Page 15 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

13 February 2020

Editor’s View: Guildhall’s move to cut fees

is welcome, but schools have been slow to

act

Orla O’Loughlin, Guildhall's director of drama. Photo: Aly Wight
by Alistair Smith

Is the tide finally turning against exorbitant drama school audition fees? Guildhall School of Music
and Drama, for a long time one of a number of drama schools charging high fees, is the latest to
announce a shake-up in the way it charges aspiring students.

It’s no coincidence that the changes at Guildhall and LAMDA – the other major drama school to
have recently overhauled its charges – have happened since figures with experience outside the
drama training sector have taken on senior roles at those institutions: Orla O’Loughlin and Sarah
Frankcom, respectively.

For too long, the sector had its head in the sand. Looking through The Stage’s archives, we have
highlighted this issue regularly since at least 1997. The schools’ response has been cloth-eared:
the fees are not ‘profit centres’, but they could not afford to do as thorough a job at auditions
without charging, and there are bursaries available if you can’t afford them.

The response from Robert Cannon, vice-principal of Rose Bruford, in 1997 was fairly typical: “The
college auditions and interviews more than 4,000 students each year. Administratively, this
involves three full-time staff in our registry, as well as reception and post who receive initial
enquiries and dispatch prospectuses. Two full-time staff in marketing devote much of their time
preparing materials for candidates, including handling websites and recruitment conferences. The
auditions themselves involve more than 100 days’ work by tutorial staff, the principal and vice-
principal all involved to ensure the most thorough and fair process for candidates.”

While some claims that audition fees were not generating a profit were simply untrue, the
justifications overlooked that what the schools chose to regard as ‘extra costs’ should have been