Northampton

Principal – Sarah Varnam

I was born and raised in Leicestershire where my love of the performing arts began at a very early age. My father is an accomplished set designer and stage manager and whilst he was behind the scenes, working his magic, I performed on stage in the children’s ensemble in pantomimes and musicals.

As I grew older, so my enthusiasm for the theatre grew with me, and when I became firmly ‘hooked’ in the Arts, I attended a weekend theatre school, and enjoyed developing a good grounding in drama and musical theatre, as well as meeting lots of new people who are still great friends today! I began attending private drama lessons, and was taught and mentored by one of Leicestershire’s best drama teachers, who moulded me into the actress and teacher that I am today.

At the age of 15, I made my debut playing the title role in Agnes of God at The Little Theatre in Leicester. Other roles followed, including Ruby Birtles in When We Are Married; Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, which toured to the open-air theatre at Minack in Cornwall and numerous Old Time Musicals.

After studying Performing Arts at Melton College, Drama School was my next port of call. I gained a place at London’s prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama, training with many now-household names and playing many different roles, including a female Hamlet and studying an elephant at London Zoo! I graduated with a BA in Acting in 1995.

My first professional engagement was playing the Nurse in Night Must Fall, starring Barbara Jefford and directed by Phillip Franks. Other credits include Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Martirio in Lorca’s The House of Barnarda Alba, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible and Miss Hannigan in Annie.

Finally, my desire to work with young people (and meeting my husband) brought me back home to the Midlands, and for the last 13 years my role has been that of a teacher of performing arts, as freelance, in state schools and more recently as the head of performing arts at an independent school.

I have directed many productions with young people at a variety of societies. These include two very successful productions of A Slice of Saturday Night at Leicester’s Little Theatre, The Pirates of Penzance, Honk!, Oliver!, Low Level Panic and Bugsy Malone. I have also mentored a number of young people who have themselves gone on to train at top drama schools and ultimately enter the profession.

Other directorial projects have included Romeo and Juliet, Hello, Dolly! ,Steel Magnolias and too many pantomimes to mention!

It is important to me that the young people who attend our new academy experience the same thrill of learning and performing that I did. It is vital that everyone has the same chance to shine and feels special whilst growing as an individual and in confidence! Whether your reasons for signing up is to make new friends or to take those first few important steps into a varied and fulfilling career, then PQA Northampton is definitely for you.

Come and join us and, Be Yourself, Be Amazing!

Christopher – Comedy & Drama

Christopher is a professional director based in Northampton. He has worked with many young companies and youth theatres on a variety of styles from new writing to comedy improvisation. He has a particular passion for the impact theatre can have on not only a young person’s artistic development but on their personal and social development.

Christopher Trained at East 15 Acting school in London on the BA Contemporary Theatre course. He has experience of working with new writing, adaptations and devised theatre projects.

He has enjoyed working on productions with large community companies as well as productions with professional actors both striving for the same professional quality. Since graduating in 2006 Christopher has worked in Northampton, Wellingborough, Chichester, Eastleigh, Birmingham, London, his home town of Coventry, as well as Calgary in Canada and Madrid, Spain.

Clair – Film & Television

Clair started out as an actress, training professionally at The Academy of Live and Recorded Arts where she was awarded a full scholarship, then at Guildford School of Acting where she achieved an upper 2:1 BA (Hons) in Theatre. She has always had a passion for storytelling and a desire to make a difference if she can; with hopes to make an audience stop and think to consider a different perspective, or to inspire them. Her work as an actor included contemporary and classical roles, in film and theatre, in the UK and Ireland. In the late 90s she fronted pop Indie band “Eyes Wide Open” touring smaller venues around London.

She was then fortunate enough to gain employment at Mel Gibson’s Icon Film Distribution where she learnt about the business side of the film industry as an assistant in the Marketing Department on titles such as What Women Want, The Dish, Heartbreakers, Ghost world, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Kevin and Perry Go Large, and Anita and Me.

She loved her time there but began to feel frustrated as she was missing the creative process which she was writing about on a daily basis. So she took the brave decision to leave and went onto work at Twist & Shout Communications, an award winning Video Production & Digital Agency as a Producer/ Director which was a great place to learn and develop her skills.

In 2007 she took time out to have a child and realised that her experience of the industry and understanding of Actors meant she could specialise in Casting for film. She has cast for a two time BAFTA winner and some projects cast have won the following: SC Awards 2009, ISE 2008 Awards, the Real IT Awards also a highly commended by the IVCA and a bronze for IVCA Best Recruitment Film 2009.

In the last 12 months she has been awarded a place on the Creative Enterprise Scheme at Leicester’s new Phoenix Digital Media Centre as head of her own Production Company Little Narratives where it is her plan to create intelligent, thought provoking works, whether drama or documentary. Brightside is her first such project, a documentary currently in post production which will go to all of the major Film Festivals. Her next project is to pitch to Creative England for consideration to create a feature.

Liz – Musical Theatre

I had a love for music from a very early age when I started to learn playing the piano.  It was very quickly clear that music and performing was who I was. I would sing in my music lessons every week from the age of 4, and when I was 13 I began singing lessons.

This is when I fell in love with musical theatre. I was taking drama, dancing and singing lessons weekly, and at 18 I passed Grade 8 Musical Theatre with Honours.

While auditioning for college I taught at Yamaha Music School where my passion for teaching began, and was also singing in a band. I continued my training as a performer at Stageworks Performing Arts School and was cast in my first role in pantomime playing Dick Whittington on tour. I then landed the role of lead vocalist for Explosive Productions Ltd where I stayed for 3 years working in a variety of big productions and pantomimes.

Not wanting to lose sight of my teaching I began to teach at Stowe School in Buckingham and other performing arts groups locally. I then trained further at The London School of Musical Theatre and got myself an agent soon after graduating. I am now furthering my career in both performance and teaching.
Musical Theatre is my passion and to pass on this enthusiasm to youngsters, and to show them how fantastic a world full of music can be, is very exciting.
I am thrilled to be on board with PQA and look forward to moulding the performers of tomorrow.

Verity – Poppets

I started acting at the young age of 10, performing in Youth Theatre shows in my hometown of Leicester such as Aladdin, Oliver! and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I then went on to complete a Btec First diploma in Performing Arts at Distinction level, followed by a Btec National Diploma in Performing Arts, a HND in Theatre and finally a Second Upper class Degree in Drama at Northampton University.

During this time I was the Managing Director of Banana Drama, a Theatre in Education company in which we toured successfully in Northampton, taking the play The Big Angry Bear and workshops, both written by myself, to children aged 4-8. Most recently I have been running Youth Theatre workshops enabling children to push their imagination whilst learning new skills. Currently I teach A Level Drama and cannot wait to get started with The Poppets at PQA!