​Wanting to change the narrative of your hometown? Let me introduce you to Signal.

Back in November of 2023, a large group of young people in Swindon had a consultation with Swindon Borough Council to fill the council chambers up with their voices & views of their hometown. I was one of them. My name is Arlo, I grew up in one of the most underserved council estates in Swindon, through a weird, frustrating but incredible pathway, I found a way into the film industry. I still live in Swindon, and today I want to share something I am not only proud of but has the potential to change young people’s relationship to art and perspective of their hometown.

I’d like to share with you Signal Festival. Signal is an exciting opportunity that aims to create, inspire and celebrate young people’s art in Swindon. It has been built by 6 young producers that live & work in Swindon as creatives. The festival is a radical showcase of fresh talent and opportunity. It cultivates art, supports artists and enriches audiences in Swindon. It will host a dynamic mix of performance, participation and professional development for 11-25 year olds. It will include theatre, dance, visual arts, digital arts, music and creative writing.

As one of the producers of the festival I was a part of building our core values as an organisation and helped discover what our intended impacts on the community were. For example, we wanted every young person in Swindon to be able to access Signal Festival, therefore we have made all the events either completely free or a maximum of £2, chosen as many accessible venues as possible and been supported in supplying minibus services to some of the events.

This specific value is one I resonate with the most. Returning to my weird, frustrating but incredible pathway; to me, it seems that when you are a teenager in a town like Swindon you either need to go to drama school or know someone that can get you into an agency. Without either it feels that there is no way to get a Spotlight account and be seen to be serious about going into the industry professionally. In my situation, I certainly did not grow up around anyone that would be attached to the industry, I was not rich enough to pay for an endless amount of private tuition and drama school was expensive to audition for. So here we have the frustrating part. I felt it came down to money. Always money.

Now since then, drama schools are becoming more accessible via UCAS, student loans and some are even dropping their audition fees. There’s also much more attention being paid across drama schools to securing bursaries to combat financial challenges to training for students who have ability but not means- and to make sure they are actively engaging with the next gen of talent in multiple ways and places. Drama school may not be the only way to develop creative careers, but for those who want this training, geography or finance don’t have to be impossible obstacles. Hence, we felt it was important to remove as many barriers as possible for a young person to be able to attend an opportunity.

Here’s the weird part…I discovered that there were so many alternate routes into the industry. I signed up to a 2 week intensive course that enabled me to apply to my first young person’s account on Spotlight, whilst awarding me with a bursary for the course fees. This led me to being able to audition for jobs. I spent those years touring some incredible shows and had one of the best times of my life. I felt like an actor, but I didn’t go to drama school? I was working with professional actors that had attended schools and yet I was in the same room as them? Talk about imposter syndrome. But through my time working with them I came to understand that drama school is an incredible resource and provides a valuable toolkit for any actor, but it certainly is not the only way.

And here is the incredible part, throughout my twenties, with the support of many local organisations, I was able to build a portfolio career as both an actor, screen acting mentor, assistant director & festival producer. Ironically, most recently I went to drama school, but not for acting… Without a degree, I earned one spot out of twelve, on the Guildhall’s PGCert in Performance Teaching and graduated with a distinction. At the same time as graduating, I had my first premier in a lead role in ‘The Last Breath’ that is currently being released globally whilst being attached to two films due to shoot next year. I don’t say this to be boastful, I say this to prove that there are many weird and wonderful pathways into the industry.

Being able to be sit alongside the other producers (who have their own journey) in Signal Festival enables me to celebrate the diversity within these pathways and share it with the young people of Swindon.

One of the most challenging things about building this festival has been navigating the balance between acknowledging the incredibly hard working, local art organisations that already do powerful work in the community as well as bringing in national organisations, such as the BBC, to give further and wider choice of opportunities. Of course, when your local town centre plays host to a nationally recognised organisation, it makes people sit up and pay attention, but at the same time using the festival as a way of making more connections between local organisations & young people has been at the heart of our values.

We hope that the festival will be able to be a continual presence in young people’s lives and to be able to raise aspirations in Swindon, celebrate their creativity and cultivate the awareness that there are amazing things in London, Bristol and Manchester, but…there are some pretty cool things happening in our hometown too. To be more specific 73 things happening over two weeks!

The festival will run from the 22nd July 2024 - 3rd August 2024. For more information or to book onto these events visit our website www.signalfestival.co.uk or drop us a email at [email protected]

FDS is delighted to be joining Get into Theatre and Film as part of the Careers Day on the 31st July. For more info about or to book tickets for this specific event please see the Signal website FDS partner schools LAMDA, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Oxford School of Drama will also be at the event.