Support Maggie's Classical Acting Masters @ RCSSD

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Please see my appeal in English and Bulgarian via the following links:

English

Bulgarian

Dear friends,

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to read through and see the above videos as part of my request for donations.

I am very privileged to have been offered a place at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama's Master of Arts course Classical Acting which starts on the 4th September 2023. The school is one of the top in the UK and worldwide with alumni such as the great Dame Judi Dench and Sir Laurence Olivier. I need a significant amount of money to top up a graduate loan and my current savings to afford the tuition fees and cover living costs for 12 months of intense training (please see detailed funding plan below). I need to have a secure funding plan before I start the course and therefore this is one of those rather urgent donation requests. Your contributions will enable me to continue with the enrolment process and complete this course which is not only the best out there for those interested in classical actors training, but would also be a stepping stone in my acting journey, in other words my dream. Every single pound matters. Thank you for your donation in advance. Please find below more information about my story, my goals and my mission.

A little bit about myself for those who do not know me.

I am Bulgarian and have lived in the UK (Leeds, Exeter and London) for the past 10 years. Long time for a 28 year old, this is more than a third of my life!

I have a degree and successful career in sustainability consulting, but I have known performance is in my genes since I started spending those post school afternoons dancing to ABBA and going into internet wormholes learning about great artists and their personas (Charlie Chaplin, David Bowie, Freddy Mercury and the like). Little did I know then that after a number of years I would be reading my first Shakespeare play coincidentally whilst visiting my sister studying in London. Nor that I would end up so hooked up to early modern theatre that I would be playing 5 roles in Macbeth and the lead role of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (both by W.Shakespeare) in a 400 year old language which is not my mother tongue.

After university I started a consultancy job where I earned enough to be able to afford drama classes. It's been nearly 6 years after my first ever try to act out a duologue opposite another class taker and I have not felt more ready to start a professional training course now. For 6 years I have participated in 4 plays, achieved 5+ exams with Distinction and Honours, done numerous acting, music and movement classes (probably equivalent to 2 years in a BA), filmed 4 short poetry reciting videos, reviewed multiple plays for The Reviews Hub and still manage their social media, and meddled with product photography. Quite a lot of hats on! In the meantime I have also become an advocate for education on sustainability and I am working on launching a Sustainability Awareness course for Bulgarian high schools. HOWEVER, among all that, I always keep my focus on the one thing that truly is me - namely spending time exploring plays, characters and using my worldview to breathe life to them. My dream is to be able to do this professionally. The masters degree will equip me with the fundamental skills an actor should have and would be a milestone in my move to the creative industry which has been long desired.

Why Classical acting?

I always feel attracted to challenges, impossibilities. I also always feel moved by universal stories and a lot of early modern theatre deals with those, but with the tool of a much richer language than ours today. Where a sentence could contain comparisons to animals, Greek Gods, religious puns or simply references to female genitalia (yes, guys, Much Ado About NOTHING google this!). What were people thinking 400+ years ago? Do we think the same way today? Did they have more knowledge and brain capacity than we do know? Did Shakespeare even exist? Who wrote "his" masterpieces then? (multiple mind blowing emojis). Not to undermine contemporary writing or that of 19-20th century classics, but the mountain I've chosen to climb now is tackling classical texts and making those understandable by an audience's eyes, minds and hearts.

What are my short term goals after completing the degree?

I have three main short term goals after completing my training:

Getting signed up with an agency which could represent me and hopefully get a role within 6 months of graduation even if this is the most insignificant, no lines type of role. It could be on stage, radio or film, in any case the most important thing would be to get out there and gain more practical experience.

I also want to set up my own workshop freelancing for amateur theatre groups. I would probably look into offering 3-6 months of voluntary work at a place such as the Royal St. Katherine's Foundation to gain experience before being able to offer paid workshops.

Lastly I also want to complete at least one short-term course on a skill I need to develop further - e.g. set design or filming/ editing.

What are my long-term goals?

In the long-term I would wish to:

Get roles where I am able to create memorable performances both for the audience and myself.

Contribute to creating drama learning opportunities for secondary school students in Bulgaria as part of the curriculum and outside of it. There are currently limited opportunities for teenagers to get exposed to the world of drama and where there are those are not cheap. I would be looking to make a positive influence on this through developing a network of young creatives and drama reachers who could work together to fill this gap.

Funding details:

Tuition fee: £22,750

Cost of living fee: £18,220 (incl. rent, living costs, contingency)

Total: £40,970

Student Loan: £12,167

Existing resources: £12,000

Remaining top up I LACK at the moment: £16,800

I will be providing updates as I move closer to the start of my actor's training so stay tuned!

Any aid would help and is greatly appreciated. Thank you once again!