How it all began...
I had no idea what to write about this week and so I asked for suggestions…the one that came from Emma regarding why I decided to pursue drama and why I founded the youth theatre surprised me as I assumed people either knew or didn’t care, but apparently this isn’t the case so I shall try and answer both questions as succinctly as possible…
The first one about why drama is the trickiest…My earliest memories include performing so I reckon I was doing it pretty much from the outset…first of all it was mainly singing, then dancing and finally drama – mainly because this was the hardest to find opportunities in. By age 10 I was pretty much combining the three as often as I could…it was a natural thing…I dreamt of a career in it but wasn’t convinced I’d make it as I lacked confidence in lots of areas in my life and by this point I was being pretty badly bullied.
However when I got to High School the bullying stopped and the opportunities to perform increased – I pretty much lived in the music department…my career plan was to be an optician – it was a safe job, something that would allow me to earn a decent living… and then all of a sudden at about 15 I found the courage to tell my parents (who don’t have a performing bone in their body) I was going to be an actor. My Dad was a hero, quelling my Mum’s anxieties and telling me I should do what I wanted to do. I was an average dancer by this point – a pretty serious road traffic accident hadn’t helped, a much better singer but acting was the place I was happiest…a rocky academic journey led me eventually to Bretton Hall, training full time to be an actor and in the most wonderful place to do it…so much of what I hope I give you was given to me by Bretton.
The youth theatre bit of the story comes 3 years later when myself and two brilliant people I trained with decided to set up Yew Tree after graduating – we were all performing as a professional theatre company then and touring both plays and workshops. Bretton Hall got in touch with us and asked us to run a class for young people on a Saturday morning and we jumped at the chance…that was the start of what we now have…
After about 18 months Bretton pulled the funding and I decided to keep it going independently…by this point the other 2 founder members had gone their separate ways and I had realized that the performing aspect of my job held no interest for me – it was applying drama to inspire others that made me happiest…luckily I managed to meet up and hold onto others who stepped up to bring their unique brilliance to the mix in the form of Gemma, Danny and of course Oz…and of course there were and still are 100’s of young people who continue to inspire me on a daily basis…
So there you go…obviously it was a bit more complicated than that, the full story would take a lot longer than 600 words but essentially that’s how all of this came to be as far as my bit of the story goes…
The first one about why drama is the trickiest…My earliest memories include performing so I reckon I was doing it pretty much from the outset…first of all it was mainly singing, then dancing and finally drama – mainly because this was the hardest to find opportunities in. By age 10 I was pretty much combining the three as often as I could…it was a natural thing…I dreamt of a career in it but wasn’t convinced I’d make it as I lacked confidence in lots of areas in my life and by this point I was being pretty badly bullied.
However when I got to High School the bullying stopped and the opportunities to perform increased – I pretty much lived in the music department…my career plan was to be an optician – it was a safe job, something that would allow me to earn a decent living… and then all of a sudden at about 15 I found the courage to tell my parents (who don’t have a performing bone in their body) I was going to be an actor. My Dad was a hero, quelling my Mum’s anxieties and telling me I should do what I wanted to do. I was an average dancer by this point – a pretty serious road traffic accident hadn’t helped, a much better singer but acting was the place I was happiest…a rocky academic journey led me eventually to Bretton Hall, training full time to be an actor and in the most wonderful place to do it…so much of what I hope I give you was given to me by Bretton.
The youth theatre bit of the story comes 3 years later when myself and two brilliant people I trained with decided to set up Yew Tree after graduating – we were all performing as a professional theatre company then and touring both plays and workshops. Bretton Hall got in touch with us and asked us to run a class for young people on a Saturday morning and we jumped at the chance…that was the start of what we now have…
After about 18 months Bretton pulled the funding and I decided to keep it going independently…by this point the other 2 founder members had gone their separate ways and I had realized that the performing aspect of my job held no interest for me – it was applying drama to inspire others that made me happiest…luckily I managed to meet up and hold onto others who stepped up to bring their unique brilliance to the mix in the form of Gemma, Danny and of course Oz…and of course there were and still are 100’s of young people who continue to inspire me on a daily basis…
So there you go…obviously it was a bit more complicated than that, the full story would take a lot longer than 600 words but essentially that’s how all of this came to be as far as my bit of the story goes…
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