Gemma Arrowsmith

Gemma is a comedian, actor and writer. She has an Associate Diploma in Acting from LAMDA and a first class Honours Degree in Musical Theatre from the Guildford School of Acting where she won the Principal's Award and represented the school through to the finals of the CArleton Hobbs Radio Award.

She is an acting tutor at the KSA and PPA drama schools where she specialises in Greek theatre, Shakespeare and Jacobean theatre, improvisation and voice, speech & accent. She also tutors students for their LAMDA and Trinity Guildhall exams.

Her theatre credits include LV in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables and Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Television includes The Life and Times of Vivian Vyle (BBC), Home Time (BBC), Transmission Impossible (CBBC) and Relic (CBBC).

Gemma is a regular on the London comedy circuit. She is half of the double act Mould & Arrowsmith and has written and performed three shows at the Edinburgh Fringe; Field Study (2007), Mould & Arrowsmith: A Sketch Show in PowerPoint (2008) and Mould & Arrowsmith's Inventions (2009). She also hosts a monthly comedy night called Comedy Sleepover.

Gemma won Best Artist at the Fringe Report Awards and was a finalist in the Trident Comedy Awards.

Find out more at www.gemmaarrowsmith.com

Elizabeth Ballinger

Elizabeth originally trained as an actor and in July she graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama with an MA in Movement training for actors. At present she is teaching movement at RADA and the Drama Centre and has taught at Guildhall and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

As a movement Coach she has worked on Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me; Barons Court Theatre, Work; The Courtyard Theatre and as an assistant movement coach on Rhinoceros; The Royal Court, As You Like It; Watford Palace and As You Like It for Das Wien Kindertheatre, Vienna.

Michael Chance

Michael trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech & Drama. His first professional engagement was as Adams in South Pacific at Leicester Haymarket. Favourite roles include a revival of Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet at Sadler’s Wells, Adam in Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing, Geoffrey in Stepping Out and Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in the UK Productions tour of Anything Goes.

Michael was in the original company of the Theatre of Comedy's acclaimed production of When We Are Married at the Whitehall Theatre. He was a regular performer at the world-famous Players' Theatre for over ten years & has a one-man show about the life & music of Jack Buchanan which he recently performed to great acclaim at the Jermyn Street Theatre. He has also worked with the legendary Julie Wilson and Margaret Whiting at the Cabaret Symposium in Connecticut. More recently Michael has appeared at the National Portrait Gallery playing Ivor Novello in Love From Ivor & recorded a couple of audio versions of Doctor Who for Big Finish Productions with the likes of Colin Baker & Paul McGann.

On television he has been seen in programmes as varied as Poirot, Ten Books That Changed The World, Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me & was seen in Eastenders, playing a singing pianist.

He regularly plays Dame in pantomime so this year will make a very pleasant change. Earlier in the year he appeared at the Landor Theatre in London in Too Marvellous for Words, a centenary celebration of the lyricist Johnny Mercer, played in a national tour of the Charles Dickens ghost story The Signalman& has just returned from a production of Side by Side by Sondheim in Spain.

Melissa Dalyanci

Melissa trained at Birmingham School of Acting BA Honours and PGCE Post Compulsory Education at Greenwich University. Teacher of A level Theatre Studies, Musical Theatre and Specialist in Practical Workshops.

I am a workaholic when it comes to drama and visit the theatre on average between once and three times a week. I absolutely love teaching and have fun exploring new ideas with my students in a student led fashion through either improvisation and/or devised work. I believe that there is no “finished product” just working progress!

Nigel Fairs

Nigel trained at Bretton Hall. As a writer he has had 26 theatre plays (and two musicals) produced. As an actor, he has appeared in the West End, on tour, in panto and in Walford. He has taught drama at theatres and schools throughout the country, including Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the Old Bric Youth Theatre, of which he was artistic director for two years. His students have ranged from ballet students to life inmates in Maidstone Prison! Other life experiences include clowning, cleaning a psychiatric hospital and four years as a psychodynamic counsellor. He is currently working on a film, A Brighton Day, and a novel about the Milky Bar kid.

Find out more at www.nigelfairs.com

Julia Glass

Julia trained in Musical Theatre at the Guildford School of Acting, graduating with a First Class honours degree. She is also a qualified teacher, coach and facilitator, with over ten years experience working with students of all ages from 4 to 84!

As a performer, professional work includes ;Theatre work includes; Madame de la Grande Bouche in Beauty and the Beast ( International tour), A Birthday Party (Chichester Festival Theatre), Anyone Can Whistle (Savoy Theatre), Twelfth Night (UK Tour), Mrs Bott in Just William (Charles Cryer Theatre), Ratty/Chloe in Toad of Toad Hall (Eye Theatre), Mrs Lansdown in The Amazons (Theatre Museum), Joanne in Company (Greenwich), Mom in a rehearsed reading of Numbers (Okai Collier), and Lita Encore in the UK premiere of Ruthless! (Stratford). Pantomime credits include King Charming and Cinderella (Players’ Theatre) and Queen Morgana in Snow White (Watersmeet Theatre). Julia is also an experienced Music Hall performer and appears regularly with the Players’ Theatre in London and around the country.

Television appearances include: Look East and Casualty for the BBC and Make my Day for Channel 4.

Tom Jameson

Tom runs his own Personal Training company called Mobile Motivation. My passion for sports and fitness is the source of my self motivation and drive. Working with the young adults from SDC is a pleasure. To work with such a motivated and talented group makes my fitness sessions extremely easy. By improving fitness they also improve not only stamina and focus, but their overall well being.

Find out more at www.mobilemotivation.co.uk

Lewis Penfold

Lewis has been a teacher and director of staged combat since 2002, he works at Arts Educational School in Chiswick. He also works as a freelance fight choreographer for Film, Stage and Live action in such projects as The Children's Party at the Palace, 'Warriors' for Madame Tussauds and the launch of supercruiser The Ventura. He has also worked as a fight performer in the Motion Pictures 'Alexander', 'Kingdom of Heaven' , 'Born of Hope' and 'Poseidon'.

Stephen Purcell

Steve is a lecturer, director, researcher, and published author, specialising in Shakespeare. He regularly directs for the open-air theatre company The Pantaloons (www.thepantaloons.co.uk), and his productions have toured extensively across the UK, receiving favourable coverage from both local and national media (including The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and BBC Radio 2). He teaches Performance and English Literature at Southampton Solent University, and his first book, Popular Shakespeare, was published in 2009 by Palgrave Macmillan. He holds a BA and a PhD from the University of Kent.

Adam Rood

Adam trained at the Guildford School of Acting, graduating in August 2008. Whilst training his credits included; Kedge in A Night Out, Nicholas in The Kitchen, Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol and Aegeon in The Comedy of Errors, which was directed by Louise Jameson.  He also works as a composer for theatre and television, most recently composing music for The Canterbury Tales and the stage version of Gargling with Jelly by Brian Patterson. Adam has directed Our Country’s Good and Two as well as directing students in projects throughout the summer at the Guildford School of Acting.

Michèle Roszak

Michèle comes from Kent, and was educated at Tonbridge Grammar School for Girls. She studied singing and piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama between 1981-1985, where she gained her AGSM Performing and Teaching Diploma. She made her London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and has performed opera, musicals, recitals and concerts throughout the South-East.

Michèle was a gold medallist at the Hastings Festival and has featured on CD and television. She has studied with many renowned musicians, and continues her vocal studies today. She spends much of her time teaching singing in the Tunbridge Wells area where she lives, and is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians and the Association of Teachers of Singing.

Sarah Stephenson

Sarah graduated from Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in Voice Studies. She has taught voice at many leading drama schools, including The Guildford School of Acting, The Oxford School of Drama and Rose Bruford College.

Accent Coaching Credits include, Helter Skelter and Land of the Dead, Bush Theatre, London and Outlying Islands, at the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath.

Vocal Coaching Credits include, The Kitchen, at the Mill Studio Guildford, for GSA. Musicals at GSA include Daydream Believer, Chaplin, and Batboy. For the Oxford School of Drama, Animal Farm and Watership Down, The Botanical Gardens, Oxford.

As well as Voice Teaching Sarah also runs Voice Workshops for Youth Groups and Voice Coaching with Corporate Clients.

Lizzie Youngson

I studied Television and Theatre production at York St. John University and am experienced in many aspects of the creative process of producing theatre and engaging with young people having worked in professional theatres for four years, in a variety of roles. These include being: a freelance Workshop Practitioner, a Marketing Officer (Trinity Theatre in Kent), an Assistant Programmer, a Choreographer, a Youth Theatre Leader (York Theatre Royal) and alongside these roles, more recently, becoming a Personal Assistant to the great Louise Jameson.

After such diversity and excitement I have now decided to move on to pursue a freelance profession of workshop leading and teaching across the South East. Having already realised and begun numerous projects for Town and Country Housing, Trinity Theatre and of course the exceptionally talented Sunday Drama College, I am finally enjoying being able to incorporate all of my experience in Education into my every day working life!