Two of our students were selected as finalists for this year’s Carleton Hobbs Bursary Awards. Erin Killingray and Zak Labiad who are both studying on the MFA in Professional Acting and will graduate this year, went into the final round after representing DSL alongside Eloise O’Connor (MA) and Finley Stevens (BA) in earlier rounds – they all did excellent work and gave great performances.
The BBC Carleton Hobbs Bursary Award (CHBA) is a flagship initiative run by BBC Audio Drama and has been running since 1953. Its aim is to attract a range of actors who are graduating from accredited training Colleges. It is awarded to a minimum of two actors a year and the prize is a fixed-term bursary contract with the Radio Drama Company. And a maximum of four runners-up receive single freelance engagements in Audio Drama productions. We are delighted to announce that Erin is one of those four!
Judging focusses on assessing vocal versatility, suitability of voice to text, response to redirection, and response to text where required to make instinctive interpretations. Erin was highly commended for her prose reading and was awarded a runner up prize.
The final results were announced in a press release form the BBC which stated: ‘…we’ll look forward to working with all of them via a freelance contract in one of our productions later in the year.’
The competition is open to full-time Drama students (aged 18+) from those Colleges who are members of the Federation of Drama Schools. And the bursaries are awarded on the basis of individual talent and ability in the art of acting for radio.
Mike Geary, Subject Lead for Audio at DSL said: “I am incredibly proud of Erin & Zak – not only did they smash their scenes and prose like pros but they also represented themselves and DSL to the highest degree! Bravo!!”
