Our Tutors

Donnaleigh Bailey

Donnaleigh trained as an actress at The Television Workshop, National Youth Music Theatre and The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. On graduating she has worked extensively in film and television including series regular roles in BBC’s Doctorsand ITV’s Coronation Street. In addition, Donnaleigh has performed in many theatre venues around the UK including the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and The Unicorn Theatre. 

Donnaleigh also trained as a fully qualified Drama Teacher at Warwick University, obtaining her PGCE and MA in Education. Alongside her acting career, for the past seven years she has led the flourishing Drama Department at Trent College in Nottingham. She is the Artistic Director of The Trent Repertory Company, making and producing over 30 plays for young people in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Polly Bennett

Photo credit: Helen Murray

Polly Bennett is a Movement Director and Choreographer working in the broadest applications of movement both nationally and internationally. She holds an MA in Movement from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and is Associate Movement Practitioner at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Recent theatre credits include: The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre), As You Like It (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), People, Places and Things (National, West End and off-Broadway), Travesties (Menier Chocolate Factory, West End and Broadway), The Great Wave (National Theatre), Salome (RSC), The Deep Blue Sea (National Theatre), Doctor Faustus (Duke of York’s), The Maids (Trafalgar Studios), Yen (Royal Court), Nut (National Theatre) and Hang (Royal Court).

Film: Bohemian Rhapsody, The Little Stranger, Stan & Ollie.

TV: The Crown (Series 3), Killing Eve (BBC America), Urban Myths (Sky Arts), Gareth Malone’s Best of British (BBC One.)

Events: She was Assistant Movement Director on the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony and Mass Cast Choreographer on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies. She is co-founder of The Mono Box.

Siobhán Cannon-Brownlie

Siobhán is a freelance theatre director and maker who trained at The Television Workshop Nottingham and Bristol Old Vic. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Major Labia, an all-female sketch comedy collective who aim to smash the patriarchy through vaginal comedy. Their latest full-length show, Vulva La Revolution enjoyed sell-out audiences at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Nottingham Playhouse main stage, Derby Theatre, Curve and King's Head. Siobhán is also a founding member of Nottingham based collective The Party Somewhere Else, which exists to champion and showcase work made and led by women and non-binary people.

Recent directing credits include: The Elves and the Shoemaker (Nottingham Playhouse, Neville Studio), Vulvarine (Fat Rascal Theatre, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and UK tour), The Crucible (Curve and DMU), Astronauts of Hartlepool (by Tim Foley, Vault Festival – winner of the Origin's Award for Outstanding New Work).

Simone Coxall

Simone is a Director and Movement Specialist who has worked in the USA, Australia and the UK. Alongside directing productions for traditional theatre spaces, she has worked
extensively in site-specific and immersive theatre work. Having worked at Shakespeare’s Globe for 8 years, she is part of the faculty of the Higher Education department and is a specialist in Globe Theatre Technique. She has worked in Actor Training directing, tutoring and coaching at; Drama Centre London, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Lyric Hammersmith, Royal and Derngate Theatre, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Italia Conti BA, Fourth Monkey Actor Training and RADA. She was MA Acting Course Leader at ArtsEd until August 2022, is currently a tutor with Open Door and about to direct on the MA Classical Acting Course at LAMDA. 

Music Tutor: Hadley Fraser

Hadley made his West End debut as Marius in Les Misérables. He also originated the role of Tiernan in the Broadway show The Pirate Queen. He was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2011. He appeared in the film adaptation of Les Misérables, and in the Donmar Warehouse's production of Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston. He also starred in the 25th Anniversary staging of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2011. He is the co-lyricist and co-book writer (with Josie Rourke) for the new musical Committee on the demise of Kids Company which premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in June 2017. He also starred in the UK premiere of the Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein in September 2017 at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End, following a tryout run at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle.

Matt Harrison

Matt is an award-winning Director and Theatre Maker who trained at East 15 Acting School and with the National Youth Theatre. He was awarded the 2015 Bryan Forbes Bursary under the mentorship of Michael Attenborough CBE. He has directed and created work at venues including the New Diorama, Finborough Theatre, Ambassadors and Criterion Theatre, as well as the National Theatre’s Temporary space. He is Associate Director to Emma Rice on Kneehigh’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk and most recently collaborated with Olivier Award nominated writer James Fritz on his production of The Fall.

Nic Harvey

Nic is Director of The Television Workshop in Nottingham, a globally-renowned, BAFTA-winning training ground for young actors from diverse backgrounds in the Midlands. The Workshop delivers naturalistic acting training and professional opportunities to over 400 young people in the region, and casting successes include double Oscar-nominee Samantha Morton, Jack O'Connell (Unbroken, Money Monster), Vicky McClure (This Is England, Line Of Duty), Aisling Loftus (War & Peace), Joe Dempsie (Skins, Game Of Thrones), Sennia Nanua (The Girl With All The Gifts), Anjli Mohindra (Bodyguard) and Erin Kellyman (Solo, Les Mis). 

As well as directing, devising and writing over 100 productions with young actors, Nic is also Artistic Director of Sheep Soup, a theatre company specialising in naturalistic contemporary musicals. Their flagship show Mrs Green enjoyed sell-out runs at Nottingham Playhouse, Leicester Curve and Edinburgh Fringe, and their latest show The Leftovers completed a highly-acclaimed national tour.  

Owen Horsley

Owen’s directing credits include Maydays by David Edgar (RSC), Hamlet (CSC, New York), Don Giovanni (LaMaMa, New York) Salome by Oscar Wilde (RSC) The Famous Victories of Henry V (RSC), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Garsington Opera), Henry V (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Watermill Theatre). Owen was Associate Director on the RSC’s King and Country tour and worked with Artistic Director Gregory Doran on Richard II, Henry IV Part 1 and 2 and Henry V from 2013-16. Owen is also an Associate Director for Cheek by Jowl. He was Assistant Director to Declan Donnellan on The Changeling (2006) Cymbeline (2007), Troilus and Cressida (2008), Macbeth (2009-11) and ‘Tis Pity she’s a Whore (2011-13) becoming Associate Director in 2010. Owen co-directed the 2013 tour of ‘Tis Pity. Owen created Bard City in 2016, which offers Shakespeare training in New York and London as well as presenting innovative versions of his plays. So far they have produced 5 Shakespeare in a Week workshops (Antony and Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Troilus and Cressida and As You Like It) and created new interpretations of Hamlet and Twelfth Night.

Jonathan Humphreys

Jonathan trained at Drama Centre London before working as an assistant director at the National Theatre and RSC. He was awarded the Regional Young Theatre Director bursary in 2010 to Sheffield Theatres where his work has received widespread critical acclaim and his production of Beckett's Happy Days won a TMA award. Other recent productions include: The Mighty Walzer (Manchester Royal Exchange); Romeo and Juliet, Boeing Boeing, The Village Bike (Sheffield Theatres); Oscar Wilde on Trial (Reading Gaol); The Hotel Plays (Defibrillator); Krapp's Last Tape, Spoonface Steinberg (Hull Truck); Mojo Mickybo (Trafalgar Studios); Moscow Live (Hightide). His first short film, The Send Off, was commissioned by BBC and has played at festivals internationally. Jonathan is a board member of Stage Directors UK and Associate Connections Director for the National Theatre. He has directed extensively within drama schools including LAMDA, Drama Centre, Guildhall and RWCMD. 

Hannah Joss

Hannah is a theatre director working in London and across the UK.

She most recently directed Kimberley Nixon in Original Death Rabbit by Rose Heiney at Jermyn Street Theatre and was previously a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre, a Staff Director at the National Theatre and Baylis Assistant at the Old Vic. She is also a National Theatre Connections Mentor Director.

As Director: Original Death Rabbit (Jermyn Street Theatre), Carry On Jaywick (Murphy&Co/national tour), Eigengrau (Kings Head Theatre), The 11th Hour (the egg, Theatre Royal Bath), That Moment (Crescent Arts, Belfast). 

Associate Director: Box of Delights (Wilton’s Music Hall) The Adventure (Lyric Hammersmith). Assistant Director: A Number (The Bridge Theatre), Rutherford and Son (National Theatre), Dance Nation (Almeida Theatre), Woyzeck (Old Vic Theatre), Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again (Royal Shakespeare Company), Incognito (Nabokov/HighTide/The Bush), The Ladykillers (The Watermill).

Sara Joyce

Sara is an award-winning director/writer. She most recently directed Hunch by Kate Kennedy and Best Life by Tamar Broadbent, both at Edinburgh Fringe, and Dust by Milly Thomas at Trafalgar Studios. 

Sara is one of last year’s Old Vic 12 artists. She is currently Associate Director with Irish theatre company Pan Pan. Previously, Sara was Resident Director at Almeida Theatre and Resident Assistant Director at Soho Theatre. She has worked as associate and assistant director with Dominic Dromgoole, Claire van Kampen, Gavin Quinn, Richard Eyre, Rupert Goold, Steve Marmion.   

Sara was shortlisted for the KSF Emerging Artist’s Award, is a recipient of the Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprises and received an Off West End nomination for Best Director. She studied Drama at Trinity College Dublin and trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq. 

Juliet Knight

Juliet is a lecturer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a regular tutor and director at Clean Break Theatre Company, The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, Generation Arts and Central.

Her directing credits include: The Day After by Miran Hadzic (Vault Festival and Edinburgh Festival 2016), White Boy created and developed with the writer Tanika Gupta (Soho Theatre), Weekday Nights by Luke Barnes (Unicorn Theatre and NYT), A Just Act by E V Crowe (Clean Break Theatre Company), Prime Resident by Stella Duffy (Soho Theatre), Talking to Byron by Tanika Gupta (National Youth Theatre), Out of Me by Jane Bodie (Soho Theatre with NYT). Her recent acting credits include Caught in the Net by Ray Cooney (Vaudeville Theatre), Tomorrow by Sam Evans (The White Bear), The Smallest Story by R J Wilkinson (The Kings Head), Eastenders (BBC), and the short films Faithless and Trivia.

Nicholai La Barrie

Nicholai La Barrie is a theatre and film director, is an Artistic Associate at Lyric Hammersmith and has been a MOBO Fellow. 

His work in theatre includes Tina: the Tina Turner Musical (Aldwych Theatre) Grey (Oval House), Liar Heretic Thief ( Lyric Hammersmith), White (Edinburgh Festival), Gob (London International Festival of Theatre), The Book of Disquiet (Blue Elephant Theatre), I’ll Take You There (The Gate), There is Nothing There (Oval House), Chet Baker: Speedball (606 Jazz Club) and Portrait For Posterity (Arcola Theatre).

Film Credits Include: Hamlet Sort Of (2017), North East South West (Short Film 2016), Aingeal (2012), Dark Stranger (2009, official selection at the Caribbean Film Festival).

Dramaturg credits include: Feels (Lyric Hammersmith), The Mob Reformers (Lyric Hammersmith).

Sean Linnen

Sean is a theatre director from Manchester. He was previously Trainee Artistic Director at Sheffield Theatres and Paines Plough in partnership with Arts Council England and Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse. He has worked as an assistant/associate for the National Theatre, Old Vic, English Touring Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival, Manchester International Festival, Rose Theatre Kingston and Park Avenue Armory, New York. He is currently assisting Nicholas Hytner on his inaugural production at The Bridge Theatre and is also a selector for the National Student Drama Festival.

Elli Mackenzie

Elli trained as an actress at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. She has been a director of the Young Vic Youth Theatre and as an actress has worked for many years appearing in theatres across the country, in the West End, international open air festivals and venues in Syria (Damascus, Aleppo, Homs) prior to the war and Jerash Festival in Jordan.

Elli has been responsible for casting and managing companies of actors for over thirty years as a producer of national and international tours of Shakespeare, educational work and forum theatre for the corporate world. She is currently also responsible for the professional acting company who work all year round at The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s family home, Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. 

As a tutor, Elli has worked with students to achieve places at Nottingham TV Workshop, Guildhall, Bristol Old Vic, the NYT and NYT Rep and University of Birmingham. 

Stef O'Driscoll

Stef is the interim Artistic Director at the Gate Theatre and was previously the Artistic Director of nabokov, and the Associate Director at Paines Plough and the Lyric Hammersmith. She is considered a pioneer in the UK movement of Gig Theatre with accolades such as With a Little Bit of Luck being the first radio play to be broadcast on BBC 1Xtra winning Best Radio production at the BBC Radio and Music Awards 2019. Stef was the original director of When Women Wee, now the motion picture, The Powder Room. She is a patron for Common.

Directing credits include: A History of Water in the Middle East by Sabrina Mahfouz (Royal Court Theatre), Inside This Box by Yasmin Joseph (Clean Break), On the Other Hand We’re Happy by Daf James, Daughterhood by Charley Miles, Dexter and Winter’s Detective Agency by Nathan Bryon (Paines Plough Theatre Clwyd 2019 Roundabout Season), Lit by Sophie Ellerby (Nottingham Playhouse/Hightide), Box Clever by Monsay Whitney (The Bunker), Island Town by Simon Longman, Sticks and Stones by Vinay Patel, How to Spot an Alien by Georgia Christou (Paines Plough Theatre Clwyd 2018 Roundabout Season), Hopelessly Devoted by Kae Tempest (Paines Plough), With a Little Bit of Luck by Sabrina Mahfouz (Roundhouse/Latitude/Paines Plough) and Yard Gal by Rebecca Prichard (Ovalhouse).

Gbolahan Obisesan

Gbolahan Obisesan was Genesis Fellow/Associate Director of the Young Vic Theatre. In 2018, Gbolahan will premiered The Fishermen for New Perspective at HOME: Manchester and was a winner of The Stage Edinburgh Fringe Award. 

Gbolahan’s directing credits include: the 2019 Premier stage production of The Last King of Scotland (Sheffield Crucible), the 2017 Olivier nominated Cuttin it (Young Vic, Birmingham Rep, Sheffield Cruicible, Royal Court, Yard Theatre), Off The Page, a short film for the Royal Court/Guardian's microplays season, How Nigeria Became: A story and a spear that didn’t work (Unicorn Theatre), We are Proud to Present… (Bush Theatre) and The Web (Young Vic). Gbolahan directed four plays as part of the Bush Theatre’s epic 66 BOOKS project which ran at the Bush and Westminster Abbey in 2011. 

In 2009, his Jerwood Directors Award-winning production of Barrie Keefe's SUS, subsequently received a revival in 2010, ran at The Young Vic and had a successful UK tour. Gbolahan has previously been Director in Residence at the National Theatre Studio as the recipient of the Bulldog Princep Director’s Bursary in 2008.

Hannah Price

Hannah is an award-winning theatre director, voice over director and a TV/film/commercials producer, as well as Co-Artistic Director and Founder of world renowned political new writing company, Theatre Uncut.

Her recent theatre work includes Permanence (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto) Escape the Scaffold (Theatre 503 and The Other Room, Cardiff) and Run the Beast Down (Marlowe Theatre and the Finborough) (all 2017).  

Hannah (alongside TU’s amazing writers) has won two Fringe First awards, a Herald’s Angel award and the Spirit of the Fringe Award for her work with Theatre Uncut. She was Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse for 2012 and toured to New York with the all-female Julius Caesar at St Anns Warehouse in 2013. Hannah’s most recent Associate Director position was supporting John Malkovich on Good Canary.

Ali Rashley

Ali trained at The Television Workshop and worked as a professional actress for many years appearing in shows for ITV, the BBC and Channel 4. She then went on to teach at The Television Workshop, where she was mentored by award-winning director David Cobham and trained as a TV director. She continues to direct for the TV Workshop over 16’s.

In 2007, Ali set up Circle Up Drama to take drama tuition out to more rural areas of Nottingham and Lincolnshire. Kids from Circle Up have gone on to roles with the BBC, ITV and on the West End and have also gone on to train at top drama schools including Guildhall, ArtsEd, Mountview, Manchester Met and East 15.

Ali now works as a one-to-one acting coach in film and TV and recently coached the leads in the feature film Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

Behind the Scenes tutor: Khadija Raza

Khadija Raza won the Stage Debut award for Best Designer in 2018 and the Linbury Prize for Dido in 2017. Other designer credits include: Every Leaf a Hallelujah (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), The Flood (Queen's Theatre); Talking About A Revolution (The Barn); Antigone (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Julius Caesar (Shakespeare's Globe & on tour); Sundown Kiki, Love Reign (Young Vic); 10 Nights (Graeae & Tamasha Theatre in association with the Bush Theatre); Bach & Sons (Bridge Theatre); Skin Hunger (Dante or Die Theatre Company); Augmented as co-designer (Told By an Idiot & Royal Exchange Theatre); Funeral Flowers (The Roundhouse & tour); The Bee in Me (Unicorn Theatre)

Music Tutor: Abigail Rose

Along with working as an actor, Abigail has been a vocal coach for many years, teaching privately and at several drama schools. Her vocal training started at Guildhall and then onto Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Abi also works as an associate for the National Youth Theatre and as a guest lecturer at University College London. 

Alex Thorpe

Alex is a theatre director from Cumbria working across the UK. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and on the Theatre Directing Programme at Birkbeck College. His recent credits include First Encounters: The Comedy of Errors (RSC), Twelfth Night (Orange Tree Theatre), The Remains of Logan Dankworth (UK tour) and It Never Happened (ArtsEd). His time as an Assistant/Associate Director saw him work at venues including The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Old Vic, Almeida Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Eclipse Theatre and Kiln Theatre. He was recently invited to become a trustee at Nuffield Theatre, Southampton.

Since becoming a tutor with Open Door, his students have received multiple offers to study at schools including LAMDA, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Alex has also directed second and final year productions at drama schools including ArtsEd, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and Manchester School of Theatre. 

Annie Tyson

Annie works at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as a core acting tutor and director and is an associate lecturer and director at Drama Centre. She began in regional theatre in the UK, working in both classical and contemporary plays and musicals.

Work in London includes seasons at the Old and Young Vic and the Duke of York’s Theatre. She was a founder member of the new music-theatre company, Direct Current. Her work on TV has included roles in Casualty, Coronation Street and Brookside. Her teaching and directing career began at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and developed back at Drama Centre where she was Course Director of the BA Honours Acting Course 2002-2010. She sits on the interview panel for the MFA in Directing at Birkbeck College and is part of the core team for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s ongoing project Open Stages.

She regularly gives both classical and contemporary audition workshops for The Mono Box.

Andrew Whyment

Andrew is a Director who stages new writing, devised work and fresh adaptations of classic texts. He is also an experienced facilitator of education and participation projects. He is based in London but has worked across the UK and abroad in countries including China, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the USA. He is Artistic Director of award-winning theatre company, Squint. He is a graduate of the Birkbeck Theatre Directing MFA, an Associate of the National Youth Theatre and formerly Resident Assistant Director at Leeds Playhouse.

Andrew makes work and sits on the audition panel at drama schools including Royal Welsh College Of Music and Drama, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and ArtsEd.

Brigid Zengeni

Brigid trained at Drama Centre London and has been a professional actor for 25 years. Her professional work spans television, theatre, radio and film. She has worked extensively at world class theatres from The National and The RSC to The Lincoln Centre in New York and everything in between! She also has a vast wealth of experience working with student actors and has taught and directed at Drama Centre London, Guildford School of Acting, London School of Dramatic Art, East 15, Italia Conti, Giles Forman Centre for Acting and Fourth Monkey Actor Training (where she is a patron and The Brigid Zengeni scholarship is awarded to a female applicant displaying exceptional talent and ability). She has sat on numerous audition panels for drama schools, knows what's required and will cater sessions to each individual need. She constantly revises her acting lessons so that they get better at helping students live ‘the life of the human spirit’ practically, authentically and truthfully on stage or before the camera.