Oscar-winning Scottish actor Peter Capaldi has hit out at plans by a leading university to cut its cultural activities.
Capaldi, who stars in the political comedy The Thick Of It, said he is “alarmed and upset” to hear of plans by Strathclyde University to shut the Ramshorn Theatre in Glasgow in July.
His comments were echoed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It said the closure of the theatre, with whom they hoped to work, was “sad”.
The Herald revealed this week the university also plans to shut the Collins Gallery and make Alan Tavener, its director of music, and other cultural staff redundant.
Capaldi, from Glasgow, began his career in acting as part of the Strathclyde Theatre Group (STG), which uses the Ramshorn Theatre. He went on to forge a successful career on stage and screen, winning an Oscar for Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life in 1995.
Capaldi said: “I was alarmed and upset to hear of plans to close the Ramshorn Theatre.
“At 17 years old, STG took me under its wing and shared its resources and wisdom with me, even allowing me to take part in a show at the Edinburgh Festival. Without STG and the Ramshorn Theatre I would not have found access to the world of drama that I later made my profession.”
He said Scotland should be opening doors for young people with talent, not closing them, and added: “STG and the Ramshorn Theatre are a vital part of Glasgow’s rich cultural history. To abandon them now is to abandon not only our past, but our future.”
Ian Wainwright, producer of the RSC’s Open Stages programme, said they were due to collaborate with the Ramshorn over an amateur production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus next year.
He said: “The closure of any theatre is sad, particularly one that provides such great opportunities for amateurs and is obviously so close to the heart of those who use it.”
More than 1000 people have signed petitions to save the Ramshorn Theatre and the music director position, and this week has seen a flurry of activity on Twitter about the university’s plans.
Yesterday, composer James MacMillan said the proposed cuts to the three cultural services “amounted to vandalism” and called the move to make the director of music position redundant “a disgrace”.
The university believes it would save at least £250,000 in salaries if it closes the three cultural services.
An internal document passed to The Herald said running a theatre and gallery was “not a core activity for the university” and that neither was necessary for the delivery of the unversity’s academic programmes.
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