An end of year letter from our Principal & CEO

Dear Reader,

It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of another academic year at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. And what a year it has been.

I wanted to share an open letter with you all as we head towards the Summer academic break. I’d like to, for a moment, put  to one side all of the challenges we have been faced with during the 2024/25 academic year and reflect on the incredible achievements of our staff and students. 

There really is a staggering amount to be proud of and amazed by.

First and most importantly, the academic standard of all students across every single course at the Theatre School continues to be staggering. This is testament to the energy, dedication, and hard work that our students put in every single week, and our staff match them minute for minute with that hard work and commitment to excellence too.

Looking back at the successful year of theatre productions, films, audio work, and the making and performances, it is almost incomprehensible to think of everything our collective has pulled off in just 10 months since the School year began. 

Some headline figures to articulate that include:

– 19 full-scale plays performed:

 **4 in the Autumn season (including the 2 Bristol schools’ tours)

**6 in the Spring season (including 4 Shakespeare plays in the 2 double headers)

**9 in the Summer Festival (including 8 plays in 4 double headers and 1 MFA show)

**Almost 12,000 audience members watched live theatre, including 4,500 primary school children seeing plays in their Schools’.

**216 hours of live staged action in five different Bristol venues (The Redgrave, the Weston Studio BOV, The Station, The Loco Klub and The School.) 

**More than 100 individual performances

– 1,050 participants in our youth programmes and short courses.

– 4,140 pages of scripts written and rewritten

– 61 industry professionals connected and engaged with on the MA Drama Writing

– 14 films made – which is more than 13 terabytes (13,000 gigabytes!) of footage, which equates to around 200 hours of footage. This includes:

**24 scenes

**16 fight scenes

**46 monologues filmed

– 359 applications made to Postgraduate courses for Sept 2025 intake.

**87 offers made for 66 places.

– Roughly 16,000 tea bags used in the Staff room (our best estimation).

Things are not letting up as we approach the Summer break. Our full-time Undergraduate students finish their year on Friday 11th July, some for the last time at the School, Postgrads continue  for a couple of weeks more, with MFA Professional Acting finishing in mid August. We will welcome our new cohort of the Summer Foundation 10-week intensive Actor training on Monday 14th July.

For those fortunate enough to see our students’ work in action over recent months, you’ll know just how incredible the standard of work from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School continues to be. Last week, as a busy snapshot, saw three major projects culminate.

The MFA Professional Actors production of Mephisto, performed at the Loco Klub— a venue created in five Victorian tunnels beneath Temple Meads Train station— which was simply magnificent. Directed by Georgina Sowerby (Head of the MFA Professional Acting course), a promenade performance that took audiences on a journey through more than five stage areas, with costumes, set, and props that were mesmerising. We’re particularly proud that alum designer Aldo Varquez used mainly recycled materials from our scenic and prop stores to create the environments. See a full review on our website here:

We also hosted a triumphant New Writing Festival in the Weston Studio at the Theatre School, where our 8 MA Drama Writing students saw their new full-length plays come to life, with the help of our MA Drama Directors and second-year BA Actors, who performed a script-in-hand full reading of each play across three days. This was the first time we hosted the event at the School, and the feedback and engagement was overwhelmingly positive, with more than 500 people attending the Festival.

Finally, we had a week-long residency in the creative space of the Sparks building in the city centre. An unusual venue (the first floor of a disused Marks and Spencer department store), which was adapted beautifully to exhibit our graduating BA Costume, BA Production Arts, and MA Performance Design students’ work.

With so much to be proud of and so much accomplished, it is now time to look ahead and think about the future.

There is a lot of change happening here at the School as we ready ourselves for the road ahead. We have openly shared in previous months how the School is part of the shifting sands that are plaguing the higher education and arts sectors, and we continue to work tirelessly to set the School on a financially sustainable future path.

We recently announced that I am stepping away from the School completely at the end of August, and that the role of Principal & CEO will be separated into two roles in order to provide the focus needed to plan for the future. Our former Director of Studies, Stuart Harvey, is stepping into the new role of Principal, and will be a more than safe pair of hands, primarily responsible for overseeing the teach-out phase over the next two years. 

We are in the middle of the process to recruit a new Charity CEO; and they, along with Stuart as Principal, and oversight from the Board of Trustees, will work together to shape the future of this much-loved and incredible institution.

They will undoubtedly continue to need the support and input of our supporters, stakeholders, alumni etc in a myriad of ways.  The enrichment that our students benefit from through visits from alumni and the sharing of knowledge from industry professionals has never been more valuable and vital. I hope that this kind of support continues and grows for the benefit of our students. If you’d like to help in any way – please get in touch with the team via Head of Marketing – Rob Langley-Swain: [email protected] in the first instance. 

When I finish at the end of August I will be taking time for myself and my family, and thinking about my next step(s). I have been in the incredibly fortunate position to always have known where my next job was coming from, whether as a freelancer or in permanent roles, throughout my forty-year career. What will the next chapter bring?

I will, of course, reflect on the past five years and the challenges I have faced during my leadership. From starting in post during Covid and the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in Bristol, to CDD winding down, the loss of grant funding, the loss of international students, writing and rewriting four business plans, and the eventual inability to continue to accept under-graduate students – and all whilst continuing to ensure the excellence of our teaching can continue throughout. I have also had the privilege of seeing our talented students grow, learn and graduate throughout those five years, and work with incredibly committed and resilient staff.

I couldn’t have done it without the wonderful team around me and the incredible support from our partners, stakeholders and alumni. I thank each and every one of them, and leave enriched and lucky to have held this wonderful position. I wish the Theatre School more than every success for its future and will continue to watch from afar.

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” (Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V)

With the best of wishes, 

Fiona Francombe