Other names | Central, Royal Central, CSSD, RCSSD |
---|---|
Former names | Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, Central School of Speech and Drama |
Type | Drama school and public university conservatoire |
Established | 1906 2005: Incorporated into the University of London |
Founder | Elsie Fogerty |
Parent institution | University of London |
Affiliation | |
Budget | £19.4m (2016/17) [1] |
Chairman | John Willis |
Chancellor | Anne, Princess Royal (University of London) |
President | Sonia Friedman |
Vice-president | |
Vice-Chancellor | Wendy Thomson (University of London) |
Principal | Josette Bushell-Mingo |
Patron | Princess Alexandra |
Students | 1,010 (2022/23) [2] |
Undergraduates | 625 (2022/23) [2] |
Postgraduates | 385 (2022/23) [2] |
Address | Embassy Theatre, Eton Avenue , London , NW3 3HY , England, United Kingdom 51°32′39″N0°10′26″W / 51.5442°N 0.1738°W |
Campus | Urban |
Colours | Red |
Website | www |
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students. It became a constituent college of the University of London in 2005 and is a member of Conservatoires UK and the Federation of Drama Schools. [3]
The school offers undergraduate, postgraduate, research degrees and short courses in acting, actor training, applied theatre, theatre crafts and making, design, drama therapy, movement, musical theatre, performance, producing, research, scenography, stage management, teacher training, technical arts, voice and writing. [4]
In 2006, the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art was absorbed into Central.
On 29 November 2012, the 'Royal' title was bestowed on the school by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of its reputation as a "world-class institution for exceptional professional training in theatre and performance studies". It is entitled to use it in official documentation, although it continues to be colloquially referred to as "Central". The school's Patron, Princess Alexandra of Kent, played a role in recommending the institution for the title. [5]
The school is located at Swiss Cottage in north London, an area which is being redeveloped as a "civic and cultural quarter" which includes a new extension building for the school, replacing 1960s accommodation. The school's theatre is located inside the new building, which was awarded a BREEAM rating of "very good". [6]
Past presidents of the school include Laurence Olivier, Peggy Ashcroft and Judi Dench. [7] In October 2008 Harold Pinter, who attended the school in 1950–51, became its president, succeeding Peter Mandelson. [7] He was to receive an honorary fellowship in December 2008, [8] but had to receive it in absentia because of ill health; [9] [10] he died two weeks later. [11] Michael Grandage was president from 2009 to 2022. [12] Theatre producer and Central graduate Sonia Friedman was appointed after Grandage stepped down from the role. [13] [14]
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise the majority of Central's submission was judged "world leading" or "internationally excellent". The school has been ranked sixth in its league of specialist institutions by The Guardian , [15] and ninth for drama and dance. [16]
The school has over 20 doctoral candidates. [17] The first PhD was awarded in 2010. [18]
Dame Judith Olivia Dench is a British actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career that spans seven decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards, and seven Olivier Awards.
Harold Pinter was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own and others' works.
Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognising achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.
Georgina McKee is an English actress. She won the 1997 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for Our Friends in the North (1996), and earned subsequent nominations for The Lost Prince (2003) and The Street (2007). She also starred on television in The Forsyte Saga (2002) and as Caterina Sforza in The Borgias (2011). Her film appearances include Notting Hill (1999), Phantom Thread (2017), and My Policeman (2022).
The Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the Evening Standard newspaper. They are the West End's equivalent to Broadway's Drama Desk Awards.
Michael Grandage CBE is a British theatre director and producer. He is currently artistic director of the Michael Grandage Company. From 2002 to 2012 he was artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London and from 2000 to 2005 he was artistic director of Sheffield Theatres.
Rose Bruford College is a higher education institution in the Greater London borough of Bexley. Bruford has degree programmes in acting, actor musicianship, directing, theatre arts and various disciplines of stagecraft.
Michael Keith Billington is a British author and arts critic. He writes for The Guardian, and was the paper's chief drama critic from 1971 to 2019. Billington is "Britain's longest-serving theatre critic" and the author of biographical and critical studies relating to British theatre and the arts. He is the authorised biographer of the playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008).
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, formerly Mountview Theatre School, is a drama school in Peckham, south London, England, founded in 1945. Mountview Academy provides specialist vocational training in acting, musical theatre and actor musicianship, as well as production arts and theatre creative practices. The President of the school is Dame Judi Dench, and the Principal is Sally Ann Gritton.
Mark Umbers is an English theatre, film and television actor.
Josie Rourke is an English theatre and film director. She is a Vice-President of the London Library and was the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse theatre from 2012 to 2019. In 2018, she made her feature film debut with the Academy Award and BAFTA-nominated historical drama Mary Queen of Scots, starring Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie.
Bibliography for Harold Pinter is a list of selected published primary works, productions, secondary sources, and other resources related to English playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008), the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, who was also a screenwriter, actor, director, poet, author, and political activist. It lists works by and works about him, and it serves as the Bibliography for the main article on Harold Pinter and for several articles relating to him and his works.
Harold Pinter and academia concerns academic recognition of and scholarship pertaining to Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (1930–2008), English playwright, screenwriter, actor, director, poet, author, political activist, and the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, at the time of his death considered by many "the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation."
David Hugh Jones was an English stage, television and film director.
Jeffery Danny Dench was an English actor, best known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was the older brother of actress Judi Dench.
Sonia Friedman is a British West End and Broadway theatre producer. On 27 January 2017, Friedman was named Producer of the Year for the third year running at The Stage Awards, becoming the first person to win the award three times. In 2018, Friedman was featured in "TIME100", Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018 and was named Broadway Briefing's Show Person of the Year. In 2019, Sonia Friedman Productions was ranked The Stage 's most influential theatre producer in The Stage 100.
Nobby Clark is an English photographer of theatre, opera, dance and live classical and contemporary music performance.
Peter and Alice is a play by American writer John Logan based on the meeting of 80-year-old Alice Liddell and Peter Llewelyn Davies, then in his thirties, in a London bookshop in 1932, at the opening of a Lewis Carroll exhibition. It was first staged in London in March 2013, directed by Michael Grandage. The portrayal of Carroll and Liddell in the play is very loosely inspired by Anne Clarke's 1981 biography The Real Alice.
Honorary Fellowships for Harold Pinter, Jo Brand and Penny Francis.
Harold Pinter – playwright, poet, actor, director, political activist – died on 24 December 2008, aged 78.