DAME SHEILA HANCOCK, CO FOUNDER OF THE ORIGINAL ACTORS CENTRE BACK IN 1978, AND A FERVENT SUPPORTER OF ACTOR AT THE CENTRE’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE DEVASTATING REPURPOSING OF ITS FORMER HOME, WILL ATTEND THE OPENING OF A NEW ACTORS CENTRE AT THE MARYLEBONE THEATRE ON WEDNESDAY JANUARY 14TH AT 11AM
This is a fantastic result and a huge achievement for all of you who signed up and supported this campaign.
After four years of campaigning to return affordable, accessible training to actors, we are opening the doors to a New Centre.
Your support has been invaluable and now we invite the whole creative community to get behind the venture to ensure its success and future.
JOIN US, SIGN UP and enjoy the benefits of an initial extensive programme of high quality training.
If you can't attend classes please consider supporting the New Actors Centre by buying a £15 membership as an investment in our development funding
https://thecentre.actoratthecentre.com/products/2025-membership
Alexander J Gifford, Artistic Director of the Marylebone Theatre, says “The closure of the Actors Centre was a tragedy for our profession. Actor at the Centre is a brilliant organisation with an important mission to restore high-quality ongoing training to the acting community. I am proud to be partnering with it to create the possibility of a New Actors Centre at the Marylebone Theatre and look forward to welcoming a new generation of actors and teachers through our doors in 2026.
In the spirit of Dame Sheiia's original enterprise, the New Actors Centre aims to offer a dedicated, affordable and professional space for working actors to hone their craft, to collaborate, to network, and to build a lasting community. It is a timely initiative given the the challenges of AI and a growing feeling within the profession that the craft of acting is being increasingly undervalued.
The programme has already attracted offers of support from high profile members of the profession. The recent launch of the New Actors Centre at the Marylebone Theatre was supported by fellow campaigner Simon Callow, as well as Samuel West, Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming, and Dame Harriet Walter, who will also be presenting a public master class during the programme. RSC director Dominic Cook will be taking a session, there is a class in Poetry with Samuel West (currently playing Malvolio in Twelth Night for the RSC); Adrian Lester and Greg Doran have also offered to give sessions to support this new venture.
This programme seeks to replicate, as well as re-invent , the world class training for which it was known, for today’s actor.
Equity has staunchly supported Actor at the Centre throughout its campaign and continues to stand behind efforts to establish a new home and have expressed their further support going forward if this initiative is successful.
Well placed, being only a few minutes from Baker Street station, and housed in a stunning ‘expressionistic’ building, the Marylebone Theatre has established itself - since its opening in 2022 - as one of London’s most popular and successful medium-sized venues with its beautiful studios, a library, cafe and bookshop. Sir Mark Rylance, an early supporter of the Actor at the Centre campaign for the return of ongoing training, is a patron and it would seem an ideal fit.
We look forward to welcoming you into the building and growing together a community and new home for world class training.
With thanks and best wishes
New Actors Centre Team/formerly the Actor at the Centre campaign
Directors:Louise Bangay, Harry Burton, Kate Maravan, Ayvianna Snow
Photo: Anna McGrane