RADA’s Tenth Annual Business Lunch took place on Wednesday 7 November at The Savoy, London. The event was a huge success, raising over £127,000 for the Academy.

To mark a decade of the event, the entertainment celebrated 10 years of performance at the Lunch. Bertie Carvel, who performed at the first Business Lunch in 2003 kicked off with ’It’s Hard to Speak my Heart’ from Parade, Rebecca Blackstone entertained with ‘Ladies who Lunch’ from Company, and current students Jessie Buckley and Peter Hannah performed ‘Looking at You’ from the upcoming 2013 RADA Spring production of Six Pictures of Lee Miller. We also commemorated the event with a short film starring graduates Maxine Peake, Tom Hiddleston, Fiona Shaw, Juliet Stevenson and Mark Rylance looking back on their time at RADA.

The event was hosted by alumni Lisa Dillon and Paul McGann, with guest speakers Guy Henry and Michael Simkins. We were also pleased to be joined by fellow RADA alumni including June Whitfield, Lloyd Owen, Alan Rickman and Fiona Shaw.

The funds raised during the Lunch will go towards fulfilling RADA’s commitment to provide the most rigorous and intensive training to the widest range of gifted young people. In its 10 years, the Lunch has raised over £1,000,000 for the Academy.

Photos of the 2012 Business Lunch will be added to our website shortly.