No Audition Charge And Reduced Annual Fees At London's Newest Full-time Drama School

The newest drama school in London, the Pauline Quirke Full-Time Academy of Performing Arts, has waived audition charges and has also reduced its annual fees, in a bid to make its vocational training at 16+ accessible to more aspiring young performers.

The Full-Time Academy which opened in September 2018 and is located in the old Poor School building in Islington, has never charged for auditions, and has decided to reduce its fees by 35%, using funding provision arranged by the PQA Trust, a charitable trust set up by Pauline Quirke specifically to provide support to young people who demonstrate outstanding potential for a career in the performing arts, but whose financial circumstances mean they would normally be unable to access this kind of training.

This means that annual fees for its two-year diploma course are now £5,500 (or £1,835 a term), as opposed to the old cost of £8,550 (or 2,850 a term). Moreover, existing students of the 175 nationwide PQA part-time academies (operating at weekends) will only have to pay £4,950 per annum (£1,650 per term) to enable them to carry on their training into adulthood.

Pauline Quirke said, "I am really excited to be able to offer students the opportunity to train at our Full-Time Academy at a reduced fee - this means that young people, who have the potential and determination but may not have complete funding, will be able to benefit from attending our two-year diploma course at a considerably reduced cost. This comes with all the expertise of our professional teachers, a wide-ranging and very practical curriculum including our unique film and screen work, and access to lots of industry opportunities."

The academy's first cohort of 16-year-old students are now in their second term and have come from all over the country to study for two years in London and leave with a Diploma in Performing Arts.

Pauline adds: "We also wanted to remove the barrier of audition fees. It is already expensive enough for prospective students to travel to London to audition, so we didn't want to add to that financial burden by charging them as well.

"We want to provide more affordable training of the highest quality so that our students have the greatest chance of pursuing a career in the industry when they leave us."

Most drama schools still charge between £45 and £80 for an audition, which can add up to hundreds of pounds in audition fees if potential students are applying to several schools, which is the norm.

The Pauline Quirke Full-Time Academy of Performing Arts was opened last year in response to highdemand for further training from parents and students who attend the 175 PQA core academies, which are weekend performing arts schools across the UK, attended by more than 15,000 children.

Students at the Full-Time Academy are taught by an illustrious set of teachers, led by Artistic Director Adam Davenport, a professional performer himself who has been teaching for 15 years. The teachers have impressive professional experience; many of them are currently also working at leading conservatoires and performing in the West End, alongside their roles at the academy.

Pauline Quirke is best known for playing the role of Sharon in long-running comedy Birds of a Feather.

She was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress for her role as Olive Martin in the 1996 BBC mini-series The Sculptress. Her other television credits include Maisie Raine, David Copperfield, Skins, Emmerdale, Broadchurch.

In 2007, Pauline opened her very first Academy of Performing Arts in Buckinghamshire. Since then, Pauline Quirke Academy (PQA) has grown to offer its unique style of performing arts training at 175 part-time schools across the UK.

The next Full-Time Academy audition days for entry in September 2019 are 21 February, 11 April and 27 June.

For more information and to apply, please visit pqastudios.com.

https://youtu.be/S_OeLHRGFEE

https://youtu.be/S_OeLHRGFEE

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