As we reach the end of another academic year, we would like to thank our alumni, students, staff and audiences for all of the hard work, creativity and support we’ve experienced over the course of the academic year. DSL students and alumni continue to inspire us with their achievements and there’s always something positive to share in our newsletters.
(DSL Graduation Celebration on 29th July 2024)
Congratulations to the class of 2024!
The students had their DSL celebration yesterday and will have the official university graduation in the Autumn. Congratulations to all of our 2024 graduating cohorts. We look forward to hearing about your next steps and to sharing your work in the future.
Our Summer Season of shows were fantastic, and you can find production photos and details on our Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Alumni News
(Photo Credits: Channel 4/Peacock, Netflix, Adelphi Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe)
Shobu Kapoor can be seen in the second series of We Are Lady Parts – released on 1st June by Channel 4. Following the lives of a Muslim female punk band, Lady Parts, as seen through the eyes of Amina Hussein, their unlikely lead guitarist. Shobu plays Seema in 4 episodes of the new season. You can stream it for free here.
And, since we all felt some chills this summer… we can amp that up with a revisit from DSL Alum Olivia Vinall as Laura Fairlie/Anne Catherick in a TV adaptation of the classic gothic novel The Woman in White – released on Netflix on July 2nd, it went straight to their top ten shows in the UK. You can watch it here.
We were thrilled to hear that 2018 MA/PG Graduate, Orlando Gibbs, has been announced in the new cast of Back to the Future: The Musical at the Adelphi Theatre in The West End. He will play George McFly in the multi-award-winning show and joins another DSL Alum, Cory English, who continues in the role of Doctor Emmett Brown.
Also, 1985 graduate Karin Trachtenberg, recently took time out of her pre Edinburgh schedule to give us an interview about her time with DSL and her following career. You can read the full interview here.
And lastly, we recently shared a list of DSL Alumni taking part in the Edinburgh Fringe this summer. You can read our round up of DSL shows here, with links for booking tickets at the foot of each entry. The full programme can be found on the official Edinburgh Fringe website here.
If you’re a DSL Alum and you have some news to share, please get in touch. We always love hearing from our graduates!
Much Ado About Nothing – Shakespeare in the Park 2024
If you are anywhere near Walpole Park, Ealing this summer, why not join us for our annual Shakespeare in the Park production. This year it’s Much Ado About Nothing and runs from Friday 24th to Monday 27th August 2024 with performances at 2.00pm and 5.00pm each day. Directed by Michael Fry with an international cast of DSL students. You can book here. Fingers crossed for a warm, dry run!
DSL Celebrates Award Winners
(Pictured here: BA 2024 Graduate Josh Gracie, BA 2nd year Charlotte Wallis with David Harewood at The Old Vic, MFA 24 graduate Adam Hashmi with Michael Fry and Emma Lucia Hands and BA 2nd year student Olivia Merritt)
Back in April, we sent three current students to represent DSL at the AESS Speech Prize: Josh Gracie (BA), Eliza Horn (MFA) and Georgia Couzens (MA). All three DSL students performed very well against extremely tough competition and Josh came away with the second prize. Congratulations to all three for representing DSL so brilliantly and demonstrating skill, professionalism and talent! Read more here.
Congratulations to DSL 2nd Year Charlotte Wallis on receiving one of the Lilian Baylis Awards at the end of May. Pictured above/left with actor David Harewood, who received the same award in 1987. The award criteria includes the potential to make a significant contribution to theatre. You can read about the awards on our website here.
MFA 2024 graduate, Adam Hashmi, represented DSL at the Spotlight Prize this year, reaching the final which was held on 17th July. You can read all about it on our website here.
And, in July, we were also very happy to announce that our 1st year MFA student, Olivia Merritt, received a bursary from the Sir John Gielgud Trust. You can read more about it here.
Student News
We recently had the opportunity to host a group of Rambert students at Grange Court and, in return, some of our students were invited to visit them and join a workshop. This cross-discipline relationship is another way to enrich the cultural experience for both sets of students and it’s fantastic to be aligned with this world class institution who share our ethos of collaboration. There’s a short article about the exchange here.
Students had the great pleasure of working with Tonic Theatre this term with a focus on safe spaces and ways of working together more effectively. The students feedback was incredibly positive and will take the learning with them out into the industry.
And finally…
We are often asked by students what we are doing to minimise our carbon footprint at DSL, so we’ve collated some of our work on this in an article on our website, you can find it here.
Also, with the general election behind us and a new government settling in, you may be interested in reading about the Manifesto for Performing Arts Education in schools that we supported in June. The CDMT, one of the kitemark organisations that DSL have membership with, launched this document following a worrying shrink in the pipeline to HE performing arts training.
If you are interested in this issue, please find out more here.
Our Open Days have been announced and we have a fresh offer of evening courses – both happening this Autumn and places can be booked on our website.
If you work in a school, FE college or an arts organization that would appreciate a visit, workshop, talk or Q&A from us, or if we can attend a careers event to spread the work about the value of conservatoires – please get in touch!
————————————————————————————
Don’t forget (if you don’t follow us already) you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and X.
We hope you have a glorious summer break and we look forward to welcoming our new students in September!