Bristol Old Vic Theatre School: We visit the incredible Bristol theatre school where many famous actors have trained at, including Olivia Coleman and the Patricia Routledge

BristolWorld

Bristol Old Vic Theatre School will be celebrating its 80th anniversary next year.  The Theatre School was founded by Sir Laurence Olivier in 1946, and has trained a wide array of famous individuals in the industry, including Olivia Coleman and the late Patricia Routledge.  We spoke with Rob Langley-Swain, Head of Marketing and Development at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and Marketing Officer Grace Williams to gain a deeper understanding of the school and its history.

Transcript

00:00The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School is actually going to be celebrating its 80th anniversary next year.

00:05The school was founded by Sir Lawrence Olivier way back in 1946.

00:12So it was kind of a post-war school that was created and it was kind of in partnership with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre,

00:19which is down in the city centre of Bristol.

00:22And its first rehearsal space was actually a room above the Greengrocers.

00:25So it had very humble beginnings even though it had Sir Lawrence Olivier behind it

00:30and very quickly became one of the forefront kind of training establishments for acting in the world,

00:41especially in the UK, but it became world-renowned very quickly

00:44and the reputation for the kind of quality of teaching and development of actor skills

00:51across the kind of last 80 years has gone from strength to strength.

00:57We've had numerous students who have graduated from the school and gone on to win Oscars,

01:03not only in acting but in other technical disciplines as well.

01:07Our alumni kind of spread the globe in every specialism of the creative sector

01:14from writing, directing, design, costume, stage management, lighting, sound, you know,

01:21the list goes on, as well as those that are famous for being on the stage or on the screen.

01:26So throughout the years, the school has seen a big cohort of different students.

01:31Can you tell us a bit about some of the success stories that have come from the school?

01:36Yeah, so our alumni, like I said, they kind of stretch across the whole globe

01:42and the impact that they've had on the creative industries over the last 80 years is phenomenal.

01:49Really sad news last week that Dame Patricia Routledge passed away sadly,

01:53but she was an alumni of this school.

01:55She trained here in 1950 to 1952 and she went on obviously to have a glittering career

02:01in like theatre and TV and she, you know, played probably one of the most loved comedic characters

02:08of British TV history in, you know, Hyacinth Bouquet from Keeping Up Appearances.

02:14But she was so passionate about this school because she knew what it meant to her

02:18and the training that it gave her for the career that she had.

02:21And lots of our alumni are like that and they feel really passionately about the place,

02:27about what we do, about the community and the family that it's created.

02:32Other people, like we've mentioned, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons, Olivia Colman,

02:39Pete Posselfwaite, some of the biggest and most successful theatre and film actors

02:44of the last kind of 50, 60, 70 years have trained here at this school.

02:52But it isn't just the actors, you know, there are producers, there are writers,

02:59there are directors and, you know, three of the artistic directors for the Royal Shakespeare

03:05Company from the last 40 years were alumni from Brislavic Theatre School.

03:12So, you know, John Caird, Sir Gregory Doran and Erica Wyman were all artistic directors of the RSC

03:18at different times but all trained at Brislavic Theatre School.

03:21So that in itself, I think, is a huge testament to the quality and the standard

03:26and the reputation of Brislavic Theatre School.

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