The Scanlan-Michell Fund

The Bats are supported by The Scanlan-Michell Fund, generously endowed by Stephen Farrant (1956) through The Friends of Aliki Vatikioti for Music and Arts. The Fund is named after Queens’ alumni and former Bats members Joanna Scanlan (1980) and Roger Michell (1974), both of whom have won BAFTAs for acting and directing respectively. The income from the Fund is used to provide grants, promote and encourage the writing and performing of plays, invite and host visiting experts, and to encourage wider participation in theatrical activities among undergraduate and graduate students. The Fund is administrated by Dr Andrew Zurcher, Fellow and Director of Studies for English, and Dr Peter McMurray, Fellow and Director of Studies for Music.

The Scanlan-Michell Fund was established to support the Bats drama group and theatrical activities at Queens’.

£100,000 has been raised thanks to a generous bequest, allowing the College to establish the fund in perpetuity.

The Scanlan-Michell Fund is a permanent restricted fund, within the Student Support Fund. The annual income from the Fund will be used to:

• Provide grants supporting the Bats’ regular theatrical activities;
• Promote and encourage the writing, production and performance of plays in Queens’ and in Cambridge;
• Invite and host visiting experts from time to time, and to support training and skills development for Bats members;
• Encourage the widest participation of both undergraduate and graduate students of the College in Bats’ activities, and to make full use of the Fitzpatrick Theatre and Black Box spaces.

All expenditures will be made with the support of one or both of the Bats’ Senior Treasurers (Dr Andrew Zurcher and Dr Peter McMurray in 2022-23).

The Scanlan-Michell Fund is named in honour of two distinguished Queens’ alumni with links to the performing arts and the Bats – BAFTA award-winning actress Joanna Scanlan (1980) and BAFTA award-winning director, the late Roger Michell (1974). Joanna won a BAFTA in 2021 for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance as Mary Hussain in After Love, directed by Aleem Khan. Roger won a BAFTA for Best Single Drama in 1995 for the BBC film of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, and a BAFTA for Best Mini-Series for The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies in 2015.

The capital for this fund has been raised thanks to the generous donation of Stephen Farrant (1956) through The Friends of Aliki Vatikioti for Music and Arts.

“Whilst I was at Queens’ I played 21 roles in a variety of productions, many through Bats. I have always said that the real privilege of an education at a Cambridge University college is access to resources. As a group of students forty years ago, we were able to experiment, learn from each other, give ourselves an education in the great canon of English Literature and write new plays too… I have very happy memories of playing in The Duchess of Malfi using the cloisters and President’s Lodge as a backdrop.”

Joanna Scanlan (1980)