West End producer gives Herts student £100,000

A student at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts who has just taken his A Levels, has been given £100,000 by the West End producer of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the musical which opened at the London Palladium last night.

Ben Culleton, 18, who has been at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire since September 2017, is the lucky recipient of this incredible gift from well-known producer Michael Harrison, in the form of a bursary, so he can continue his training at the drama school Arts Ed in London, which is where the current actor playing Joseph (Jac Yarrow) trained. Starring alongside Jac in this new production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are Jason Donovan and Sheridan Smith.

The gift is a way of the producer saying thank you to the drama school for providing him with his young lead actor, and at the same time helping another actor on the road to success.

Ben, who is from Anstey in Leicestershire, has been taught at Tring Park School by Donna Hayward, the director of the musical theatre course, who also helped to train Daisy Ridley and Lily James. Ben follows in theirs and many West End stars’ footsteps, getting the best vocational training while studying for A Levels at the prestigious school, which is known for valuing academic education as well as performing arts training.

Another recent alumni is Joe Griffiths-Brown, who graduated from Tring Park School last summer, and was immediately cast in the role of swing in Hamilton!

Talking about his success, Ben said: “I feel extremely privileged to receive this generous bursary and I am looking forward to doing what I love at an incredible college like Arts Ed and being in a position to capitalise on this extraordinary opportunity.”

Ben’s former teacher Donna said: “All of us at Tring Park School are thrilled and delighted for Ben. As a scholarship student at Tring Park, he has more than confirmed our belief in his potential. He is a hardworking young man whose feet are firmly on the ground and he is honoured to be the first recipient of the Jac Yarrow Bursary.” 

Ben begins studying at Arts Ed in West London in September.

Arts Ed Principal Chris Hocking said Culleton is “a quadruple threat, because he’s a really charming young man”.