Regulator to probe ‘viability’ of late filing drama school charity

A drama school charity is under investigation after it failed to file accounts for the last three years or comply with an official warning issued earlier this year.

The statutory inquiry has been launched by the Charity Commission into London based Kogan Academy of Dramatic Arts, also known as The Science of Acting.

This probe will consider “the future of the charity” including the drama school’s “viability”.

The charity’s administration and whether trustees have carried out their legal duties will also be looked at.

The probe has been launched after a failure by the charity to follow instructions to improve its administration and governance in an official warning from the regulator in March this year.

This warning was issued after the charity failed to file accounting information for 2020 onwards. Concerns have also been raised by the regulator around a lack of trustees.



According to the charity register the drama school has just one trustee, Alex Dower.

Its charities register entry also reveals a wide gap between its income and spending for its last set of accounts, for the year ending July 2019. For this period, it spent £327,790, however its gross income was just £190,860.

The charity’s registered website is called Science of Acting. This details programmes including a six-month acting course costing £2,400. However, the charity’s telephone number listed on its website is no longer operational. The charity is also listed on Google as being ‘temporarily closed’.

Charity Times has attempted to contact the charity, which had been offering acting and directing courses since 1992, via email for comment.

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