Performing arts students from working-class backgrounds face considerable barriers to entering the theatre profession. Andrew Muir has set up a programme to address this.
Ardent Theatre Company was created to provide a working environment for artists in which no one feels like an outsider. They produce theatre that speaks about the world we live in, enabling them to have a voice within the mainstream theatre scene as well as engaging audiences on a grassroots level. Their policy is to make all their work affordable through low ticket prices and concessions.
Their latest production, Rethink, ran for a week at the Union Theatre. It was based on the gut-wrenching Government-backed poster campaign featuring a ballerina called Fatima with the slogan ‘her next job could be in cyber’ and involved members of our artistic development programme – Ardent8.