News: ACTING COURSE RECEIVES MAJOR BOOST

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THEATRE ROYAL ACTING COURSE RECEIVES MAJOR BOOST FROM BARBOUR

Global clothing brand Barbour has offered a substantial donation to Newcastle Theatre Royal to help subsidise its revolutionary actor training programme Project A.

The Barbour Foundation, the charitable arm of the North East-based fashion heavyweight, is backing the Theatre’s pioneering project to create a new generation of professional actors in the region.

Project A is the first course of its kind in the North East of England dedicated to actor training and will offer practical and theoretical training to young aspiring actors aged 18-25 years old who are looking to make a serious career as an actor.

Dame Margaret Barbour

The Barbour Foundation is known for its generous support for cultural organisations in Newcastle and across the wider North East, and Dame Margaret Barbour said: “It gives me great pleasure to assist the Theatre Royal in establishing its innovative and exciting Foundation Course for young people who wish to embark on a theatrical career, whether it be in acting or management.  I wish the Theatre Royal every possible success.”

The course, which will be offered completely free of charge for its inaugural year, will be run over three terms in an academic year and will include vocal, physical and performance skills training as well as specialist training including Meisner technique, improvisation, acting for screen and stage combat.  These areas will be developed alongside the students’ continuous training in character development and text analysis. The training will be provided by a selection of leading UK professionals.

A proportion of the Barbour donation will also be applied to the expansion of the Theatre’s Learning Department, which is going from strength to strength following a major reinvention over the past couple of years and the soaring popularity of its formal education work and public programmes.

Theatre Royal Chief Executive Philip Bernays, said: “We are extremely grateful to Dame Margaret and the Foundation for their generous support and also very proud of our longstanding association with Barbour, one of the most important and influential fashion brands in the world. 

“We are very excited that this generosity will bring Project A to life as we know there is both need and demand for a course like this and it has real potential for growth in the future.  Our talented young people shouldn’t have to leave the region to get access to the best professionals.  This is hugely significant for us and the North East region as a whole, and we are delighted to be leading the way.”

After auditions in July which attracted over 160 applicants, the sixteen successful candidates for Project A have been chosen and the course will commence in September.