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Sophie Wardlow, who is currently in her final year on the College’s BA Acting for Stage and Media course, will play the lead role in If Chloe Can, a play specially written to encourage young women to make smart creative choices about fulfilling their ambitions. The performance will take place on January 31.

Sophie, 21, appeared in the play last year when it was first showcased by the National Youth Theatre at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, last year.  She was then invited to 10 Downing Street in November to meet guests, including Prime Minister David Cameron, ice skater Jayne Torvill and Esther McFay (MP for Wirral West) who has been promoting the initiative and is behind the book which the play is based on.
Sophie’s latest achievement comes after a considerable run of professional success. She was selected by the National Youth Theatre to play the lead (in a cast of 300) in Slick, a play by Ali Taylor. She was then further selected by the NYT to be one of a cast of five taking four different shows to China to support corporate events presented by the NYT’s sponsor, MG Motors.  Last year she made a TV Pilot called Acting Raw, shot in Dorset, with the director Frank Rehder. She was the youngest of 24 chosen for the cast out of a pool of 3,500 auditionees. The main aim of the pilot was to try and open people's eyes to the difficulties of getting into the industry and focus on people from different backgrounds. It was shown at the Cannes and Boston Film Festivals in a bid to gain funding. She has also recorded a commercial for Milka chocolate which will shortly be going out to nine European countries (including the UK). For the last two years she has also (unpaid) made commercials for Cancer research campaigns.

What makes Sophie more extraordinary is that she spent her life between the ages of 10 and 18 in a wheelchair, having had mobility problems stemming from dislocated kneecaps from the age of 6. As a   result she was unable to fulfil her childhood dream of becoming a professional ballerina and so instead turned her focus to acting. She got out of the wheelchair not long before starting the BA course at the College.  As a result she has considerable empathy with the disabled and spends time working with YADAPA, a Kingston Disability group. She is learning Makaton sign language to enable her to communicate better with individuals in the group and also in the hope she can do future projects with more disabled actors and groups. Sophie is also working with the Kingston disability Parliament on a separate initiative to create a performance intended to raise the awareness of the general public about learning disabilities.

Her work with the group inspired her final dissertation, Sorry I Didn’t Think, a play which focuses on raising awareness about people with disabilities and which will show at the College’s ACT next month. “People with disabilities are not different to those who are not affected and in this play the main character Sarah suffers from cerebral palsy and struggles to communicate. However I wanted to open people’s eyes to the fact that people are all equal even if they don’t look the same and that we are all human and should be embracing that,” she says.
Sophie, who is originally from Chesterfield, already has some potential acting projects in the pipeline for 2012 and is also training to be a dispenser at Boots where she currently works part-time to fund her studies. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Kingston College. Kingston itself is a lovely place and when I am working on scripts I go and sit by the river. The teaching and support I have had has been wonderful. There is lots of practical work on the course which has been invaluable to me. Nowadays drama schools are charging very high fees for their courses and so I think the BA course at the College is definitely value for money.”

She adds: “I’m a perfectionist so I just want to keep on improving. I would love it if people would respect my work. I’d love the chance to be given the lead in a cinematic release or west end play and I would love to be appreciated and recognised for my talents and ability.”
John Davey, Head of School Performing Arts at the College, adds: “Sophie is a charming, lively and entirely unspoilt individual, who is surprised by her own success.”

The College’s BA Acting for Stage and Media course, is run at the College and Validated by the University of West London.