The Friends Of The Drama Centre London Donate £70,000 To Open Door

Open Door have received a £70,000 donation from The Friends of the Drama Centre London. This generous donation will enable Open Door to continue its vital work in helping provide budding actors and behind-the-scenes creatives from low income households with the opportunity to enter the industry.

The Friends of the Drama Centre London was formed in 1994 by Frances de la Tour, Pierce Brosnan and a group of like-minded graduates with the aim of providing hardship funding for Drama Centre students and advancing drama education more generally.

Many students who experienced financial hardship benefited from funds and other support during their training. The Friends of the Drama Centre London  were able to react almost immediately to requests for help towards maintenance and living costs and a number of their graduates were only able to complete their courses because of help from the fund for vital items such as travel cards, emergency medical expenses, counselling, meals, assistance with rent and utilities bills and occasionally help towards fees. 

Similarly, Open Door was launched by actor David Mumeni in 2017 to help provide budding actors and behind-the-scenes creatives from low income households with the opportunity to enter the industry. The organisation counts Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Riz Ahmed and David Morrissey among its supporters and in December 2022, was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the British Independent Film Awards. Its participants are already making waves in the industry, with graduate Jerome Lance securing a leading role in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds, Dionne Brown who landed a leading role in upcoming Apple TV+ series Criminal Record alongside Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi, as well as multiple participants landing roles at The National Theatre, Regents Park Open Air Theatre and at The Old Vic.

Founder of Open Door, and Drama Centre alumnus David Mumeni said today: “We are so grateful to the Friends of Drama Centre for this generous donation to Open Door. It means we are able to continue our work and support more people who need it. Being an ex-student of Drama Centre myself, and the fundamentals in acting training there being part inspiration for the organisation, makes this even more special.”

The Friends of the Drama Centre London added: “We are immensely proud of the work of The Friends over the last twenty-eight years, and thrilled that our donation to Open Door can help nurture and support the next generation of actors and theatre makers who are experiencing hardship and difficulties in the expensive and arduous task of preparing to apply for places in drama schools and other training institutions. We also hope that our donation will honour the generosity of our original supporters and in some way serve as a legacy for staff and students of the school.”

As factors such as the cost-of-living crisis and ongoing barriers to the industry continue to have a disproportionate impact on those from lower-income backgrounds, Open Door once again supports emerging talent preparing to graduate from Drama School who had not previously been involved with the organisation.

For further information please visit opendoor.org.uk.

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