage school to close its doors.
The announcement that the Method Studio, based at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, will not be running classes in the new academic year because of poor student numbers has sent shockwaves through the theatre world.
Kay Potter, the school’s director, said aspiring performers had been unable to find funds for the classes in the current economic downturn.
“We are a victim of the recession,” she added. “We just don’t have the number of students to continue for next year. A lot of them had to drop out or not continue at the end of courses because they were losing their jobs or having their hours cut down.”
The Method Studio is the second drama school to shut in central London in the past 12 months, following The London Centre for Theatre Studies in Old Street.
Andrew Harries, artistic director of the Young Actors Theatre in Angel, said it was sad to see institutions such as the Method Studio suffering, whose tutors included Lee Strasberg, Don Sellers and Godfather II actor Marianna Hill.
The Method or Stanislavski system of acting was set up to teach performers to be as truthful as possible on stage and use their own experiences to create the characters. Sir John Gielgud was one of its leading practitioners.
Mr Harries said other schools, such as the Drama Centre, formerly of Prince of Wales Road, had affiliated themselves with universities to help raise sufficient funds through grant money. |
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