Applicants per student place in 2023:
University of Cambridge 6
RADA (BA Acting) 121
This comes from a Financial Times piece on The Economics of Acting. You might think this merely points out how many dreamers there are. I think it shows something deeper.
The world is changing fast, as anyone can see. Values are changing, beliefs are altering. That’s leaving some, generally older, people bewildered.
One of the big transformations is in the world of work. People no longer feel they have to devote the precious years of their lives to becoming a cog in the great machine, existing in dull offices because that’s how things have always been done.
They want something better, some kind of fulfilment, and they don’t want to play the old game any more. Particularly when it benefits others and not them.
Economic necessity will always force some down hard roads. But they will still dream in the way they might not have done in the last century.
You can see it in the powerful work from home movement, with many under 35 refusing to take jobs that force them to grind unnecessarily in the office for five days a week.
They’re turning down higher pay, ignoring the fury of politicians and company bosses, demanding a new of operating that benefits them.
Recognising the creativity that burns inside and refusing to have it squashed is an act of rebellion against a broken system.
Change can’t come fast enough.