We have now been working closely with Lewisham for about six years. They are one of the two major feeder routes to the college, along with Brit School in Croydon, regularly delivering between 12 – 20 students across the range of our programmes. They make a substantial contribution to our BME recruitment. The number of joint initiatives has developed year on year, starting with a sponsored annual Lewisham award for acting.
The College runs a wide range of creative arts courses, including a RBC-endorsed Technical course (BTec National Award). The ND in Performance takes 30 – 40 students each year, with similar numbers on their music course. All three are subjects of Creative Way progression agreements. Creative Way have also sponsored and funded two WP research projects: Mind the Gap, about the experience of working class students moving on to drama school (undertaken by Lisa Stubbs); and Bridging the Gap, a Music theatre project exploring alternative concepts of instrumentation. (Jeremy Harrison). Both of these projects have been presented at the College, the first as a documentary video, the second as a performance.
The main ongoing links have been through Steve Dykes and American Theatre Arts, who have recruited strongly from Lewisham. Steve has undertaken regular workshops. There have been regular contacts with BA OLA/SM including an annual workshop; in both cases we have encouraged Lewisham alumni to act in an ambassadorial role. Links have worked both ways; Lisa Stubbs is Programme area leader, and an ex-student from our Community Theatre Arts course, and is undertaking an MA in Theatre Practises. She has been responsible for bringing Lewisham student performances to Symposium.
As part of research activity into intercultural performance we have shared performances: Lewisham have brought a number of performances to Symposium, while we have been keen to invite them particularly to shows which deal with intercultural issues: the Trevor Rhone event; ATA show; Ain’t No Black shows.
