Welcome to the new look Actors Centre website, full of news and events and of course, the chance to book classes and theatre tickets online. As some areas of the site are still in development, we really welcome your feedback on what you’d like to see on the site to help you make the most of your membership.
That's not all that's new…
Building Revamp
This Summer we will be closing the building for an exciting process of refurbishment. At long last we will be introducing efficient air conditioning and heating throughout the Actors Centre and making ourselves fully accessible with a new disabled lift in the foyer. When we reopen in the Autumn, we will have the working conditions that we deserve for the unrivalled calibre and dynamism of our classes and workshops. There could be no more fitting way to celebrate our Thirtieth Anniversary.
Summer Programme
But that doesn’t mean we will be shutting up shop. We are planning a packed schedule of Actors Centre activities in a range of temporary locations. In fact, we aim to attract even more big names than usual and use them in exciting new contexts. What’s more, we will be using the Summer as an opportunity to switch over to a new and more flexible system of programming, which will make it easier for you to book online and easier for us to attract and promote the most exciting practitioners at short notice.
National Network
We’ve had fantastic feedback from our programme of regional workshops, run in partnership with the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Equity and ATG, which has rolled out our classes and workshops to communities of actors in South Wales, Scotland, the South-West and the Midlands. If you know of strong interest in other areas, please let us know as we are keen to extend the national footprint of the Actors Centre.
Short Film Production
In April we completed our fantastic project, the Skillset Film Lab – Take 2. Six short films, giving 36 actors the most in-depth training in the medium of film that we’ve ever provided, and creating edgy and innovative new work by some of our finest contemporary film-makers. We are keen to continue this work, equipping actors with a 360-degree insight into the film-making process.
Big Birthday
Come October, you will have the opportunity to celebrate with us the extraordinary success of this unique organisation, begun in a spirit of self-help idealism by a small group of actors who wished to turn the conventional power structure of the industry on its head: instead of waiting for someone to give them a job, they would hire the director or practitioner to do the work they wanted to pursue, or actors would help each other by sharing their skills and passing on their expertise.
From that inspired starting-point, unfunded and without a home, we have grown into an organisation of extraordinary reach and influence: not just a community of 2300 current members, but over the years a source of renewal and a beacon of solidarity for literally tens of thousands of actors from Britain and abroad.
We are now a vital hub for connections that fan out through the world of broadcasting, across every aspect of the theatre and film industries, and into the corporate sector. We have a growing reputation for championing new work in theatre and on film, carving out a unique niche for research and development not duplicated anywhere else. And we continue to evolve training for the new challenges and technological changes that continually confront the actor, as well as passing down skills and nurturing aspects of the craft that are increasingly under threat.
News of our party arrangements will be posted as soon as we have confirmed them: watch this space…
