The School opened in October 1946, eight months after the founding of its parent Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, in a room above a fruit merchant's warehouse in the Rackhay near the stage door of the Theatre Royal, with support from Sir Laurence Olivier. (The yard of the derelict St Nicholas School, next to the warehouse, was still used by the Company for rehearsals of crowd scenes and stage fights as late as the early 1960s, notably for John Hale's productions of "Romeo and Juliet" starring the Canadian actor Paul Massie and Annette Crosbie, a former student of the School, and Rostand's" Cyrano de Bergerac" with Peter Wyngarde. Students from the Theatre School frequently played in these crowd scenes and fights.)