Jonny's showcase

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I went to London this week to see Jonny in his final year showcase.  For those of you who don’t know who Jonny is, he used to come to Yew Tree before he left Wakefield two and a half years ago to train as an actor at East 15.  For those of you who don’t know what a final showcase is it’s where actors at the end of their training perform monologues and duologues for people in the “industry” agents, casting agencies, directors etc.  For those of you who don’t know what East 15 is it’s a drama school that resides in the top tier of places to train as an actor.

It was quite the moment for me as Jonny was the first of our actors to be successful in gaining a place at drama school and consequently he is the first to try and make it in the big bad world of professional acting.  His journey in that is only just beginning, quite an impressive prospect by anyone’s standards. However what was really impressive was his performance in the showcase.  It was wonderful to see him on the stage of The Duke of York theatre looking so confident.  Not only that but he looked talented...marketable…professional…employable, he looked at home. 

So this is a proud statement, I was proud of him and proud of this youth theatre who I like to think gave him and the actors that follow him some of the foundations on which they can build their success…

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