ABOUT
A unique and professionally led three-hour acting school for young people who love acting. Best Acting Students develop personal creativity and confidence though improvisation, professional skills like acting for camera and advanced acting techniques through performance styles.
3 tutors from the acting industry run weekly sessions, with three age-appropriate groups, purely based around acting and performance. Each hour focuses on building a well rounded actor (detailed description below).
Each term there are specialist weeks run by guest tutors. These have included: Stage combat, Make up for stage and screen (including special effects), Physical Theatre, Puppetry (War Horse), Masks, Comedy, Clowning, Shakespeare, Devising, and Circus Skills.
This course is excellent for young people looking to improve their acting skills, enter into the acting profession and those studying GCSE or A'level Drama. We also support students applying for scholarships, drama school or attending auditions.
Each student will take part in a termly monologue slam, yearly performance for family and friends and a yearly tutorial where they can discuss their development and aspirations with their coaches.
TIMES
Saturdays
2pm - 5pm
LOCATION
Sandringham School, The Ridgeway
St Albans, AL4 9NX
Best School of Acting
Ages 8 - 18
Acting for theatre film and tv
AGE RANGE
Age 8 - 18
Too young? Check out our Best Beginners Course or Best School of Musical Theatre.
Want something more performance focussed? Check out our Best Youth Theatre.
FEES
Termly fee of £360 split into four monthly instalments of £90. Childcare vouchers accepted, sibling and multi class booking discounts available.
BOOK
Book your place or two week trial here:
Best School of Acting
Personal Development
The skills developed in this class are for life and not just performing! Through advanced level improvisation and games this session develops confidence, communication, concentration, quick thinking, motivation, positivity, creativity and sociability. Short and long form improvisation and improvisation for devising and performance are all included in our weekly classes.
Best School of Acting
Performance Development
A wide and varied class culminating in a yearly performance. Different acting and production styles are explored from classical theatre to the modern and absurd, from scripted pieces to devised work. Voice projection, accents, and physical skills are key areas that actors need to develop and acting games and exercises are programmed to enhance these areas.
Best School of Acting
Professional Development
Tutors from the industry encourage students to develop their professional acting skills and support young actors' understanding of the acting profession. Weekly classes focus on naturalistic acting techniques including acting for film and television. Audition and interview techniques, monologues, support for drama school, and information about the career are also included.
We hire skilled, committed and family orientated theatre professionals with a real passion for teaching. We value consistency and a progressive, structured approach. We know that it is Best’s responsibility to provide the framework in which the teachers can thrive – loving what they do and being able to pass that enjoyment in bucket loads on to the students.
Meet The Team
Best School of Acting
LOLLY PLATT
Lolly Platt is an actor, singer, dancer; specialising in improvisation, devised theatre and jazz. After training in Musical Theatre at READ College and Trinity Laban, Lolly went on to train in Improv performance and teaching under Seamus Allen, leading to her becoming deputy Improv teacher at Read College. During her time teaching and training at Read College, she was also rehabilitating from a sudden onset of a nuerological disorder. Though extremely challenging, the valuable lessons it taught her of finding new ways of creating and existing are some that she wishes to pass onto her students.
Her latest credits include: ‘Sweet Egg/Cloud’ in Children’s puppetry musical THE GRUMBLE CAT; ‘Diana’ in THE DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM REGRETS TO INFORM YOU… ; ‘Singing Student’ and voiceover artist in Trinity College London’s infomercial; and Dancer in ‘Venice Film Award’ winning short DESIGNATION LIMBO. Lolly has also worked as a dancer, actor, singer and choreographer in a variety of smaller projects. Lolly and her Assistance Dog Koda have a deep passion for accessibility in the arts. At the core of her teaching is a continuous reminder that young people can always belong in the arts, no matter their background or so-called ‘limitations’ and should be who they are unapologetically.
REBECCA BRILEY
Rebecca Briley trained in Physical Theatre at East 15 Acting School, BA (hons), during which time she mastered a range of techniques including mask and mime, Theatre in Education, puppetry and movement but found a particular interest in storytelling and clowning.
Since graduating, Beckie has performed across a variety of platforms including Film and TV as well as devising her own work for stage, and has collaborated with many theatre companies as an assistant choreographer. She has also been lucky enough to work with multiple TIE companies in the UK and in Italy, where she began to fall in love with teaching and facilitating specialised workshops for all ages.
In 2013, Beckie became a member of ‘The Flying Seagull Project’, a UK based Children’s Charity whose aim is to spread joy and laughter to those who need it most across the globe through circus, clown and play. With several years of humanitarian clowning under her belt, she became a core team leader and facilitated activities for displaced children and families on the ground in Calais, Greece and Lebanon.
CATHERINE LOMAX
Catherine has worked both on-stage and behind the scenes as an Actor, Producer, Director and Writer.
Having studied at the University of Hull she trained under Alan Ayckbourn at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and has worked in Theatre, TV and Film since graduating.
Catherine has run her own touring theatre company and been the Artistic Director of the Gordon Craig Theatre for over ten years. She has experience of working on plays, pantomime and musicals as well as heading up a large education department working with young people aged between 3 and 18 years old.
Catherine writes musicals with award-winning choreographer Khiley Williams and West End Musical Director Phil Dennis. Together they have written over twenty musicals that tour nationwide.
Catherine can be heard as one of the Showbiz panellist for BBC 3 Counties and is also one half of the Post Show Drinks Podcast interviewing team for Encore Radio in which West End stars spill all the behind the scenes tales.
HARRY BOYD
Harry Boyd trained at University of Exeter and Guildford School of Acting. He has been a private tutor and drama teacher for over five years for children aged 8 - 18 and also for adult groups with St Albans based companies and theatres. Harry's key areas of study are in Naturalism, focussing chiefly on practitioners such as Stanislavski and Declan Donnellan, Improvisation as a Rehearsal Technique with a focus on John Abbot's teachings, and Approaches to Screen Acting and its fundamental contrast to theatre. Last but certainly not least, Comedy and Clowning are also one of Harry's biggest passions, from the refined wit of Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare, to the unbridled chaos of Michael Frayn, Mischief Theatre and...Shakespeare! Encouraging and building his students to let go of their fear of "failure" within a supportive and safe environment is at the core of Harry's approach, with the belief that every step to success of any degree is steeped in "getting it wrong".
As a professional actor, Harry's theatre credits include Disney’s Winnie the Pooh (Riverside Studios and UK & Ireland Tour), The Play That Goes Wrong (UK Tour), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (UK Tour) and Free (Southwark Playhouse). Film work includes Point of No Return (Fire in the Hole Productions) and Midas (HyneSight Films). Harry has also worked on commercials for BT Sport, ASDA and UREF as well as voice work including Cold Dawn (Audible) and Wild Glades (Arc Biodiversity and Climate).
LISA SCHULBERG
Lisa’s spent her lifetime in the arts and is passionate about the positive effects it can have on us all. As a professional actress, Lisa toured extensively for 7 years across the UK and Europe in acting roles, from Shakespeare to Soap Opera, in Stratford Upon Avon and Manchester to London. Lisa’s career highlight was 100 shows playing Marianne Dashwood in the stage premier of Sense and Sensibility. Whilst building up her TV and film work, presenting for BBC London, and playing a lead in a British Television Award winning film, Lisa began teaching and directing.
Lisa taught Acting, Voice Theory and LAMDA for Italia Conti for 8 years and has directed and run numerous youth theatres including Snap, Trestle, and our now twice National Theatre Connections selected Best Youth Theatre.
After working on numerous mental health and wellbeing projects for theatre companies, councils and charities as a performer, writer, director and workshop facilitator Lisa set up Tip of the Iceberg Theatre Company in 2007, with the aim to involve, inform and inspire people to lead happier lives, her work and mental wellbeing and relationship projects have reached over ½ million young people.
Lisa's husband Drew is an ex-trapeze performer, circus expert and engineer who often helps on our set designs and builds.