The Acting Class Film Screening

Plus Q&A with the directors and Andrew Ellis (This is England).

When Tom Stocks, a young man from Bolton has to turn down a chance to study at the East 15 drama school because he cannot afford the fees, he sets up a campaign to highlight socio-economic exclusion in the arts. Tom is not alone. Actors from working class backgrounds are struggling to get in and get on in an industry stacked against them.

Established actors worry about where the next generation of talent from modest backgrounds is going to come from. Northern stars Christopher Eccleston, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Maxine Peake and Andrew Ellis are among those who feature in this film talking about the barriers to success. This is an issue not just for those who see their dreams thwarted because they do not have the ‘bank of mom and dad’ to back them. Who gets to be on the stages and screens matters to all of us. Whose stories get told, what images we have of ourselves, who we think ‘we’ are, helps shape our identities. And that is political.