Faculty

Aiden Brooks is a tutor teaching on both the TaP and ALARM programmes, teaching improvisation, devising, street theatre, creative writing, and cabaret. Aiden was once part of a double act Random Acts of Wildness (RAW) who toured the length and breadth of the country receiving critical and acclaim and awards nominations for their anarchic and chaotic style.

Aiden also worked as a freelance performer and has worked with the likes of Told by an Idiot, Spike Theatre, Rejects Revenge, Bad Apple, and Tmesis. Aiden is still active in the profession most notably working with his street theatre company EggPeople and extensively tours, writes, produces, directs, and performs in festivals and events up and down the country and abroad.

Deborah Newton is Head of 3rd Year Theatre and Performance and is a performance artist and practice-led researcher interested in the para-social relationship between performers and audiences. Her performance works are influenced by incorporating a multidisciplinary approach into her performance-making.

She is also freelance artist and workshop facilitator, who has created work for international festivals and also works for various companies including Global Groves and Cabasa Carnival Arts creating various puppetry and street performances at different festivals and carnivals across the country.

Gavin has been a freelance opera singer for the last 20 years, performing in opera, musical theatre and the concert platform. Career highlights include performing the title role in the Savoy Opera’s West End production of The Barber of Seville and singing with Welsh National Opera at the Proms.

Alongside his singing career, Gavin is a well-respected singing coach, regularly working with other professional singers and actors and is in demand as an accompanist for concerts and recitals. He is also very passionate about his work with the national charity, Streetwise Opera where he works as a workshop leader and music director.

Gavin loves his work here at The Arden and feels privileged to be able to help students on their journey to becoming the next generation of professional performers.

Marie started her acting career at The Young Vic Youth Theatre, London after graduating with a degree in English from Liverpool University.

Marie has worked extensively in television where she has performed alongside actors that include Kenneth Branagh, Keeley Hawes, Michael Gambon Stephen Graham, Vicky McClure and Olivia Colman.

Screen credits include JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy (BBC/HBO) BAFTA award winners In The Flesh and Don’t Take My Baby (BBC) The Secret Agent, See No Evil, South Riding,Ripper Street, Wallander and Lilies.

Marie’s theatre work includes A View From The Bridge (West End Birmingham Rep, Bristol Old Vic) The Snow Queen, Jude, William (The Young Vic) Adam Bede,Our Day Out, To Serve Them All My Days (Royal Theatre Northampton) Beautiful Thing ( Bolton Octagon/York Theatre Royal) Can’t Pay Won’t Pay! Brassed Off and Dreamers (Oldham Coliseum)

Marie completed a postgraduate qualification in teaching at Central School Of Speech and Drama and has since trained with international acting coach and Meisner specialist Larry Silverberg and Hollywood acting coach Ron Burrus from The Stella Adler Studio in New York.

TRAINING: The Arden School of Theatre 2005-2008

RACHEL AUSTIN has most recently appeared at E59E Theaters, Broadway, New York in ALL I WANT IS ONE NIGHT and The Royal Exchange Theatre in ALL I WANT IS ONE NIGHT, BLACK ROSES: THE KILLING OF SOPHIE LANCASTER, TAY SHORTS and COME CLOSER. Other theatre credits include: TALKING HEADS (Lichfield Festival), THE UNSUNG (Liverpool Everyman); UGLY DUCK (New Vic Theatre), WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT (Bolton Octagon), WORD PLAY UK Tour (Box of Tricks Theatre), DREAMERS (Oldham Coliseum); MANCHESTER SOUND: THE MASSACRE (Library Theatre), VERBALLY CHALLENGED (Contact Theatre) and I KNOW WHERE THE DEAD ARE BURIED (24:7 Theatre Festival) BE MY BABY (Northface Theatre), SKETCH PISTOLS (Bo Jazz) and ONCE IN A HOUSE ON FIRE (Monkeywood/Edinburgh Festival/The Lowry).

Rehearsed Readings include: Queen Margaret, The Luddites, Frankenstein, Parliament Square, Bruntwood Live Screening, SKYLINES and SCUTTLERS (Royal Exchange Theatre), Baal (HOME), WANTED! ROBIN HOOD (Library Theatre) THE LARAMIRE PROJECT (Hope Theatre Company)

Television credits include: BLACK ROSES: THE KILLING OF SOPHIE LANCASTER (BBC), SCRIMS, HOLYOAKS (LIME PRODUCTIONS) and CORONATION STREET (ITV). 

Film credits include: SIGHTSEERS (BIG TALK) and GIRLSHAPEDLOVEDRUG.

Radio credits include

2019, Hayden, BBC Radio 4 – New Creatives, Naked Productions/BBC Radio 4, Katherine Beacon

2019, Klara/Danuta, RAGE, Naked Productions/BBC Radio 4, Polly Thomas

2018, Corine, HILDA, BBC Radio 4, Susan Roberts

2017, Klara/Rebekah, A Grain Of Truth, BBC Radio 4 / Naked Productions, Polly Thomas

2016, Adele, Emile Zola: Blood, Sex and Money, BBC Radio 4, Pauline Harris

2016, Kayleigh, Port Stories, The Dukes Theatre, Lancaster, Alex Summers

2015, Hanna/Monika, Entanglement, BBC Radio 4, Polly Thomas

2015, Ronnie, Brief Lives (series regular), BBC Radio 4, Gary Brown

2015, Michelle, BOUND, National Prison Radio – BBC Production, Phil Maguire

2015, Laura, The Mark, BBC Radio 4, Pauline Harris

2015, Frankie, The Transfer, BBC Radio 4, Toby Fields

2014, Lily, Keith, BBC Radio 4, Michelle Choudhry

2014, Ronnie BRIEF LIVES (series regular), BBC Radio 4, Gary Brown

2014, Bridget, The Cloistered Soul, BBC Radio 4, Nadia Molinari

2013, Lesley Lomas, Queens of the Coal Age – Maxine Peake, BBC Radio 4/ Savvy Productions, Justine Potter

2013, Ronnie BRIEF LIVES (series regular), BBC Radio 4, Gary Brown

2013, Sara, The Sleeper, BBC Radio 4, Susan Roberts

2013, Leanne, The Early Warning, BBC Radio 3, Nadia Molinari

2012, Marie/Gemma, Craven, RED Productions/BBC Radio 4, Justine Potter

2012, Kitty, A Little Bit of Latitude, BBC Radio 4, Nadia Molinari

2012, Sophie, The Best Queue, BBC Radio 4, Alison Crawford

2012, Various Characters, Schools Radio, BBC Radio, Annabell Greenleaf

2012, Shell, CSI Millionaire, BBC Radio 3, The Verb, Carrie Rooney

2012, Jane, Das Goat, BBC Radio 3, The Verb, Carrie Rooney

2012, Katie, Tomorrow the Catwalk, BBC Radio 4, Susan Roberts

2011, Cara Noakes, Stone – Sleep Tight, BBC Radio 4, Nadia Molinari

2011, Helen, My Generation – Cath’s Story, BBC Radio 3, Susan Roberts

2011, Sky, My Generation – Emma’s Story, BBC Radio 3, Susan Roberts

2011, Receptionist, Everyone quite likes Justin, BBC Radio 4, Steven Canny

2011, Sophie Lancaster, Black Roses : The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, BBC Radio 4, Susan Roberts

Born in New Zealand, Robert arrived in London and studied composition with John Taverner at Trinity College of Music.

Robert began his career playing piano for dance classes and eventually becoming Musical Director for Performances with London Contemporary Dance Company, on tour and seasons at Sadlers Wells.

West End & UK National Tours

His first show as Musical Director for Cameron Mackintosh was on tour with Godspell

His first West End conducting appointment was on Tomfoolery, working with the writer, Tom Lehrer

Other shows as Musical Director and Conductor were Kiss Me Kate, at The Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford,  The Old Vic, and Savoy theatres

Other West End Shows include:

“Y” at The Piccadilly with Arturo Bracchetti, for which he also wrote the score

Annie Get Your Gun at The Aldwych, with Suzie Quattro

Budgie at The Cambridge, with Adam Faith and Anita Dobson, for which he also wrote the dance music for Anthony Van Laast

Phantom of The Opera at Her Majesty’s, with Charlotte Page

Chicago at The Adelphi, with Denise Van Outen and Alison Moyet

Robert also made contributions to Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Song and Dance, Cats and Princess Diana’s Carnival for The Birds Gala at the Royal Opera House.

International

CHESS, 1st National Tour plus Norway, Dublin; New Zealand National Tour with Murray Head and Tommy Korberg

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Palladium Production), 1st National Tour with Philip Schofield, and Aled Jones; Australian National Tour; Southeast Asia Tour; Pinewood film with Donny Osmond

Chicago Lebanon, Cyprus and Kuala Lumpur

The Sound Of Music, Kuala Lumpur

My Fair Lady, Cyprus, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur

A Chorus Line Tel Aviv Opera House, Israel

As composer, as well as writing the original score for “Y” and the Dance score for Budgie, Robert collaborated on ballets and dance for DASH with Wayne Sleep.

Robert wrote four musicals for The Annual Brighton Festival, including The Brighton Belle, with Roger Stennett.

Robert has set The Happy Prince and The Remarkable Rocket by Oscar Wilde as short operas.

A new musical, Gorgeous George is in preparation.

Sandro Franchini is a Performer, Lecturer in Dance and Choreographer from Italy He was born in Turin but trained professionally in Rome at the Roman Ballet School, where he specialised in Modern – Contemporary Dance. He continued his training with many professional classes and workshops in Italy and around the world, including few months at the “Broadway Dance Center” and “Steps Dance School” in New York with a different array of teachers and styles. He started his performing career in Musical Theatre productions such as: “Grease”, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, and “Evita”. He alternated his Theatre work with different commercial dance shows and singers back up dancing on the Italian tv channels “Rai” and “Mediaset”.

He has performed as a featured solo dancer in two major productions: The French show: “Les Dix Commandments” (The Ten Commandments) which took him to tour internationally in Japan, South Korea, Italy and France. He was also in the big musical version of “Tosca – Desperate Love” where he performed as a soloist at the Arena di Verona and in Austria. For one year he was part of the italian dance theatre company called OPLAS. He toured with them across Italy, Spain and Germany. Since moved to the UK in 2006, Sandro has performed on various tv shows, theatre productions, touring concerts and dance companies, including: “Take That: Progress Tour 2011”, “Lily Allen” for “The Brit Awards”, “Opening Act with dance/circus company “Incandescence” for “Beyonce” concerts in 2008, “TMobile Heathrow Airport advert”, “The Muppets movie 2014”, “Dance Theatre of Ireland: The Block Party”, “HSBC anniversary in Dubai”, Royal Opera House productions in Covent Garden including: “Rigoletto”, “Falstaff”, “The Magic Flute”, “Manon” and many more, “Glastonbury festival”, Holland Park Opera festival: “The Magic Flute” and “Carmen” – “South Korea arts festival in 2012”, “Incandescence Circus and Dance Company”, “Punch and Judy” : ENO Young Vic London and Geneva Grand Theatre, “The Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014” and many more. In several of these jobs Sandro had a personal input as an assistant choreographer, a role that made his passion for teaching and choreographing expand even further.

In 2014 he was a part time Lecturer in Dance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, while in 2015/16 he was a full time Lecturer in Dance at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona (IAB). Since graduating from his master’s degree studies in Dance at Liverpool John Moores University, Sandro has been a full time and part time Lecturer in different Universities and Performing Arts Colleges, including, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), Mersey Dance Initiative (MDI). He is currently a full time Lecturer at The Arden School of Theatre in Manchester, and an associate Lecturer at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk.

Simon is movement Tutor on both Theatre and Performance and Acting Programmes, focussing on developing students tools for play, composition, and preparation for physical excellence, utilising the work of such practitioners as Rudolf Laban, Anne Bogart, David Zambrano, John Wright/Jacques Lecoq, and Moshe Feldenkrais. He is passionate about enabling the actor agency over their own physical choices, specificity, and playfulness.

Simon is an award winning theatre maker, movement director and actor, with over 15 years professional experience in the industry. He trained as an actor at East 15 Acting School, with further training in Choreology with Rosemary Brandt (Trinity Laban) and with John Wright in Clown and Mask.

As a movement director Simon has worked extensively across the UK with such companies and theatres as The Almeida Theatre (Shuffle), Paines Plough (Roundabout Season 2018: Sticks and Stones/Island Town/How to Spot an Alien), Everyman Liverpool (To Have To Shoot Irishmen), Theatre Hullabaloo (Bear and Butterfly), Kiln Theatre (community company), Company Three (The Act), Leeds Playhouse (Influence).

Simon is associate artist and creative collaborator with the physical theatre company, Tangled Feet Theatre, having performed in almost all of their productions since 2011 touring nationally. He is also associate artist with the physical story-telling company Angel Exit Theatre, and game theatre company Upstart Theatre. Upstart Theatre produced Simon’s most recent piece, Marco, a highly physical solo piece, which toured nationally and to Vaults Festival 2019, supported by Arts Council England.

"Jones … is fantastic throughout. He’s engaging and funny, physically powerful and precise, as he moves from performing the role of slightly erratic and nervous tour-guide to offering personal reflections or becoming completely adsorbed in blissful admiration. He’s an impressive performer who enraptures the audience…"
Review of Marco, Exeunt Magazine, 2018.

As an actor and performer, Simon has Toured internationally and worked with such theatres and companies as The RSC (Wendy and Peter Pan), Soho Theatre (This Much), Royal and Derngate (Flathampton), Theatre Hullabaloo (Bear and Butterfly), Shoreditch Town Hall (DARE festival/Marco/The Situation Room),Battersea Arts Centre (Attempts on Her Life), Viennas English Theatre (Dance Class), Oval House (His Spread Legs), The Dukes (Astonishing Vacuum Cleaner Adventure), The National Theatre (All That is Solid Melts Into Air), Bath Theatre Royal (Therese Raquin), and more.

Before joining the team at The Arden, Simon taught movement and directed at Oxford School of Drama, East 15 Acting School, Identity, Central School, and ALRA North.

Simon is currently working towards a new large scale outdoor show, The Local: A Skatepark Project. This piece is supported by The Lawrence Batley Theatre, MGC Futures Award (2019 bursary award recipient), Stockton ARC, and Theatre in The Mill.