Inside Anna Scher's theatre as children who became actors pay tribute
In their own words, “Anna’s kids” were a bit rough around the edges. They weren’t kids with plummy voices and the self-confidence to match. They certainly didn’t tend to be jazz hands kids, the kids of thespians, or luvvies.
The children who attended Anna Scher’s theatre school in Islington, North London, founded in 1968, were generally working class, and with little intention of becoming actors or famous. In the 1960s, in fact, some could barely read. Yet scores of them, taught by the industry legend who died last week aged 78, went on to become Britain’s biggest and brightest names in TV and film.
Among this Who’s Who of entertainment are Kathy Burke, Martin and Gary Kemp, Patsy Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya, Linda Robson and Adam Deacon. All agree they wouldn’t be where they are today without this indomitable Irish Jewish woman who nurtured their confidence, cherished their class and roots and allowed them to shine.
Anna with pupils outside the theatre in London in 1977 (Getty Images)Another student, EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy, 40, who like the rest paid pocket money for Anna’s tuition, says she will always feel grateful. “For three hours a week I felt like I mattered, along with everybody else in the room,” she told the Mirror. “Anna took me under her wing, and was stern, but kind.
“She saw something within this funny looking little eight-year-old that no one else did. Without Anna Scher I wouldn’t be where I am. Anna’s kids have something others don’t. It’s a raw, ‘I am who I am, I’m nothing special but I’ll give it a go’. We don’t have airs or graces. We are very grateful and thankful.”
Six teachers open up on 'difficult' strike decision - and why they are doing it
Fellow Albert Square star Patsy Palmer, 51, feels the same. “Most of us kids would’ve never had the opportunity to be actors or writers,” she wrote in her tribute. “She gave us that.”
The educator working with some of her pupils in 1971 (Getty Images)Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, 64, who attended with brother Martin and returned to Anna’s tuition in adulthood when they moved from music to acting, agreed he was also given unique support. “She gave so many local Islington kids an opportunity not just to act in TV, film and theatre, but to discover what was great about themselves,” he said.
“Her method was praise framed by good ethics, professionalism and punctuality. Children bereft of compliments and self-belief were changed, lifted by her belief in the poetry of the arts and the power of goodwill.” And the industry loved them. They stood out, bringing a realism to roles others couldn’t.
The school magazine from the 1970s (Alamy Stock Photo)“If they were doing gritty dramas and needed real kids rather than stage-school, jazz hands kids, they often came to us,” explained Birds of a Feather star Linda Robson, 65, whose co-star Pauline Quirke was also a student. Anna grew up in Cork, Ireland the daughter of a dentist who insisted his girl should not be an actress despite her love of drama.
The family moved to Hove, East Sussex when she was 14 and she later attended the Brighton School of Music and Art, but her father wanted her to do something “socially useful”. After a spell as a local journalist, she started teaching. Drama classes in a library and a bingo hall followed before, in 1975, she formed Anna Scher Theatre at a church in Islington.
Anna Scher (left) with Kathy Burke in 2011 (PA)
Natalie Cassidy as Sonia Jackson in EastEnders (BBC)In those early years, the classes spiralled to 70 pupils paying 10p a session. Ages ranged from six to 60s. There “is no upper age limit”, she said. Anna didn’t hold auditions, but had a waiting list that once stretched to 5,000.
She strove for the best, but that wasn’t about fame or fortune. “We do not tolerate hubristic behaviour here,” she told a class in the Nineties. “Being an actor is just a job. Compared to being a midwife, it is really nothing and you should all remember that.”
(DAILY MIRROR)If her kids were unorthodox and unlikely future actors, Anna was unorthodox, too. Her kids had to live by the five P words: punctuality, preparation, presentation, practice and positive. But at the heart of her teaching was another, peace – and she would take this to Northern Ireland, Israel and Rwanda, through her “peace classes”.
Back home, she sensed in the working class kids she taught a raw potential often mixed with resentment, which she sought to channel. She said: “I got rid of their anger by doing improvisation, and then we have an olive branch to make up.” Improvisation was useful for those who couldn’t read. “It was an effective way of character training,” she said.
Sumotherhood writer, director and actor Adam Deacon, 40, then a kid from Hackney, told the Mirror: “If it wasn’t for Anna I really don’t know what I’d be doing with my life. I owe that woman everything. She took kids from a bad start in life and gave us real hope and a sense of achievement.”
Dominic Raab could resign to avoid investigation into bullying, accusers fear
Starting classes with a football rattle, citing from Winston Churchill, quoting heroes such as Martin Luther King and Anne Frank, her lack of convention cut through where regular school didn’t. “It wasn’t just a drama school. It was a LIFE school,” recalls Natalie. “Not only were you immersed in improvisation, singing and movement, you learnt about peace and war, equality, freedom. You learnt respect. I learnt about Winston Churchill and Maya Angelou. I made dear friends from different walks of life.”
The whoops another pupil, Oscar-winning Judas and the Black Messiah star Daniel Kaluuya, 34, ignited when he thanked Anna in his speech on accepting the Rising Star award at the 2018 BAFTAs said it all. As does the tribute from Kathy Burke, 59. Describing her first class with Anna aged 15 – before being cast in 1982 borstal drama Scrubbers – she wrote: “You’ve never felt like this before. You’ve never respected and loved a teacher like this before. In the shortest amount of time, this magnificent woman has become your everything.”
There was just something about Anna. Something that ensured space for the working classes within British acting – and which transformed it.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
