Sam brings over 24 years experience in the industry
As an Actor he has worked with amongst others Helen Mirren / John Thaw / Bill Paterson / John Simm / Rufus Sewell / Roger Lloyd Pack and Penelope Wilton. He has become a Leading Method Teacher & a respected Acting Coach. Sam has taught or coached amongst others Natalie Press / John Nayagam / Claire Keelan / Meredith Ostrom / Margo Stilly / Natalie Mendoza. Sam's teachings have empowered regular members of class to venture out into other fields such as Beth Steel writing with the RC YWP or Brian Timoney's endeavours with his "Actors Studio". Existing artists from other fields have also attended class such as Heather Small, Beth Orton and Poppy de Villeneuve.
Since joining the NYT in 1980 he has worked & focused on the craft of acting. In both the Lyric Youth Theatre & the NYT for 5 years, he received a broad theatrical training in improv; mime; devised theatre and performing both classical and modern scripts. Touring the UK, as well as several plays on the London stage and leading in Radio Four's presentation of "Good Lads at Heart".
He then went on to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama taking their 3 year Professional acting program, under the teaching of amongst others Patsy Rodenburg (voice coach), movement with Sue Lefton (Laban, Animal Exercise, Mask, Chorography), Kenneth Rea (Improvisation, Commedia Del Arte), Doreen Cannon (Stanislavski, Uta Hagen) graduating in 1988 from when he started his acting career. In the mid 90's, Sam started training with Tony Greco in London, Los Angeles, and New York for 6 years, studying along side members of class such as Raquel Cassidy & Eva Pope and in the US, fellow members Gina Ravera, Hill Harper and Kirk Baltz.
Tony was a member of the Actors Studio and one of 14 people to study with Lee Strasberg in his program to train members of the Studio to teach Method. Taking his teaching qualification in 2001, Sam then started teaching Method at Warrington College in their various acting programs and started his own Class in 2002 which is now in its seventh year. He is a regular lecturer at the Actors Centre as well as running classes in both Sweden and Denmark. He also works privately with several established actors from stage Screen and TV
In late 2004 Sam founded The Actors Ensemble with invited members from his class; its motto "Each to their potential and the potential of all" being the logical extension of his work in class. They recently presented their first full length production to critical acclaim and are planning the follow up in 2010.
The focus is to establish an ongoing and expanding ensemble where the evolution of each component of a collective group, writer, director, actor and the creative support, realize and evolve their potential in their special fields within a cross pollinating body of practitioners. It encourages these relationships to be maintained and grow through each body of work, making intimate, fervent, inspiring theatre where the senses are engaged and the soul is set free.
Emma started her BA in acting in 1991 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and subsequently worked as an actor in TV, film, radio and theatre. She returned to the Guildhall in 2006, completed an MA Teaching Actors and specialised in voice training, under the tutelage of Patsy Rodenburg. Her thesis was on Audibility in Younger Actors.
Since completion of her MA, she has been tutoring foreign language students and teaching voice to the first and second year actors at the Guildhall.
Private voice work includes workshops with theatre companies (including the Method Acting School, Actors Ensemble and most recently the Watford Palace Theatre), with teachers in Hackney schools, and with individual actors and corporate clients. She is currently running a series of workshops in voice and presentation skills with senior management at Kings College, London.
Elizabeth graduated last year from Guildhall School of Music and Drama with an MA in Training Actors Movement. During her studies she worked professionally as assistant movement director on "Rhinoceros" at the Royal Court Theatre. Elizabeth is presently an adjunct movement teacher at RADA and has also taught at Guildhall, Drama Centre, Mountview, MMU School of Theatre, and Rose Bruford.
Other theatre credits include movement directing for 'The Wake' and 'A Lovely Sunday For Creve Coeur' at RADA; 'As You Like It' for Wein Kindertheater, Vienna; 'Someone Who'll Watch Over Me' at the Barons Court Theatre; 'Work' at The Courtyard Theatre; 'Skunk' for the National Youth Theatre and assistant movement director on 'As You Like It' at Watford Palace Theatre. Elizabeth previously trained as an actor at Manchester Metropolitan School of Acting.
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