Blackpool Theatre Collective

Carl Walker and Ian Meeson discuss their new venture, theatrical college Blackpool Theatre Collective

Transcript

00:00 Hello there, I'm with Ian Meason here on the right and Karl Walker of Blackpool Theatre Collective.

00:09 That's the one, okay. We're in the former Sprinkles premises, for want of a better word.

00:15 And here we are. This has now been taken over by these two gentlemen and they're going to be offering something

00:21 completely different to what's been here before. What's going on here?

00:24 Yes, so we're Blackpool Theatre Collective. So we're a six-form college offering a BTEC in Performing Arts.

00:30 But what's unique about us is that there's kind of two sides to us. So alongside the educational side,

00:36 we'll also offer the stage school experience. So students that come to us will get industry professionals,

00:42 both myself and Ian teaching, and people from the West End, people from film, TV.

00:47 So it'll be quite a showbiz hub here in this building once we've managed to renovate.

00:52 So yes, it is like it is at the moment, but we're about to renovate it into an exciting, like you just said,

01:00 a showbiz hub in the centre of town where theatrical people can come and meet and chat and meet students.

01:05 And yes, hopefully it'll be great.

01:07 And it's going to be transformed. Is there going to be a sprung floor in here?

01:11 Yes, yes. So it'll have sprung floor, mirrors, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, sound, recording, sound studio.

01:18 And the sound studio is going to be in that little room over there?

01:21 That's correct, yeah. So we can record the students as well so they can listen, see how they're singing.

01:25 Fantastic. And when does it start? When does the course actually...

01:28 We start in September, so September 24, so in just over four months.

01:33 Yeah, that's when it's going to start. We'll kick off and we're holding auditions.

01:36 We've had a good handful of auditions at the minute, then we've got some more auditions at the end of April and beginning of May as well.

01:42 And how many students are you going to have altogether?

01:44 15 to 20, so we want to keep it quite small so that they get quality training, so they get both of us too.

01:50 And we can look after them and nurture their talent and make sure they fit into the industry where they deserve to.

01:56 Tremendous. Thanks for your time.