Calderdale Theatre School has several original plays available for performance by other youth theatres. All have been successful and are available with production notes.
We are lucky to be able to draw on a large number of practitioners with a wide range of skills for 'one off' and short series of workshops. Over the last couple of years these have included actors and practitioners Adrienne Dean, Tara Brodin, John Laing, Jacquie Lambert, Bob Lockwood, David McQuillan, Nick McKie, Ian Pike, Taru Sinclair, David Smith, who have run workshops on diverse subjects including mask work, clowning, physical theatre, costume design and script writing.
Our regular staff are:
Louise has an MA in Drama and Theatre Education, studying under Jonothan Neelands and Joe Winston, and a BA in Theatre and Performance Studies both from the University of Warwick. She works as a freelance drama practitioner working with all age groups from nursery children to the elderly, in both educational and community settings, creating and teaching many forms of theatre. She works as an education associate for a number of established theatre companies, most recently Manchester Library Theatre, RSC, Birmingham REP and Action Factory. She has specific skills in visual theatre gained through training with Horse and Bamboo Theatre, an internationally renowned visual theatre company who specialise in mask performance and works as a workshop leader for their education department. Louise has a strong involvement with Youth Theatre; she works for Calderdale Theatre School, Halifax as a workshop leader and director and as a tutor and director for City Varieties Youth Theatre, Leeds. She also has experience of, and teaches film and media production including teaching for Dramart Productions at intensive residential camps for 11-18 year olds. Louise has recently founded Libellule Theatre which specialises in bringing theatre experiences to children aged 3 to 5.
Stephen works as an actor, director, writer, musician and teacher. As an actor he has worked at most of the major theatres in the UK including the Royal National Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, and the Almeida Theatre, and has toured to New York and Tokyo. On television his most recent work involved appearances in My Family and Absolutely Fabulous and was last seen in Hustle. Stephen is an Associate director for Works Well Productions and has directed many plays for them. As a writer he has had several plays published, the most recent being Angels Never Forget. His play; Life is a Four Letter word was performed by members of the Theatre School. He is a member of Acoustic Blue a guitar duo who have recorded three albums on the Routenote label. As well as teaching at Calderdale Theatre School Stephen teaches at drama schools and schools throughout the country.
Rob is a professional actor and voice teacher. He trained at RADA. His acting career spans from the rebellion leader Sir Thomas Wyatt in BBC's Elizabeth R through to more recent appearances in Emmerdale and Heartbeat. In recent years he has specialised in Theatre in Education and has worked with some of the foremost T.I.E. companies in the country. He worked as voice tutor with the drama students at the Bretton Hall campus of Leeds University. He has worked over the last few years with locally based Square Peg Theatre Company on several site specific plays written by Anna Carlyle. He recently played Ted Hughes on stage and in a radio adaptation of a play about the poet’s life Dreaming of Foxes. Rob has been working with Theatre School since 2000.
Jez trained at Bretton Hall, Leeds and is a professional dancer, choreographer and movement specialist. He has toured the UK with numerous dance companies such as Momentum, Assault Events and Qdos, performing at high profile venues as part of the Edinburgh Festival and at Millennium Dome, London. Over the years Jez has developed an array of circus skills such as juggling and unicycling and incorporates these into his work as a professional street theatre artist, developing his own shows and working for Q20 Theatre Company performing in principal roles for seasonal pantomimes. He has also works as an actor, most recently becoming the face of Stoves television advertising campaign. In 2002 he began working within the field of education transferring his skills to the students of Intake High School Arts College, Leeds as Male Dancer in Residence. Most recently he has taken up a position at The Calder High School as Head of Dance, where he also teaches much of the drama curriculum. He is also choreographer for Dazl Advance, a Leeds based dance company and is resident dance/movement specialist at Calderdale Theatre School, Halifax.
Gillie trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and works as a professional actress in Theatre, Television and Voice over. Earlier this year she recorded an audio book due to be released in October 2011, The Burden by Agatha Christie writing as Mary Westmacott and filmed in Waterloo Road, due to be shown in the next series. Gillie also works as a freelance drama workshop leader and has been working with Calderdale Theatre School since 1983. As part of Theatre School’s expanding programme in Calderdale Schools, she has also worked in many of Calderdale’s primary schools, delivering workshops to Infants through to Year 6 on subjects as diverse as Shakespeare to Fairy Tales. She has worked as a drama practitioner for many organisations including The National Trust, Leeds University, The National Media Museum and currently for Wild Rose Theatre Arts and The International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA). Work as an ISTA teacher has taken her to Brussels, Geneva, Stavanger, Vienna, Istanbul, Bucharest, Rome, Muscat and Kuala Lumpur.