This year's Christmas Pantomime "Aladdin" starring Ore Oduba is now on sale! Click here to buy your tickets.
Looking for something fun to do this Summer once you have finished your exams?
Are you also interested in the performing arts, or the works of William Shakespeare?
If so, then read on to discover more about the Assembly Hall Theatre's Young Company Shakespeare Acting Programme coming this August!
This 2-week programme is for young performers aged 14-19 years.
Over 10 days, participants will work with industry professionals exploring the Bard's texts, as well as strengthening and implementing the skills needed for live performance in the Round.
Workshops will include in stage combat, voice for performance, and master classes with professional actors, culminating in a live performance of scenes from Shakespeare's classic works chosen by the performers and director, this is an unmissable opportunity for aspiring thespians.
This programme runs Monday to Friday 5 to 16 August 10am – 4.30, although both Friday sessions will run later.
On Friday 9th August the participants will be leaving Tunbridge Wells Train Station at 9.30am, and returning to Tunbridge Wells Train station at 11.40pm.
The young people will be performing to an audience on Friday 16th August in The Amelia Atrium at 7pm. The Young Company - Scenes from Shakespeare performance will be approximately 60 minutes in length and tickets are available here.
Friday 9 August will include a trip to London to The Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see the 7.30pm performance of Much Ado About Nothing. The programme will conclude with a final performance to the public the evening of Friday 16 August.
The programme participation fee is £200 per young person. The fee includes all sessions, transport and tickets for the Globe Theatre trip, and 2 tickets to the final performance for friends/family.
If you book your place before midnight on Thursday 27 June '24, the participant will also receive a free ticket to Henry V in Calverley Grounds on Sunday 30 June '24.
Through this programme participants will be eligible for a Bronze Arts Award, which is a nationally recognised qualification for arts participation; the cost of which is included in the programme cost.
“Let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.” – Much Ado About Nothing
Monday to Friday 5th – 16th August 10am – 4.30pm
(Both Friday sessions will run later, see below for details, the session on Thursday 15th August will allow late arrival for the collection of A level results)
On Friday 9th August the participants will be leaving Tunbridge Wells Train Station at 9.30am, and returning to Tunbridge Wells Train station at 11.40pm.
The young people will be performing to an audience on Friday 16th August in The Amelia Atrium at 7pm. The Young Company - Scenes from Shakespeare performance will be approximately 60 minutes in length and tickets are available here.
£200 per young person
The fee includes all sessions, transport and tickets for the Globe Theatre Trip, and 2 tickets to the final performance for friends/family. If you book your place before midnight on 27th June, the participant will also receive a free ticket to Henry V in Calverley Grounds on 30th June.
For performers aged 14-19 years
Please note that participants must be aged between 14 and 19. If you wish to discuss the potential of an exception please contact Bethan Minter (Bethan.Minter@tunbridgewells.gov.uk)
The programme will finish with a live performance of scenes from Shakespeare's classic works chosen by the performers and director.
Creatives
Louise Jameson
Actor, Director, Tutor
After RADA, award-winning actress, director and writer Louise Jameson joined the RSC for three years and has since enjoyed a career on screen, in theatre (including The National) and on television; most notably as a regular in Doctor Who, Tenko (her personal favourite), Bergerac, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, EastEnders, Toast, Doc Martin, Silent Witness and Midsomer Murders. Before and after the pandemic she was Granny Bob in the BAFTA winning series The Secret Life of Boys. Pre pandemic she piloted a new comedy series, Bumps. Her films include My Friend Walter, Stick With Me Kid, Tractate Middoth, award winning Cleaning Up and A Quiet Courage. For her theatre performance, in VINCENT RIVER, at Trafalgar Studios, she was Offie nominated and she directed REVENGE, which has just finished a National Tour. Louise also writes, performs and directs regularly for Big Finish, most notably creating award winning WWII series, ATA GIRL. Her children's story, with music, BEWARE THE GOBLIN MEN, can be downloaded from her website. www.louisejameson.com
2024 sees Louise celebrate 53 years as an actor. She helped to re-open the West End with The Mousetrap, and the fringe (as a director) with a writers' festival BEGINNINGS at the Lion and Unicorn.
She is currently playing Mary Goskirk, a feisty grandmother, in EMMERDALE. And, when time allows, performs her one woman show SHAKESPEARE'S MISTRESS, celebrating her half century as an Equity member.
Susan Vidler
Theatre includes: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, Palace Theatre London West End, Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation. (NTS, Royal Court, Tour); Let The Right One In; Knives in Hens and Nobody Will Ever Forgive Us (National Theatre of Scotland); Trainspotting (Bush Theatre/Citizens Theatre/Traverse Theatre); Sabina, The Present (Bush Theatre); The Lover (Stellar Quines); A Slow Air (Tricycle Theatre/59 East 59 Theater, New York) Pressure Drop (On Theatre Company); Roaring Trade (Soho Theatre/Paines Plough); Petrol Jesus Nightmare (Traverse Theatre/Kosovo Festival); Ju Ju Girl (Traverse Theatre); Heartless (ICA London); A Better Day (Stratford East).
Television work includes Line of Duty, Shetland, Dr Who, Casualty, The Adventures of Daniel, England Expects, Terry McIntyre, The Woman in White, Macbeth on the Estate, Suspects (Freemantlemedia/Channel 5); Hustle (Kudos Produc:ons); Stacked (Broken Spectre/Channel 4); Rebus (SMG Productions); The Last Detective, Cracker (Granada); Impact (Company Television); Love in the Twenty First Century (Red Productions); The Jump (Warner Sister); Kavanagh QC (Carlton); Stone Cold, Flowers of the Forest, Dark Adapted Eye (BBC).
Film work includes Trainspotting (Figment Films); Stella (Southwest Media Factory); Naked (Thin Man Films); Alone (CFI); The Present (Fenix/ Playground); Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (Zentropa Produc:ons); Poppies; Voice from Afar (Troicka Ltd); Fallout (Company Pictures); A House in Berlin (Heartbeat [ Pictures); Gentlemen and Gangster (St Paul Films).
Short films include Volume (NFTS); The Passport (B&L Media); That Old One (Ideal World Produc:ons); Californian Sunshine (Sigma Film/Channel 4); Memory Man (RDF Television); Clueless (Curious Pictures); Insomnia (Blue Orange).
Alongside acting Susan works at Shakespeares Globe theatre as a practitioner, actor and scene director. Susan has worked at the Globe for 12 years and travels across the UK and Internationally with the work she creates for the Globe.
Rob Cann
Rob trained at Mountview Academy. He is Education Manager at Guildford Shakespeare Company.
Acting credits; Romeo (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) Hamlet (Young Shakespeare Company UK Tour), Adam in Time of My Life (Mill at Sonning) Fortinbras & Player King in Hamlet (Lewisham Broadway Theatre), Orlando / Lucentio touring to English Heritage UK Tour. Bertram / Antigonus The Winter's Tale (Cambridge Shakespeare Festival). Prince Charming for Disney Corporate events in London and Milan. Pre Viz actor for Fable the Journey on Xbox Connect.
Directing Credits, Eclipse- (National Theatre Connections), The Witches, David Copperfield, Macbeth and Five Children and It. (Yvonne Arnaud Mill Studio) Annie Junior (Mayflower Theatre) For Misshapen Chaos: DNA, Treasure Island (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Punk Rock, For GSC: Macbeth, The Tempest (Delight Schools Tours) Rosenstern & Guildencrantz are LOST! and Web of Lies (GSC Young Company)
Kim Wright
Kim is a director, movement director and intimacy choreographer working primarily in the creation of new work and education; teaching at some of the UK's leading drama schools. Kim gained a Master degree in Movement: Directing & Teaching from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, has also trained in musical theatre and is an acting graduate of Tom Todoroff Studios in New York.
Kim is very much looking forward to working with Young Company Shakespeare Acting Programme this Summer.
Duncan Woodruff
Sword & Scoundrel - Founder
Training:
The Bridge Theatre Training Company
The Academy of Performance Combat
Duncan began a love for theatre in his youth, performing regularly in Speech and Drama festivals during his teenage years under the training of BVA & VCN Voice Coach Thea Carr.
While studying at the University of Kent, he began working with Rob Rawles, touring pub theatre, and subsequently completed the acting programme at The Bridge Theatre Training Company in 2012. It was there that he encountered stage combat, under Equity Fight Director Andrew Ashenden, who became his mentor during his teaching apprenticeship.
After playing sword fighting pirates with his Grandfather as a child, and growing up on the swashbuckling adventures of Errol Flynn & Basil Rathbone, a career in acting and stage combat was an undeniable homecoming. With his favourite weapon being the Smallsword, and owning a flair for the dramatic, it was only appropriate that he should embark on teaching under the "Scoundrel" Pseudonym!
Acting Credits include:
National Tours; The Three Musketeers (Baroque Theatre), The Wind in the Willows, (Rain or Shine), & Jane Eyre (Blue Orange).
Aladdin (Granville Theatre), Occupied (Feature Film), Radio Blighty's Idle Hour (Regional Tour/Fringe).
Fight Directing Credits include:
The all new adventures of Peter Pan (Theatre Royal York), The all new adventures of Peter Pan (Hawth Theatre), Dick Whittington (Octagon Theatre), Oklahoma! (Guildford School of Acting), On Bear Ridge (National Theatre), Hedda Gabler (Sherman Theatre), Titus Andronicus (T24, UKC), Twelfth Night (Jupiter Creatives), Thou (Short Film), The Mascot Duel (Saracens Rugby, Twickenham).
Other Qualifications & Experience Held:3rd Dan, Shotokan Karate, 2nd Dan, Shorin Ryu Karate (Instructor, Jinkokan Karate Club), Second Lieutenant (Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, British Army Reserve), Level 1 Foil Coach (British Academy of Fencing), First Aid. Current Equity Kent Branch Committee member.
