Information About Donna - Havant teacher

Personal Description:

Having caught the acting bug at the age of 10, when I played Alice in the school production of Alice in Wonderland, I knew drama and singing were going to play an important role in my life. I promptly joined my local (and extraordinarily ‘professional’) amateur dramatics society. Wishing to progress further, I signed up for drama lessons, leading to successful passes in all my LAMDA exams.
I have now been a professional singer and actress for almost 30 years, during which time I have performed on cruise ships, played a plethora of colourful characters in children’s shows, pantomime and at murder-dinners, and spent 4 years as matriarch, Carol Crombie on tv / Internet soap opera, Chalkhill Lives.

Teaching Experience:

As well as being a platform for gaining experience in screen acting under authentic, professional conditions, Chalkhill Lives was also set up as a school for acting, for which I was recruited as a tutor in performance skills (including warm-ups, characterisation, motivation, objectives, improvisation and script analysis).
I have also given some 1-2-1 guidance to pupils at a local dance school, as well as running a limited number of group workshops during the course of my career.

Teaching Approach:

With 40 years of performance experience, as well as time spent as a tutor, I believe I can teach from the helpful perspective of one who has both knowledge of the theory of drama and real-life experience in the field.
Pupils are encouraged to choose their own scripts or passage of literature, which we will work on by analysing the meaning of the script, and then developing motive, character and delivery.
My motivation for teaching is to help pupils recognise their strengths and develop new skills, gain in confidence, see the world through other people’s eyes, feel uplifted and, perhaps most importantly, have fun!
**Please note that lessons for Under-16s are usually taught in 30 min sessions (charged at £13), and adults in 45 min sessions (£18) as I believe this to be an effective duration for good attention and concentration.