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Academy of Live and Recorded Arts

British drama school

Field	Value
name	The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, London Acting & Drama School
caption	ALRA South
established	1979
closed	2022
type	Drama school
head_label	Principals
founder	Sorrel Carson and Caryll Ziegler
city	Wandsworth
country	England
postcode	SW18 3SX
affiliations	Trinity College London, CDET, Federation of Drama Schools, St Mary's University, Twickenham
website
logo	ALRA - The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts - logo.png

The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) was a British drama school. It had two sites: ALRA South on Wandsworth Common in south London and ALRA North in Wigan, Greater Manchester. It was founded in 1979 by director and actors Sorrel Carson and Caryll Ziegler who then directed the school as its principal until 2001.

ALRA was a member of Federation of Drama Schools an iteration of the formerly known as Drama UK, and before that the Conference of Drama Schools, and National Council for Drama Training, both organizations since dissolved, and received funding from the Young People's Learning Agency.

The school closed in April 2022.

Origins and locations

ALRA South occupied part of this former orphanage in Wandsworth

ALRA South was in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building, a Victorian Gothic Grade 2 listed building on the edge of Wandsworth Common. The first school was opened in a Church Hall in East Finchley in 1979.

ALRA North opened in September 2010 at a former church in Wigan, Greater Manchester, moving in 2012 to Trencherfield Mill, a restored industrial building in the Wigan Pier development area, Greater Manchester. The curriculum and teaching methods were the same as at ALRA South.

Courses

ALRA offered the following courses:

Three-year Acting course – leading to BA (Hons) Acting/National Diploma in Professional Acting
Fifteen-month Acting course – leading to MA Professional Acting/National Certificate in Professional Acting
MA in Directing
Foundation Acting
Foundation Stage Management and Technical Theatre
Various short courses.

Acceptance

Admission to the school was based on three rounds of auditions and finally an interview with the school's directors, its registrar and an audition panel. The audition was held over the course of a single day.

Closure

ALRA closed with effect from 4 April 2022. Students were offered the chance to complete their studies at Rose Bruford College. The Federation of Drama Schools, in conjunction with the UK's Office for Students, offered support to staff and students affected by the announcement, including maintaining the arrangement with St Mary's University, Twickenham for validating degrees.

The last principal was Dr. Ellie Johnson Searle (interim).

Notable alumni

Jimmy Akingbola
Samuel Anderson
Clive Ashborn
Bennett Arron
Anna Brecon
Lorraine Bruce
Dominic Burgess
Rhiannon Clements
Stephanie Chambers
Ian Champion
Bridget Christie
Thomas Craig
Amanda Eliasch
Tanya Franks
Francesca Gonshaw
Denise Gough
Miranda Hart
Daniel Healy
Joanna Jeffrees
Elizabeth Keates
Lucy Liemann
Robert Lonsdale
Kim Lukas
Paul McEwan
Steve McNeil
Sarah Parish
Mark Pegg
Pooky Quesnel
Lisa Ray
Vincent Regan
Suzi Ruffell
Georgia Steel
Amita Suman
Hannah Waddingham

References

(13 September 2022). "Obituary: Caryll Ziegler". [[The Stage]].
"Rapid Scoping Study on Leicester Drama School". De Montfort University Leicester.
"ALRA South, Wandsworth, Royal Victoria Patriotic Building".
"Acting Schools in London & Greater Manchester". Academy of Live & Recorded Arts.
"BA Hons Acting, acting BA, 3 Year, Vocational, Professional course".
"Master in acting, MA professional acting course | PG Acting | Full-Time".
"MA Directing, MA Theatre Directing | Postgrad course | ALRA".
"Foundation Acting Course (Full Time) | ALRA".
"Short Courses & Workshops". ALRA.
"Audition guidelines". ARLA.
"Statement on ALRA".
(4 April 2022). "ALRA drama school shuts with immediate effect". [[BBC News]].
(5 April 2022). "Students distraught as famous Wigan Pier-based drama school suddenly goes bust".
"Students offered places at Rose Bruford following ALRA drama school closure".
"Closure of ALRA". [[Federation of Drama Schools]].
(10 August 2022). "Theatre's Titanic: the story of how drama school ALRA went under". [[The Stage]].
(18 July 2019). "ALRA North student Rhiannon Clements wins 2019 Spotlight Prize for best stage actor". [[The Stage]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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