Do you love being creative? Love designing or building sets? Love making things happen?

Fancy training for a job in film, TV or theatre? Then Open Door is here to help you get there.

What is Open Door?

Open Door is an 8-month part time and flexible intensive course designed to help young people take the next step in their career. Open Door works with people between the ages of 18-26 (Actors) and aged 17-26 (Behind the Scenes) who wish to pursue a career in theatre.

Open Door is a registered charity which has received multiple awards including being named as one of the top 100 change makers by The Big Issue (newspaper) and as ‘School of the Year’ by The Stage Awards.

How can Open Door help you?

Open Door know how difficult and expensive the process of applying for drama school can be. Open Door help young people by giving them the support they need to go to auditions feeling prepared, confident and without any worry of financial strain. And it’s all free!

Successful acting applicants will receive:

• Seven free auditions at the UK’s leading drama schools including:

- RADA

- LAMDA 

- Guildhall 

- Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

- Royal Central School of Speech & Drama 

- The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland 

• Free travel to any drama school auditions outside of the region you live in
• Fifteen hours of on-to-one acting tutoring from experienced industry professionals. Helping to get your speeches where they need to be
• Musical tutoring for any singing stages of your auditions
• Bespoke workshops led by top industry professionals
• Free theatre trips followed by discussions
• Bursary and funding advice

Successful behind the scenes applicants will receive:

• Support to apply for interviews at the UK’s leading drama schools including:

- RADA

- Guildhall

- Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama

- LAMDA

- Royal Central School of Speech & Drama

- The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Including interview fee exemption whenever required

• Free travel to any drama school interviews outside the region you live in
• Bespoke workshops led by top industry professionals
• Mentoring from top industry professionals
• Free theatre trips followed by discussions
• Bursary and funding adviceDuring their 2018/19 cycle, Open Door worked with 40 new participants and 11 returning participants from the previous year. The group of 51 achieved:
  • 370 recalls
  • 147 final rounds
  • 64 offers
  • 86% of the groups acting participants received drama school offers (80% received offers from one of the seven Open Door participatory schools)
  • 45% of the returning participants received an offer from one of the participatory schools and a further 27% are currently on the reserve list at one of the participatory schools
  • 100% of the backstage participants received offers from one of the participatory schools

  

  If you’re serious about a career in acting, behind the scenes or in production and you’d like to apply for Open Door, you must meet the following criteria.

  Applicant criteria

  • Aged 18-26 (acting) Aged 17-26 (backstage)
  • Based in London/Essex, East Midlands, Rotherham or Sheffield/ surrounding area
  • Annual household income less than £30K
  • Not a university graduate
  • Commitment to acting or backstage arts as a career goal
  • Commitment to applying for BA (Hons) Acting course or backstage course at - RADA, Guildhall, RCS, RWCMD, & RCSSD. Acting applicants will also apply at Drama Centre and LAMDA
  • Not studying on a foundation course during the 2019-2020 academic year
  • Must be a UK citizen or have lived in the UK long enough to be eligible for student finance

  If this seems like something you’d like to participate in and you meet the criteria, apply below.

  Acting: Apply here

  Behind the scenes: Apply here

  

  What do previous successful applicants have to say?

  “I honestly felt like a career in acting is hopeless where I live, but then I came to Open Door and I feel so motivated”-

  Open Door participant 2018/19

  “If not for Open Door I would not have been able to apply for any. It is so expensive I just wouldn’t be able to do it” -

  Open Door participant 2018/19

  “It made us feel like we belong in what we are going to do. We can go to these amazing places and see shows we like and we don’t like, it is inspiring and makes me think yeah I can do that”-

  Open Door participant 2018/19

  “Getting the free theatre tickets was amazing because it was for things I couldn’t normally afford to go to, with good seats. The quality of the work, seeing stuff you do and don’t like, it is so inspiring to be there”-

  Open Door applicant 2018/19

  Good Luck.