The 98% podcast stands in solidarity with the Black community to oppose racism in all its forms and to fight for justice and equality, particularly in the industry we represent. We were therefore deeply saddened to read via social media many peoples experiences of systemic racism within our industry, particularly within drama schools. As some drama schools released statements as a response to the horrific murder of George Floyd and the #blacklivesmatter movement – students and ex-students responded with their own personal experiences of racism during their time in some of these institutions. We then put a call out on our twitter page for anyone who would like to use our platform to share their story. The responses were many. From Black people and other PoC*.
As white people, we cannot possibly understand the personal effect and cost of racism and we do not want to use our white voices to tell the stories of people on the receiving end of daily racism and microagressions. Our role here is simply to listen, oppose and act. Therefore, with permission, we are sharing stories exactly as they were written to us. We want to use our platform to amplify the voices that need to heard and provide a space for those who wish to remain anonymous to still share their stories and experiences.
We call on all the drama schools listed for comment and an explicit address of the action taken in response to the stories listed below. We ask all drama schools to refer all policies regarding race for urgent update in light of this conversation, as it is clear from what we have heard that there is much more work to be done. A simple statement on social media is not enough. It isn’t just about learning about the experiences of PoC but about UNlearning institutionalised racism in a society built on white supremacy and an industry with racist roots that run deep.
We would also like to continue to offer our platform up to anybody who would like to share their story. Our microphone is yours, our blog is open, we are listening. We recognise that this is an incredibly difficult and painful time for the black community so we would also like to acknowledge that you do not owe us your stories, pain or energy. Ever. We continue stand with you in the fight to bring attention to, and end, racism in our industry and society as a whole.
In solidarity,
Alexa and Katie x
*We understand that PoC (people of colour) is not a term that every person who is not white collectively agrees on or feels comfortable with. We are also aware of a similar sentiment towards the term BAME. We have used the term PoC here because it’s the term we see used the most currently by Black people or those who are not white. We know that even having such terms suggests that white is the “default race” and anyone who isn’t white therefore “deviates from the norm.” While this is not an idea we like to uphold we also know that by not identifying people’s race here is also not helpful, as it ignores the experiences they have because of their race, which white people do not have. We are open to any response or suggestion to these terms and hope you understand our usage here.
* Edited to add * - We have been receiving more emails about peoples experiences at drama school as responses to this blog. We are adding them to this post so we have a collection of all the accounts in one place. When you see “Edited to add” these are the stories we have added after the initial release of the blog post.
Drama Studio London #1
“During “industry week” [at drama school] a guy from MMB Creative (Malcolm Browning) was invited to our Drama School and he made some outrageously racist remarks when he was talking to a white or white passing group of students during our graduation term in 2018 (no school staff present to witness this). I reported it to a board member of the school later who was shocked and I don't think he was invited back. The comments themselves by Mr. Browning I remember were along the lines of "I can tell when young black actors write emails to me because their grammar is always bad" and he also was talking about "some people" taking opportunities away from "talents" due to "political correctness"....stuff like that...
It is clear to me now that some of the official school statements regarding discrimination, bullying, racism, mental health and sexism were hot air. And I know it is one of the "good" Drama Schools regarding that stuff. It's always hard to differentiate between realism of "the state of the industry" and discrimination when teachers talked about people's casting types. I think people believe what they are told about the industry. And "there are a lot of 'terrorist' parts out there for you, so you're lucky, you'll have work" may be well meant and even have a core of truth but shows the sad state of things.”
Drama Studio London #2
“I went to DSL, and was one of 2 POC in our year. I was told that I would play “terrorist wife” and when I mentioned I’d love to do period drama my TV tutor told me it wouldn’t happen unless I played a maid.
Despite being an older student, I was so vulnerable for that year of training and I do feel certain staff members took advantage of that, with comments about my appearance and casting. I never properly spoke up as I felt so lucky to be there in the first place and didn’t want to put anyone’s back up.
We didn’t study plays by any POC and had no POC guest practitioners. In our final year show, everyone who was vaguely brown or “foreign” was put in a play set in Mexico.
I also remember having a staff chat at the end of my year and they were still confused about where exactly I came from. I noticed they tweeted yesterday about a Q&A they were hosting saying “the show WILL go on” which I felt was insensitive wording considering the sentiment behind #theshowwillbepaused. When I checked again to comment on this the list had been taken down and replaced with some generic BLM blurb.
I don’t suppose my experience is different from many others. But I wanted to add my voice to the numbers. Things have to change and students need to feel like they can speak it without being fear of faculty retribution.”
Drama Studio London #3 *Edited to add*
"I had written a formal complaint to the former director of Drama Studio London about a director that had discriminated against me during an audition; I was blacklisted not long after. At DSL, there is a director who brags about directing shows such as Eastenders, Holby City and more. However, this director has had many allegations made against him whether it is discrimination, bullying or racism; DSL has not done anything about this because of his status. During my audition, I was the only Asian person in the room. We were advised by the director that if we want to go first for each exercise, we must put our hands up. I made sure to put my hand up first but he would look at me, ignore me and then choose all the white auditionees to go first. I was really surprised by this. When I spoke to the auditionees during our break, they even told me that they had noticed that I was being singled-out and they could feel this bad energy from him. I was glad that I was not the only one who noticed all this because it is unacceptable. When the audition finished, I spoke with one of the other directors at DSL and she advised me to make a written complaint via email. Needless to say, I did not expect to get blacklisted but it happened. In the past, I did one of their courses and when I first encountered the director who was at my audition, he approached me and said this: "Your performance BETTER be good". This is not the first time that Drama Studio London has discriminated against people of colour especially against Asian men and Asian women; this needs to stop".
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School #1
"It started on my very first day when a girl in my class said “are you one of those Indians that's decided to act?” Throughout the 1st year she would always speak loudly in an Indian accent in class, teachers would ignore her. She returned from holidays at Christmas and place her tanned arm next to mine and say “I'm getting there”. It was only when someone randomly informed her that I found this offensive that she tried to explain herself; she's an ex-pat living in Dubai and has an Indian servant. The 3rd year was probably the worst where her racism resurfaced and a former TV soap actor in my class started coming out with odd remarks; “You never talk about your race, it's nice”. He would also put on accents in class. Teachers would never challenge him. One teacher asked if I was Muslim or Hindu, I replied “I was raised as a Hindu, still practising” she said “Thank god for that then” and walked off. Only ever asked me about correct pronunciations for yoga poses. When I left Bristol a couple of teachers apologised for not casting me properly in shows. They also congratulated me for not bringing up race during my time at drama school. Others referred to me as the 'token' whenever teachers praised or liked my work over theirs.”
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School #2
"When we graduated Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, we had one non-white person in our entire year. But the issue didn’t just lie in the lack of numbers of BAME actors, it was also the outright racism that person endured during training from staff (again, all white and many of them bullies...)
I was very close to this person during training and it was the most uncomfortable position to be in, listening to these comments about them resembling the staff’s “n****r brown coat”, amongst various other distressing comments, like discussing “gol******” and pointing at this specific student.
I know that so many of us, including the individual it was aimed at, are so angry at ourselves for not putting up more of a fight. When we did go and address this issue to the top person, they didn’t know what to say. They didn’t seem shocked (which is worrying in itself) but they didn’t action anything. The lack of support in the institution was unacceptable, made one very talented person feel powerless, and made ALL of us have to find the strength to forgive ourselves for what the staff said and did.”
Bristol Old Vic Theatre School #3 *Edited to add*
”At my Bristol Old Vic Theatre School audition, the white former students laughed at me and it made me feel like dirt. This is not the first time that I have dealt with racism and discrimination at drama school as an Asian woman. At first, I was very surprised that former students were auditioning me instead of the acting staff because in the past, they had their senior acting staff do the auditions. The difference between the senior acting staff and the former students at the Zoom auditions was the professionalism. The acting staff were very kind to me but the former students were unprofessional and rude. I was so distressed to the point that I had written everything that had happened to me in my diary and I had to speak to a director about it as well as my family and friends. The man in my audition said to me, "make sure to pay attention to your UCAS portal because we're doing recalls in-person. I mean we don't know the result yet but YEAH!" and then he laughed. I looked at the lady and I could see that she sucked-in her lips to prevent herself from laughing. I honestly hated the audition and I knew by their response that they were going to reject me. BOVTS have claimed on their website in 2020 that they will take action against racism but judging by their student graduates, staff, and the white panellist that I had, not much has changed. There are only 2 Black teachers, I cannot see any Asian or Middle-Eastern teachers and there are hardly any Asian women and Asian men at their drama school. BOVTS tried to diversify things with their 2022 BA Acting graduates. However, if you look at their MFA graduates and the BA Acting graduates from 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and more, not much has changed. Again, there are hardly any Asian and Middle-Eastern people at this drama school. Why is racism normalised when it comes to Asian women and other minority ethnic women? It is easy to say that skin colour does not matter and it is about talent. However, if there is a history of racism against Asian people at drama school then clearly, there needs to be more changes made. I believe that my experience is not that different from other people and I want Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to do better and to make the relevant changes".
Rose Bruford #1
“I’m Latinx and Jewish. On Halloween, a girl dressed up for a Halloween party that was being held at the schools dorms as “sexy” Hitler. She had multiple swastikas and absolutely no one said anything. When I saw this I was completely appalled and I brought it up with my course leader who told me it was not a big deal and she couldn’t help me. I then brought it up to the administration and I was told that I was overreacting and that no one else complained so it was obviously not a very big deal. They just said that she was just being “silly” and it was all a “silly” mistake. They said they had spoken to her, and that was it. I was shocked, my parents were ready to pull me out of the school. No one stood by me except for 2 close mates. It felt horrific and destroyed my time at the school. And those of us who were “racially ambiguous” (there were no black people in our year) were encouraged to exploit this constantly by our course director. She recommended a Cypriot student to look more Syrian in order to get more parts.”
ArtsEd * Edited to add *
“Me and another Black girl in the year got mixed up constantly by the teachers. We looked nothing alike and were never in any of the same classes.
I was asked to help choreograph part of a dance project because the style was commercial and my teacher thought I was ‘very urban’ (I am NOT a commercial dancer in any way shape or form and the teacher knew this)
I was told showcasing my legit voice was unnecessary because legit ‘isn’t my casting’.
I was told numerous times to act ‘more sassy’ - not for playing a character, just generally in life I was told I needed to be more sassy
A ballet teacher once literally said to me ‘what are we going to do about that big African bum’
I was told my braids were detrimental to my dance training and was made to take them out
Was told by a guest choreographer to ‘act more Black’ while learning a dance number. When I spoke to a teacher about this I was told to get over it because ‘that’s just the industry’
There was literally a self-identified Nazi working at the canteen who posted pictures of swastika’s and ‘Heil Hitler’ all over his social media. Whenever students brought this up the subject was always laughed off.
Was told while learning to do a Southern American accent that the confederate flag isn’t racist and that I am being ‘intolerant’ and ‘difficult’ by suggesting it is offensive.”
University in North East Lincolnshire
"Long story short I'm on our student council and wrote a 300-odd-word letter of solidarity to our Black students in response to the current protests - they effectively censored this so as not to take a massive political stance and only published a 7-word quote from the letter. I also complained to them about not having any Black lecturers giving talks at the university on Black issues & history, and they cut the conversation saying that they're mixed race (I don't know what their ethnicity is, but they are white-passing whereas I was stating that you need visibly Black people giving these lectures for our Black students to see themselves represented in the faculty) and basically insinuated that that was enough. I just can't help but think if this is how they censor a white student trying to show solidarity then how difficult is it for a Black student.”
Sam Houston State University
“The people at the university I went to generally only casts black women in roles that are specified for black women, besides 2 professors.”
Emil Dale #1
"I wasn’t at the school during this time but I know that when they did hairspray the girl who played little Inez was white and they put her in a Gerry curl wig and had her fake tan.”
Emil Dale #2
We have been made aware of a recent online class without a teacher present where one white student jokingly suggested to another that he say his monologue and add the N word after every sentence. He did so, while his classmates watched and laughed after every time the word was said. This was recorded and posted on snapchat. The person in question has been expelled and the others temporarily suspended, we have been told further action is being taken.
Emil Dale #3 * Edited to add *
”While I was at Emil Dale, a production of 'Hairspray' was on. I was in Les Miserables and the other half of the school was in Hairspray. I saw someone mentioned the girl that was fake tanned and put in a wig . The Dynamites were also all white. Then, two years after, they put a production of 'In The Heights' on and I was shocked and sickened to that some of the roles were being played by white actors. For example, the roles of Kevin Rosario, Nina and Vanessa were all played by white actors. There is probably a lot more insight into what happened if someone from that year spoke out but there were BAME actors in the school that year and they were instead in the ensemble.”
Guildford School Of Acting * Edited to add *
“I wanted to tell my story because Guildford School of acting has caused me so much trauma and affected my mental health; it is time I speak up. As everything is coming out of the open, the moments in which I was being discriminated became so normal to me that I had pushed the memories down and became numb. When I was in first year in my voice class, we were given out a breakdown for an accent and on the sheet it clearly said for Caucasian people only. Instantly, as a black student I felt ostracised and alienated. After the lesson was done I had asked the teacher that on the paper it is only for Caucasian people how can I learn the accent and the teachers response was I could watch a film with Queen Latifah starring in it. So at the moment was when I realised that like everyone I am paying nine grand a year but I have to do the work for myself even more than all the other students. Unfortunately, this was not the only incident I had with the teacher. For my whole of first year she would constantly pick on me more than all the other students in my class. Constantly belittling me and dismissing anything I said. In particular in a class where we had to read something out aloud I had read a word wrong. She proceeded to say in front of the whole class how she gave me something above my intelligence. No one said anything or even batted an eyelid at what she had said. I would often get policed about my hair and in every educational stage I have had since young till the age of twenty I have had microagression towards my hair and the way it is done. During drama school was no different, I would always get told off for any hairstyles that were not of Eurocentric style and if they were at all afro-centric I would be told it would be distracting.”
Guildford School of Acting Saturday school
“I had a brilliant first year there but then a new ballet teacher came. I was made to feel I didn't fit in anymore as the teacher wanted a neat tight bun and came in the class and was cross with the standards. I remember crying that night as I hated being so different. My hair is an afro and I could never get it to look as tidy in this style. The only way would be to keep straightening it which would break my hair. My mum spoke to them but the teacher explained it was about standards as she had been to a top ballet school. My self esteem dropped and I felt I didn't fit in. After a few months of my mum trying to reassure me and tie my hair as neatly as possible.
I still didn’t enjoy the classes I felt ignored compared to the other girls and I never felt confident doing ballet anymore. I just didn't fit in. I was 10. I never wanted to go to ballet school but wanted to go to Acting School when I was older. My mum messaged them directly and they are listening and passing our concerns on.”
Edgehill University
“I go to a university to study MT and I am mixed race and I'm also not British (I was born in Russia), because of my heritage my voice has a natural disposition towards jazz/ "ethnic" (eugh) songs, my first week of university my lecturer came up to me and told me that if I don’t learn how to sing like a white person I'll never have a career. Subsequently I'd get told that I wasn’t allowed to sing any songs that weren't a very specific voice type that my voice clearly isn't. None of the other girls (who were all white/British) were forced to sound a certain way and it nearly destroyed my love for theatre.”
The International College of Musical Theatre, formally known as AMTA
“I have so many stories I could tell about my time at drama school, but the cherry on top of the racist cake was probably our final show. We did "Anything Goes" a 1940s, Cole Porter musical that features a side plot involving some minor Chinese characters, and later some of the white characters pretending to be Chinese. There were no Asian people in our year (I guess the director just forgot this when deciding on the show), so actually we had white actors essentially doing yellow face for the entire show. He put a disclaimer about the show being racist in the programme, since it was from the 40s.
After the show, I felt that at the least the school would learn from their mistake, but the following year the end of year show was Sister Act. With white girls playing Delores.”
East 15
"Drama schools/institutions need to start taking accountability for the damage they inflict upon their black students. This is just an inkling of what I witnessed and suffered at East 15 Acting School….I entered drama school in 2015 very sure and proud of my identity. But throughout my whole training I felt I was constantly having to defend myself and y blackness to the point where I had a teach tell me that she wants to “break me”. This white woman looked me in my eyes and said I REPEAT she wants to “break me”. I had my head of year say that i could pass for a white person on the radio, in front of my peers. Calling me an “english rose”. He went on to name a few english roses ie Kiera Knightly/Carey Muulligan etc whom are all WHITE women. After this, people thought it was ok to being calling me an “English rose”. I reported an incident to a “teacher” about a student who had been called the N word several times by his fellow white students and NOTHING WAS DONE. I had a white students say to me “I wish I was black”, white student who constantly appropriated the culture at parties but never spoke up for the culture when fellow students were being marginalised. One incident I remember very clearly is when a woman came to our school to interview a few students that my head of year had to pick. He scoped the room full of my peers and picked two white students and then went to pick me and said “let’s pick Precious to add diversity.” I felt absolutely humiliated and it further confirmed that this institution sees me as nothing but a tick on their quota.”
- From Precious Mustapha’s twitter (@preciousmustaph)
Italia Conti
”As we watched a video of a black contemporary dancer in class, a fellow student said that the dancer “could look like the teacher if she rolled around in some mud”. All I got was an apology and no further support. A teacher mentioned we’d start learning an “African style dance” in the next class and said “I bet Eden will be great at that”. She got very stuttery when I asked her why she thought that. I often spent whole lessons going back and forth with one of the voice teachers about race. He would constantly challenge me and almost tell me its impossible to avoid accidentally making racist comments.”
-From Eden Dominque’s instagram story @edendominique
Royal Conservatoire Scotland
”I’m a student of the RCS and I am white. At the beginning of my second year my course head - who has since been suspended for the last 6 months - stood up at a course meeting to announce that she was thrilled that we now had three!!! PoC students on the course. She not only fetishised these students by referring to them as some sort of prize in an otherwise almost all white space — but she was also wrong. She had discounted all of the Asian students in the room as being PoC. We in fact had 5 PoC students! And 55 white students at our ‘international’ top 3 in the world course. That head of course has since been suspended as a result of multiple racist and misogynistic incidents but there has been no conclusion as to whether this suspension will be lifted. The fear amongst students is that they are waiting for the remaining complainants to graduate, and the people who remember everything that had happened to leave this year before they allow her to return.”
Central School of Speech and Drama #1
"Comments I received whilst training…
“You’re very very marketable right now”
“It’s harder for me to get an agents interest than it is for you, you’re very current.”
“You could play a white person with that beanie on.”
I was also mistaken and called the name of another classmate who is mixed race consistently while we were in the same class. I saw the same happen to two other black female members of the class.”
Central School of Speech and Drama #2
Shaniqua Okwok was one of the first people to open this discussion about drama school racism in response to the statement released by Central School Of Speech and Drama. “In 2015, week 3 of my first year, a permanent movement teacher said I would play a slave because I walked in a way that made my feet drag ‘heavily’ after a student commented on my walk and said it reminded him of a ‘chain gang.’” Unfortunately…that was just the beginning for Shaniqua and she shares more of her experiences on her social media. She is now working tirelessly to bring justice for the hundreds of people who have got in contact with her about their experiences at the school. Her instagram @luckyshanniiee and twitter (@ShaniquaOkwok) are something to behold. Please go see what she is sharing, she is doing incredible work.
Arden School of Theatre #1
"Me and a fellow Asian actor were asked to split the only character of colour in the play whilst the other white actors got their own role. Instead of learning the South African accent, we were asked to do an Indian accent because “the Indian accent is funny” in an Indian accent.
Another experience was during my voice lessons, doing vocal warm ups, we were told to knead our neck muscles the way you would knead dough, the teacher then turned to me and said - in front of everyone. She went “you would know all about that when you make your Naan breads”
Another lesson was during our movement classes. I covered my mouth with a scarf because it was cold, the teacher then said “Don’t worry about him, I bet all the woman in his country dress like that”. I was born in the UK. 20 minutes from the drama school and NO - they don’t.
Three years at drama school was the best decision I ever made. However, it came with these incidents. I am not the only one. There will continue to be more unless these attitudes are dealt with!”
Arden School of Theatre #2
Alex (@alexokoampa) has shared his experience on twitter
London School of Musical Theatre
”At my drama school, the LSMT, there was only about 5 minority students and this year there is 2 out of around 50. I went a whole year without being given a single opportunity. They allowed racist and sexist staff to come in. One casting director that came and heard us sing only to ask black actors where our black voice is? A west end actor came in and asked us all one thing we would change during a workshop and I said inequality of minorities on the stage and he laughed and said “come on I think that’s fixed now, you guys have got what you wanted”. I was made to feel uncastable for the whole year and classmates made remarks that I only got my agent and auditions because BAME is “in”.”
(School not mentioned)
”I was told by a singing teacher that someone who looked like me would never have to sing legit MT because its “not my casting” .
In a class with a teacher (who still teaches there now) my housemate and her class were talking about the jobs people had booked (this was close to graduation). The teacher remarked about one graduate in particular saying “Oh but every black persons first job out of college is Lion King so that doesn’t really count.”
I, like many others worked so hard at drama school and luckily left with many agent offers, I told my friends about this and they remarked that the only reason I had those offers was due to my “look” and the fact that “BAME is in right now.”
A cover teacher who I had for a private singing lesson once said "You are very good looking, which is good when you're BAME". This particular comment left me physically speechless. I didn't sleep for days because of that comment circling in my head.”
Oxford School of Drama
I’m a graduate of the three year course at The Oxford School of Drama. When I started at the school I was 24 years old, and up until then had only experienced racism in an indirect way. But during my time there I received racist comments from fellow students, was discriminated against by faculty members, and most notably, got both from the former principal. I grew up in the cultural melting pot that is London, and had no idea how much of a bubble I lived in until I started at the O.S.D. There were even a couple of terms where I was the black population of the school, because the foundation course had finished, and the post-graduate class was completing it’s final term in London. Granted there were always other POC there, but more often than not, I could’ve counted them all on one hand. Because of this, I always felt extremely isolated, and unable to speak up about what I was experiencing. I’ve beaten myself up a lot over the years, for not saying or doing anything about it at the time, but I guess fear more than anything else held me back. Fear of being told I was imagining it, of being seen as trouble-maker, of becoming even more isolated, and in one instance, the fear of being expelled (I’ll get to that shortly). I always felt singled out by the former principal. At the time I couldn’t admit to myself that I was being bullied. I internalised it, and put his behaviour down to me not being good enough as an actor. In my first year I went to see a counsellor that the school had recommended, because I thought that it might help me improve. I told her about the issues I was having, and she bluntly asked if I thought the former principal was racist. It took me by surprise, but she explained that a number of other black students had been to see her, and had described very similar experiences. For some reason, I took what she said with a pinch of salt, and never went back. Even though I managed to rationalise his behaviour, it was a lot harder to explain away the comments he made during those three years. Once during a report session, he grabbed my hand and explained that he felt the insides of my hands were "really light" compared to the rest of me, so it must mean that "the black's coming off". He clearly felt he was being funny, but it had a very different impact on me. As we left his office, he repeated the comment to the school's former Executive Director, and I could see the look of horror on her face, but for reasons I still don’t fully understand, I made excuses for him and left. On another occasion he joked that I was going to be "whited-up", as I was role-sharing with a number of white classmates. The role was Othello. When on a lunch, break during the rehearsals of our third year show at The Theatre Chipping Norton, I was walking in a group of five or six classmates, and as he passed, he asked if I had been walking around the village scaring people. He made no comment to the other students. When trying to explain a time he'd heard my voice freer than it generally was, he described it as being "a raw, primal, African voice”. And when I was struggling to decide on a stage name that I felt reflected my identity and African heritage, he started trying to formulate words that he felt had an "African sound", and I had to explain that African surnames aren’t created that way. These are just a handful of the comments he made, there were many many more. Again, I wish I'd been able to say something, but I never felt I could. I mentioned earlier that there was an occasion when I felt that speaking up would get me expelled. I can’t definitively say that the way I was treated in that situation was because of my skin colour, but I’ve always wondered what would’ve happened, had I been white. I say this because being boisterous, enthusiastic, or even speaking with a fully supported voice, were for me to be called “aggressive” during my time at The O.S.D. This particular situation started with an animal studies exercise, during the early stages of rehearsal for As You Like It, my class’ first public show, and a joint production with the post-graduate course. We were instructed to move about the room, by the head of movement, and embody the energy and characteristics of the animals we had chosen. My character was a wrestler, so I felt a tiger was a good fit. We were then told to interact non-verbally with other characters. Since my rival in the play was Orlando, the majority of my interactions were with the actor playing him. Long story short, what I took for a really exciting improvisation, which had been the goal of the exercise, was perceived as an altercation between the two of us by everybody else, including “Orlando”. I tried to explain to the tutor when it happened, and after the class, that I was just improvising, but it fell on deaf ears. What hurt the most was that I’d barely spoken to “Orlando” at that point, so didn’t know him well enough to have an issue with him, let alone want to fight. I decided to let the matter drop, and focused on rehearsals. “Orlando” and I had spoken, everything seemed resolved, and for a while rehearsals went well. But it wasn’t to last. Whilst we were rehearsing the choreographed fight that was part of the show, by ourselves, “Orlando” got injured. Without going in to too much detail, he didn’t block one of my choreographed moves as well as he should have, he hit himself in the throat, and as it turned out, damaged his vocal chords. He didn’t seem injured at the time, and we carried on rehearsing. The first I knew of any injury was when a week or so later, the former principal marched me into his office with nothing more than a “come with me”; and as I entered the room, I found the head of movement, and the visiting director of the play, already there waiting for me. The next ten minutes were probably the most powerless I’ve felt in my adult life. I was told about the injury, and when I tried to explain what had actually happened, the director said “just sit there and shut up, we don’t want to hear anything from you!”. I was then, in no particular order, accused of changing the choreography of the fight, labelled aggressive and violent, told I had maliciously injured “Orlando”- because I clearly had an “issue” with him, based on what had happened during the animal studies exercise, and threatened with expulsion. I forget who said what, but all I know is that I was not allowed to speak a single word during those ten minutes. The funny thing is the stage combat tutor, who had choreographed the fight, and potentially could’ve understood what had actually happened when the injury occurred, wasn’t in the meeting. I know he was free at the time, because he was the one that found me sobbing after I’d been dismissed from the office, and offered support. During the three years I heard a lot of racist comments from fellow students, but the ones that stand out most for me are: being told by a classmate that I “smelled like an African”. The same person also said: “it’s in his blood, isn’t it?”, when another student mentioned how well I’d swept the theatre foyer during my cleaning duty. I do have a memory of him emphatically telling me that he isn’t racist, so I must’ve confronted him at some point. Another classmate said: “You know, you’re the first black person I’ve actually spoken to, there was one at my university, but I never spoke to him”. And then there were the sexualised racist comments like: “Is it true?……you know.” (referring to the size of my penis), “I bet it’s not even that big” (a different student, on a completely separate occasion, as I walked past a conversation I hadn’t even been involved in- but again, referring to the size my penis. They explained what they’d been talking about when I asked). “I’ve never slept with a black guy before” (completely out-of-the-blue comment from a student I’d never spoken to). The “Sleeping Partner” exercises in my first term we an eye opener too. I didn’t mind only being asked to play a love interest once, but it was quite telling that when an element of danger was introduced, everyone in my class wanted me to play a kidnapper, rapist and/or murderer. Obviously I could’ve said no, but given the way those classes were structured, if I had, it would’ve meant spending three and a half hours doing nothing each afternoon. And I went to drama school because I wanted to act.
We also urge you to read the stories on the following people’s twitter pages. We didn’t hear back from them with permission to share them on this blog so encourage you to follow them and amplify their voices:
- Dipo (@__dipoola) and Chanelle (@ChanelleModi) post about their time at Oxford School of Drama
- Lamin (@lamintouray96), Sainey (@Saineyt1) and Chay (@ChayFebruary93) share their experiences at ALRA…all of whom have also shared comments from their peers with similar stories. Kat (@kat_kumar_actor) has shared her ALRA experience in a youtube video https://youtu.be/SLiwWHXAezM
-Sui’s experience as a Chinese actor at RADA @siuhunli
- Shak (@Shak_GW) is also sharing important stories on his twitter, from his own experiences at Guildford School of Acting to other industry issues steeped in racism.