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| Type | Drama school |
|---|---|
| Established | 1946; 79 years ago (1946) |
| Principal | Fiona Francombe |
| Director of Drama | Ali de Souza |
| Location | , England |
| Affiliations | |
| Website | www |
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TheBristol Old Vic Theatre School (BOVTS) is adrama school inBristol, England. The institution provides training inacting and production for careers infilm,television andtheatre.
BOVTS was an affiliate of theConservatoire for Dance and Drama.[1] until the conservatoire was disbanded in 2021. Its higher education awards are currently validated by theUniversity of the West of England, and its students graduate alongside members of UWE Bristol's Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education.[2] It is a member of theFederation of Drama Schools.[3]
The School opened in October 1946, eight months after the founding of its parentBristol Old Vic Theatre Company, in a room above a fruit merchant's warehouse in the Rackhay near the stage door of the Theatre Royal, with support fromSir Laurence Olivier. (The yard of the derelict St Nicholas School, next to the warehouse, was still used by the Company for rehearsals of crowd scenes and stage fights as late as the early 1960s, such as for John Hale's productions ofRomeo and Juliet starring the Canadian actorPaul Massie andAnnette Crosbie, a former student of the School, andRostand'sCyrano de Bergerac withPeter Wyngarde. Students from the Theatre School frequently played in these crowd scenes and fights.)
The School continued in these premises for eight years because of the Old Vic's lack of funds in the post-war decade until 1954 when the Company produced a small-scale end-of season topical musical for the entertainment of regular patrons and to allow the actors to 'let their hair down' after a season of mainly serious productions.
This musical,Salad Days byJulian Slade andDorothy Reynolds, proved very popular with Bristol audiences and was subsequently transferred to London'sWest End where it was an instant hit and played for more than four years, making it the longest running production in West End history at the time. £7,000 from theSalad Days profits – a large sum in those days— was given to the School towards the purchase and conversion of two large adjoining Victorian villas at 1 and 2 Downside Road in Clifton. In 1995, the enduring benefit to students of that donation was formally recognised when a new custom-built dance and movement studio in the School's back garden was named theSlade/Reynolds Studio.
Many members of the theatrical profession have taught at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. This included was Rudi Shelly, who joined the teaching staff only two weeks after the School opened in 1946 and was still working into his nineties. Alumni from around the world gathered in Bristol for his funeral at which the eulogy was delivered by alumnaStephanie Cole. Apart from students of the School, over the years many established actors from around the world sought out Rudi Shelly's master classes when visiting or working in England.
At the time of the School's move to its current premises in Downside Road, Clifton, in 1956, the Principal was Duncan (Bill) Ross, who had succeeded the first Principal, Edward Stanley in 1954. After guiding the School through seven difficult years that are nonetheless still regarded by his former students as a golden age, Ross left in late 1961 to take up a teaching post in the USA. Soon after the departure of this much-loved principal, other key staff members resigned, includingDaphne Heard and Maggie Collins, and Paula Gwyn-Davies, the School Secretary.
After a short interregnum under the actorRichard Ainley, in 1963 the post of Principal was taken by Nat Brenner, a distinguished actor and theatre technician and, at that time, general manager of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre. Brenner's stewardship was regarded by students of the time as another golden age. He remained in the post until 1980, when he was succeeded by Christopher Denys, who retired in the summer of 2007 to be replaced by Paul Rummer[4] as Principal and Sue Wilson in the new post of Artistic Director. Paul Rummer retired in 2020 and was succeeded by Fiona Francombe, previously the director of Bristol's Bottle Yard Studios. Until 1989 the Theatre School was part of the Bristol Old Vic Company, but it is now a financially independent organisation.[5]
On the 6th January 2025, the school announced it would no longer be accepting applications for undergraduate degree programmes, and not admitting any new undergraduate students from September 2025.[6] The school will "continue delivering our distinct suite of intensive postgraduate courses and exciting, accessible short courses", blaming the change on financial issues caused by increasing costs and decreasing income as faced by other institutions.[7]
Generally the theatre school accepts 28 people out of approximately 2,500 applications per year for the three-year BA acting course,[8] making it one of the most selective drama schools in the world.[8]Applicants are judged purely on talent in two rounds of intensive auditions.[8]It has its own premises inClifton, bought with proceeds from the London success ofSalad Days.[4]It previously had working links with the Drama Department of theUniversity of Bristol, which still holds many papers of the Theatre School in its Theatre Collection. For many years it presented regular student productions in the Department's experimental Drama Studio converted from an indoor tennis court off a corridor in theWills Memorial Building behind the University's Bell Tower at the top of Bristol's fashionable Park Street. Students from the School and the Drama Department shared many of each other's formal lectures and a number of the Department's graduates went on to continue their studies as full-time students at the School.
Having struggled with limited resources until the 1960s, the School now has access to several local performance venues, including the Redgrave Theatre atClifton College (named after the actorSir Michael Redgrave, an old boy of the College) the Bristol Old Vic theatre complex, including the Theatre Royal, Weston Studio and Circomedia in Portland Square. It also takes productions on tour to locations in theWest Country, a tradition dating back to the 1950s when for several years students moved toDartington Hall in SouthDevon for two weeks each spring where they rehearsed and presented a public production in the Barn Theatre. The School was able to use broadcasting studio facilities at the University Drama Studio for radio drama training in the 1950s and also ran occasional courses in conjunction with theBBC at their Bristol Studios in Whiteladies Road. In 2002, the Theatre School bought the former BBC Christchurch radio studios in Clifton and has further developed the facilities there which include sound studios and sound and video editing suites which are used by students and also by music and media industry clients.[9] The school has scenic workshops inBedminster used by the technical courses.
As well as actors, the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School also provides comprehensive training courses for all theatre, radio, film, and television professionals.
Its graduates are to be found in key positions as actors, directors, set designers, costumer designers, lighting designers and stage and company managers throughout the world.
In January 2025 the School announced that it was closing applications to its undergraduate degrees to new students that would have started their studies in Sept 2025. The School continued to accept applications for postgraduate courses and will remain teaching all current students until the end of their studies. The School are working on a new plan to launch additional full-time training from Sept 2026, but need to create a more financially robust model of income to secure its future.
51°28′01″N2°37′12″W / 51.467°N 2.620°W /51.467; -2.620
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