When I was at school, we had a band – the brass band kind not the rock music kind and I learnt a lot from it. In year 9 I led my section but I wasn’t that good. Suddenly a new pupil joined who although two years younger was much better than me. He had been playing in the Salvation Army band since he was quite young. My ego was a bit bruised for a while but then I became a better player because I listened to him and played better because his confidence gave me confidence. His leadership helped me grow my own.
Years later when I became a teacher, I learnt to do that thing of standing in front of 30 people all waiting for me to take control and make it fun for them. Sometimes leadership emerges totally unexpectedly from pupils in front of you and it’s great thing about teaching the performing arts – there are endless opportunities for people to step up to the plate and take the lead.
“we make no apologies for ambition”
Recently I had a letter from a lady whose son was in Songs of the Century which we performed at the London Palladium in 1999. In this show we used the hit songs of all the century to tell the story of the history of the century. She overheard a conversation between two mums that has stayed in her memory over the years. She said …“After the show had ended, one of the mothers said they considered the production to have been ‘too ambitious’, or ‘a little too ambitious’. A response then came from Theatretrain, ‘we make no apologies for ambition’. Absolutely!”
We think it’s our job to lead at Theatretrain because we want our pupils to become leaders in the work and in their futures.
Since 1992 Theatretrain has been leading the way in performing arts training for children and teenagers alike. Our top-quality lessons in acting, singing and dancing help to build children’s confidence and develop essential life skills. If you would like to learn more about our theatre schools and our unique performing arts training for young people visit www.theatretrain.co.uk.
