AN aspiring screen actor from Santon risks having his hopes of a place on a prestigious course dashed after being refused funding.
Former Ballakermeen High School pupil Tony Eccles trained initially with the Hammond Theatre School in Chester.
But when he inquired about support from the government to complete a screen acting course at the prestigious Drama Centre in London he was told he did not qualify because he had not been a Manx resident for the past three years.
‘It’s hard to get in and I got accepted,’ he said.
‘It’s always been the place I wanted to go. There are some talented amazing actors who have come out of there like Michael Fassbender. The training is very intense.
‘But because I have been in England doing a career I can’t do in the Isle of Man where I was born and educated, I can’t further that because I am not a resident,’ he said.
He said it seemed unfair for him to be penalised when someone born and educated elsewhere but who had been resident for just three years could receive support.
‘It seems like a massive lack of common sense. I can’t get funding from England because I’m not English and I can’t get funding from the Isle of Man because I’m not a resident. It seems as if I’m slipping through the net.’
Mr Eccles, who is 23, was accepted at 16 by the Hammond theatre school, after taking part in a workshop they ran at Ballakermeen.
He completed an NVQ, with government funding, but was refused further funding for a BA course at Mount View Theatre School in London because the courses were too similar so he did not take up his place.
Since then he’s spent three years trying to forge an acting career in London.
As matters stand, the course starts in January so he is researching other sources of funding such as career development loans and bursaries and he hopes to be able to find some means of funding the course which costs £17,000 in fees.
A spokesman for the education department said: ‘We can’t comment on individual applications for funding as that information is confidential. A student must be ordinarily resident in the Isle of Man for three years immediately before the beginning of the course. If someone has been living and working off the island and then seeks support, they would not be eligible.’
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