A Visit from the British American Drama Academy (BADA)

DAVID BYRON, faculty member of the British American Drama Academy (BADA), will be visiting the Colby theater department on Friday, October 3 at 4:00pm in Room 110. He’ll discuss the Study Abroad programs at BADA which enable Colby students to study acting and the theater in London or at Oxford for academic credit and with financial aid. Anyone unable to attend may contact David at [email protected]

THE BRITISH AMERICAN DRAMA ACADEMY (BADA), based in London during the school year and at Oxford University during the summer, was founded to enable undergraduate and graduate students from around the world to study classical theater with leading actors and directors of the British stage. Working closely with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Theatre de Complicite and the National Theatre, students can choose from three different Study Abroad programs and, in the case of the London Theatre Program, perform in fully mounted productions in professional venues in London under the direction of professional directors.

Recent teachers include Alan Rickman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Kevin Spacey, Sir Derek Jacobi, Fiona Shaw, Jeremy Irons, James Bundy (Dean of the Yale School of Drama), Deborah Warner, Mark Wing-Davey (Chair of NYU’s Graduate Acting Program at Tisch School of the Arts), John Barton (founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company) and others.

Central to the student’s education at BADA are regular excursions to the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the West End and fringe theaters. Depending on the program, classes are held either in London during the autumn, winter and spring or at Magdalen College, Oxford, in July/August. In the case of the London programs, students are awarded the same, full academic credit as would be earned at Colby, and financial aid the student is currently receiving is applied to the cost of the program. The cost to a Colby student of a term or two terms in one of the London programs can be the same as or close to the cost of a term at Colby. Additional scholarships are available through BADA.

DAVID BYRON teaches British theater history at Yale and at BADA. A graduate of Yale and of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, David was an actor in London, New York and Los Angeles for twenty years. His experience both as an American theater student training in London and as a teacher of those students at the present time makes him especially sympathetic to the concerns of anyone considering study abroad.

Log on to www.badaonline.com for more information.