This week, I want to talk about a special Theatretrain person, Tiffany King. She is the company director at Theatretrain Reading, and a couple of years ago, she became the director of dance and movement for the company. In that role, she recently led dance and movement workshops at our Creative Conference.
She has the distinction of regularly winning our annual edited video competition by submitting excellently crafted pieces of work. You can check out her latest winning entry here.
What you see in Tiff’s work is huge energy. In the performing arts, the students reflect the energy of their creatives. The more you give, the more you get from them. During Covid her weekly online Zumba classes brought a smile to my face, but I think some places are still aching from the experience.
If you watch Britain’s Got Talent, you would have doubtless seen her in the Tescos ads which run before and after each break. She doubles up with an actor who announces that he’s off to Tesco’s and every time he looks back, she is engaged with more and more impossible circus or gymnastic activity. But last week I had the pleasure of seeing her work as a writer and a professional actress.
Her play is called Mother. It was developed from work she did in the last couple of years when studying for an MA at RADA. It has become a one-woman show, which she not only wrote but directed. It’s an uncomfortable experience because it deals with those childbearing and rearing issues that are often# not spoken about. And how well does she do it? Being a mother is hard work for anyone, and she charts the physical pain, the compromises on your life, the ridiculousness of it all to the point of becoming a slave to the child’s needs. It’s a sobering watch. But it’s also funny. Tiff uses a range of theatrical styles and techniques to get across her theme to the audience. When you watch her at work, you realise that what you see is searingly honest, brave and authentic.
She wants to develop it more, and at the end of the show, she came back on and told the audience she would be happy to hear of any of their experiences, as she was constantly re-editing the work and incorporating ideas from her audiences. Good for her.
Later this year, she is taking students from her Theatretrain to a drama festival in Italy. I know they will have a great time. She never stops working, the energy level is always high, and she is unflinchingly devoted to what she does. Long may it continue, Tiff.
