A young actress who won a drama school scholarship has returned to Loughborough College to share her experiences with students.
Katie Grimley is in her first year of a degree in acting at The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA), the first drama school to offer training which included live theatre, television, film and radio.
British TV and now Hollywood star Miranda Hart is amongst ALRA’s alumni, who also include Lucy Liemann – who appeared in The Bourne Ultimatum, Dr Who regular Samuel Anderson, Amina Zia – from the revived Porridge and Denise Gough, who recently performed at London’s National Theatre in Angels in America.
“Our first year performing arts students are starting to think about auditions so Katie shared her experience of that and for our second year students she offered a great insight into how it has been to live away from home and study for her degree,” said Loughborough College creative arts lead Emma Ledsam.
“It was great for our students to see the link between the work we do with them on their course and to hear from Katie how helpful it was in preparing her to move on to the demands of drama school.
“Katie is at the north campus near Manchester while another of our former students, Leah Vanmali, is studying with ALRA on their south campus in London. Leah also visited us so it was interesting for our current students to get their different points of view.
“Katie and Leah are clearly working their socks off in their first year and having a great time – getting lots of support from ALRA.
“They were amongst seven of our students offered places with ALRA last year and this year they have offered eight of our students the opportunity to study with them. It is fiercely competitive to secure a spot at drama school so for every one of our students who auditioned to be offered a place with ALRA is an outstanding achievement. We are incredibly proud of them all.”
Pictured: Former Loughborough College Performing Arts student Katie Grimley (centre with blue t-shirt) won a scholarship to drama school and returns to share her experiences with current students