Sophie Stone

Five years ago we read with interest, a story in the Bucks Free Press about a local deaf girl, Sophie Stone. Sophie had been the 1st deaf person to win a place at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), a signicant accomplishment in anyone’s book, but Sophie had the additional responsibility of being a single mum of a beautiful little girl called Angel.

We immediately felt we wanted to support Sophie on her exciting, but daunting journey, so we offered to provide her with a small but regular monthly sponsorship during her 3 years of study. As a result, we have followed Sophie’s career with pride and interest since those very early days.

A highlight of our involvement with Sophie was when she invited us to attend her graduation performance, which was a star-studded event and highlighted Sophie’s fantastic achievement. Two years on and we are pleased to report that Sophie’s career is going from strength to strength. We recently enjoyed her performance in the ITV drama Marchlands and look forward to future productions including a film, to be released next year with Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall called My Angel.

Please read below Sophie’s annual update written by her for us:-

“Life, fortunately has been very kind to me since leaving RADA and however many times I start to write letters (and I have started many) I never get round to completing them before another project takes over and then it turns out to be more things to write about. I hope you can forgive me and understand that although I may not be in touch, I do often think of those who helped me with my training and am always eternally grateful. I don’t know how much of my progress you’ve been following, if at all, but I have (aside from workshops, readings, educational and business films) done a film with Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall called My Angel, hopefully released next year; a film called Coming Home for a deaf company, which can be seen online on BSLBT: a comedy on itv2 called FM with Kevin Bishop and Chris O’Dowd; 3 months run at the National Theatre playing Kattrin in Mother Courage and her Children alongside Fiona Shaw; Pandora at the Arcola Theatre; Holby City, which will be shown this Tuesday 18th at 8pm BBC1; the new ITV drama being advertised now for Marchlands (3 out of 5 episodes) coming soon; and am currently about to rehearse a showing of a new concept for the play Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, for a possible tour next year with Fingersmiths Ltd. Quite a few other things but I can’t seem to remember everything at the moment. A lucky and successful first couple of years fresh out of drama school for any actor, let alone someone with a hearing impairment! So again, I truly appreciate all you’ve done for me.

I do hope that you and the family and business are thriving and buzzing with success and positivity. Thank you for your magazine updates and it’s wonderful to see everyone happy and growing. Sorry again, and hope to hear from you soon.

With much love and respect,

Sophie Stone x