>>890, >>891, >>892, >>894, >>895 Thank you all for helping me out of the rabbit hole of idealism down which I'd evidently fallen! Now that I've remembered the primary purpose - the Rehabilitation - the ballot approach fits into the scheme too. A way to look as though they're managing Tom's fans, because he's there to be a serious actor - while at the same time helping to seed the audiences with said fans! Where was the person who cooked up these ideas during Tayto?

>>891 About students/new grads working for free. If British Equity's rules work the same general way as the American union's, the new grads almost certainly had to be paid. And unlike the established actors, they probably weren't expected by the production team to then turn around and donate their salaries back to RADA. As for the students - the technical students in my drama school were required to work assigned productions at the associated professional theatre for free as part of our training. We were, however, paid for working as crew beyond the required slots for our program. TBH, I'm surprised that RADA doesn't have a way for its students to work on professional (i.e., for profit) productions as part of their training. I understand why they don't allow the actors to work outside the program, but in all the other disciplines, that would be invaluable experience and the best way for students to find out if the sometimes highly stressful life is really for them.