>. About ALRA

ALRA (The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts) is 30 years old.  Founded in 1979, it was the first drama school to offer a training which encompassed all media: Live Theatre, TV & Film and Radio. Today we are still the only school teaching acting for camera throughout the three year course and our students take away two different show reels of their work. 

We do this because we believe that your first job, if you are an actor, will probably be in front of the camera, and given the pressures of modern Television and Film making, the more prepared you are the better, both in terms of acting techniques and understanding the equipment used in recording drama.

If you are a technician you will be given plenty of opportunity to develop your skills on both live and recorded work, and in addition to the practising professionals you will work alongside, you will be given work-based learning placements.

Importantly, all of ALRA’s full-time courses are vocational – it is our business to produce professional actors and technicians who are ready to start work the day they graduate.  Over the years we have established strong links with the industry and you will be introduced to professional directors, actors, agents, casting directors, designers, directors of photography, lighting and sound designers, all of whom are passionate about their work.  Our most recent collaboration was with the professional theatre company Company of Angels with whom we are developing a yearly project. 

With a small student body (ALRA has around 120 students) you will always be treated as an individual, studying alongside like-minded individuals, with the opportunity to build friendships that could become significant industry contacts later in life. Your tutors and directors will be industry experienced, specialists and professional practitioners. 

Throughout your course you will find a strong emphasis on ownership; ultimately it is your career, we will help you develop the skills, abilities, discipline and focus crucial to survive in a fiercely competitive profession, but we expect you to be committed, to be present, punctual, practice, explore, research and face all the challenges you encounter.

After 30 years ALRA now has the established reputation of producing actors and technicians who are highly skilled, creative, self-motivated, confident, knowledgeable, reliable, conscientious, hard working, affable, flexible, passionate and, most of all – employable.