Introduction to acting

Jayne worked for sixteen years as an actor. Since 2001, she has been teaching, and has also directed numerous theatre productions including professional and student shows. Here at City Lit, she has the responsibility for overseeing the Acting and Theatre program and is course leader for Level 3 accredited training. She has directed on several occasions for City Lit Theatre Company, and teaches classes in Improvisation, text work and audition technique, from beginners to advanced levels. Jayne is extremely passionate and thrives on the connections that actors and students make when engaging deeply with the work and each other. In each of her classes, she is keen to build a feeling of community that parallels acting in the theatre. This creates an excellent platform to realise the full potential of each of her students. She will encourage you to be brave and supportive of one another, whatever the stage of your acting journey.

Gemma is an experienced acting teacher and theatre director. She has run her own company and worked on productions of different scales, including many drama school productions. Her recent production of To Have to Shoot Irishmen by Lizzie Nunnery ran at Omnibus Theatre in October 2018, gaining 4-star reviews in The Guardian and The Stage, before a national tour including dates at the Liverpool Everyman. In November 2017 Gemma was the second recipient of the Air B2B residency offered by People’s Palace Projects and the British Council, and spent a month in Rio de Janeiro as the artist in residence at Casa Rio. Gemma is an Associate Artist of Omnibus Theatre, and Associate Director of Forward Theatre Project. She runs High Hearted Theatre with Marcelo Dos Santos and works as a Script Reader for the Literary Department at the Royal Court Theatre London and for the Bruntwood Prize. Gemma is an Associate Teacher at RADA, and also teaches and directs at City Lit and Identity School of Acting. She is a commissioned artist for Mothers Who Make, developing a podcast about taboos surrounding women’s bodies.