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Dateline: 5th June, 2006
Central Celebrates 100 Years On Sunday evening (4th June) at London's Old Vic Theatre, James Nesbitt, Amanda Donohoe, Catherine Tate, Rufus Sewell, Claire Bloom, Graham Norton, Lynda Bellingham, Wendy Craig, Jennifer Saunders and many more luminaries of the performance industries joined the centenary celebrations of their alma mater - London's Central School of Speech and Drama. The School's Patron, HRH Princess Alexandra, was also in attendance, as was honorary guest Terence Stamp. The party included a specially created performance (narrated by Graham Norton and Lynda Bellingham) celebrating the School's history and all that its students and staff have achieved during the past 100 years. Central School of Speech and Drama was founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, in a small gas-lit room at the Albert Hall. An innovative teacher of speech, voice and drama (as well as a performer in her own right), Fogerty selected the School's name to indicate the intention of finding a definite 'central' body of principles for a stage training, avoiding extremes of theory of practice. Central's first students were taught voice, diction, verse and prose speaking, movement and deportment. To supplement her income, Fogerty also gave speech classes at schools in and around London, and often brought Central students with her to demonstrate breathing and vocal exercises - which led to the discovery that many of these training actors-in-training themselves had a talent for teaching. By 1912, Central was therefore advertising courses for actors and speech and drama teachers. Only after completing their training did students choose what career to follow. If Fogerty felt a student would fare better as a teacher than an actor she would encourage them to sit the exams necessary for the latter. Sometimes the opposite became the case. The late Dame Peggy Ashcroft was one committed teacher-student who was persuaded to switch the focus of her studies to acting. Today, Central maintains the 'central' ethos set out by its founder 100 years ago and is committed to training the some of the UK's very best actors, stage managers, and technical craft specialists and to providing the best learning environment for drama teachers and for academic research in drama. It is the only one of London's specialist performing arts colleges to have become part of the prestigious group of colleges that make up the University of London. In 2005 it was formally designated by the Higher Education Funding Council for England as the UK's Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre. Other Central alumni include Michael Grandage, Judi Dench, Christopher Ecclestone, Cameron Mackintosh, Gael Garcia Bernal and Vanessa Redgrave. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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