DANCING LEDGE PRODUCTIONS LAUNCHES THE DAWN STURGESS BURSARY
20th October, 2021
Leading London based production company, Dancing Ledge Productions (Wedding Season, The Salisbury Poisonings) in partnership with Wiltshire Creative and Dawn’s parents, today announced the launch of The Dawn Sturgess Bursary. The eponymous bursary has been set up in memory of the Wiltshire resident to help young creative people from the area achieve their full potential.
The bursary, open to permanent Wiltshire residents aged 18-25 year olds with an accepted offer for a full-time acting course being taught within a UK drama school in Spring 2022 and will provide one budding Drama School acting student with funding of up to £30,000 towards their living costs while studying. Applications for the bursary will open in March 2022.
Dawn Sturgess died aged 44 on July 8, 2018 after coming into contact with the nerve agent Novichok, which had been used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4, 2018. The public health crisis and criminal investigation following the poisonings was the subject of the highly acclaimed drama series The Salisbury Poisonings, Dancing Ledge’s first drama based on first-hand accounts and interviews with people caught up in tragedy.
Dancing Ledge Productions has an on going commitment and successful proven track- record for supporting emerging talent launching the UK‘s first TV Writer in Residence bursary scheme in 2016. From holding regular creative writing workshops with local school Kensington Aldridge Academy, mentoring students, providing work placements and fund-raising to running the High End TV Mentoring Programme with ITV, the BBC and Screen Skills. The company mentors more talent than any other production company in the UK.
When approached by Dawn’s father, Stan Sturgess to set up the bursary alongside Wiltshire Creative, the company was honoured.
Stan Sturgess says, “We want to help young people achieve their hopes and dreams. Dawn always said to her kids to dream big. When me and Gracie visited the set of The Salisbury Poisonings and met the little girl [Sophia Alley] who played her, it was a really moving moment. You could see how hard Sophia and her family were working to achieve her acting dreams – young people need all the help they can get. And in a few years’ time it’ll be wonderful to see how Dawn’s bursary has allowed young people to achieve their dreams.”
Laurence Bowen, CEO & Chris Carey, MD, Dancing Ledge Productions say, “Nurturing emerging talent is at the core of what we do at Dancing Ledge and it is a huge honour to be able to launch this bursary alongside Wiltshire Creative in Dawn’s name. We are hugely grateful to Dawn’s family for working with us in order to champion talent from her home county and hope this helps the memory of her live on. ”
The bursary, open to permanent Wiltshire residents aged 18-25 year olds with an accepted offer for a full-time acting course being taught within a UK drama school in Spring 2022 and will provide one budding Drama School acting student with funding of up to £30,000 towards their living costs while studying. Applications for the bursary will open in March 2022. This marks the first year of the Bursary which will like run for several years to come.
Louise Dancy, Take Part Director says, ‘Wiltshire Creative are delighted to be working with Dancing Ledge Productions in the creation of a bursary for young people to be able to access high quality drama training. We are passionate about championing local talent, and equal access to opportunities which are sadly unattainable for so many. The events surrounding the Novichok attack in 2018 are still very much present in the hearts and minds of those in Salisbury and across Wiltshire so most fitting we are able to honour the memory of Dawn Sturgess in this way.’