The Actors’ Workshop Teaching Team
CLARA MARULLO
Founder/Co-Director
Clara founded The Actors’ Workshop sixteen years ago, building it into a nationally known centre of excellence: getting over 80% of students into BA/MA courses at accredited drama schools every year. A hugely experienced voice specialist and acting tutor, she has mentored generations of young performers across both acting and musical theatre.
Clara received a degree in English Literature from Oxford University, then trained for three years post-grad as a singer at the Royal Academy of Music. She started out in opera, playing principal roles for Welsh National Opera (all over the UK, at the Royal Opera House, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Teatro Lirico, Milan) and at Glyndebourne Festival opera before moving into musical theatre. Roles include Fantine in Les Mis, Emma in the world premiere of Orphans and Jenny Lind in Barnum (West End, UK and international tours). Clara subsequently married an American and lived in New York for ten years, where she focused on classical/contemporary theatre. She worked as a cabaret artist in the UK, USA and Japan. Clara has various TV roles, commercials and voiceovers to her credit, both in the USA and the UK.
An Estill-trained singing teacher, Clara has years of experience training both singers and actors. Many of her students have gone on to do principal roles in the West End and several have been Sondheim Award finalists. This expertise also extends to voice work and (combined with her literary training) manifests in a particular affinity for language –especially classical verse.
Over the years, Clara has written and directed numerous plays and musicals for children; these range from adaptations of Shakespeare to original work. She is currently working on rewrites of Shooting Icebergs - a new play for The Actors’ Playground theatre company, which Clara founded in 2019 as a means for seasoned pros and emerging actors to collaborate in the creation of new work.
Always seeking to expand her understanding of acting and theatre-making, Clara travelled to India in 2019 to participate in the Adishakti Theatre Laboratory’s ‘Source of Performance Energy’ training for actors.
JENNIFER HIGHAM
Co-Director
Jen is a force of nature! As well as an impressive CV as an actor, Jen is also a qualified and experienced dancer and dance teacher.
In addition to her new leadership role, which will enhance and renew everything we do, Jen teaches acting and movement at The Actors’ Workshop; since joining the team six years ago, she has taken our physical work to new levels and has encouraged a wonderful sense of exploration and play in our students. Married to Dan Winter, Jen brings us a sharp eye, wonderful skills as a director and choreographer - and her amazing energy!
Jen got a place at RADA straight out of school but was unable to go because she was working with David Tennant in The Pillowman at the National Theatre. RADA – uncharacteristically – deferred her place…but the following year, Jen was cast as Olive in Ella Enchanted. (Miramax 2004.) So she kept working and learning on the job.
Theatre includes Juliet at the Rose Theatre, Swallows and Amazons (Titty) at Bristol Old Vic, Viola for GB Theatre Company, Viola and Juliet for Actors From The London Stage; Winter, Three Farces, Alison’s House and The Woman Hater at the Orange Tree Theatre and Rope at the Watermill.
Jen has appeared extensively in film and television, including Crooked House as Ruth (2 episodes), Cassandra's Dream as Helen, Doctors, Persuasion as Louisa Musgrove, Born and Bred as Amy Marl, Gideon's Daughter as Girl playing Richard III, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies and I Shouldn't Be Alive as Jennifer.
Jen has cast and directed for Actors From the London Stage, for whom she has also taught extensively on BA and MA programmes at US universities. She was a core member of staff at Jackie Palmer Stage School for several years.
Jen started her own online dance/fitness programme at the start of the pandemic, which has become immensely popular, with people participating from all over the country.
Dan Winter
Dan joined The Actors’ Workshop eight years ago. He is a fantastic and energetic tutor whose dynamic and truthful approach to text and character, combined with an emphasis on play and a positive, empowering personality makes him a huge favourite with the students.
Dan trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Theatre includes: Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth (Actors From The London Stage), Comedy Of Errors, Richard II, Uncle Vanya, Antony & Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Pericles, Three Sisters, Macbeth, The Changeling, Troilus and Cressida, As You Like It (Shakespeare At The Tobacco Factory) I Remember Green, Rabbit Ears, Pavement (Theatre West), Henry V (Theatre Boudin), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (RNT), A Doll’s House (SWAN), Treasure Island, Five Sides of a Circle, Circus (Tobacco Factory), Trade It! (SOS), The Tempest (New Wolsey Theatre), As You Like It (Arundel), Oedipus (Tour), Othello (Wycombe Swan), Black/White, Have A Go Hero, Pericles, Oh What A Lovely War (Bristol Old Vic).
TV, Film and Radio includes: Frankie (BBC), The Story Of Tracy Beaker (CBBC), The Great Escape (ITV), Breaking the Chains (BBC), The Quest for Infinity (Green Umbrella), When We Were Heroes (Suited & Booted) Crisis, Zauberjackl, The Tinner’s Corpse, Dixon of Dock Green, I Left My Heart in 1960! (Radio 4).
An experienced and dynamic tutor, Dan has taught both BTEC and Foundation Diplomas at The Big Act, is the head of acting at the Bath Academy of Musical Theatre (foundation course) and has worked in education outreach for Shakespeare At The Tobacco Factory and The Watermill in Newbury. As a member of Actors From The London Stage, Dan has taught extensively at universities in the USA – both on BA and MA programmes – and has run Shakespeare workshops in federal prisons.
Alice Barclay
Over the past 25 years Alice has worked as an actor for numerous theatres & companies including the RSC, the National Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, the Orange Tree, Salisbury Playhouse, the Newbury Watermill, Finborough, Trestle, Battersea Arts Centre, Eastern Angles, Theatre West, Forest Forge, Kilter, Roustabout & Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory.
She has often been part of developing new writing or new ways of performing Classical work, most recently at the Bristol Old Vic for Headlong & in the past at the NT studio, the RSC, Theatre West, Soho Theatre & Exeter Bikeshed amongst others. She was an original cast member & part of the R&D process for War Horse (NT & West End) & The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic & West End).
She recently appeared in the ITV dramas A Spy Among Friends & The Long Call; other TV work includes Emmerdale, Doctors & Casualty.
Alice is a founding member of Live Canon, a live poetry theatre company who she regularly works with in London & across the UK. She has recorded several audio CDs for Live Canon as well as nearly 20 audio books for the Calibre Audio Library.
As a theatre practitioner & teacher she worked for many years at Shakespeare’s Globe leading workshops, facilitating theatre work in schools & directing teachers & students in Shakespeare’s plays. She has also been part of RSC education events, the NYT & is a frequent facilitator for Tender Arts & Education in the South West.
She has led courses for young people at the Tobacco Factory & Bristol Old Vic as well as leading term-long programmes for the Bristol Old Vic adult company & the Engage programme at Theatre Royal Bath.
Alice is a qualified Iyengar Yoga Teacher & teaches classes online & at the Yogaloft in Bristol.
Andy Cryer
A Yorkshire man by birth, Andy was our first hire: he joined The Actors’ Workshop teaching team in 2006 and has been with us ever since. Andy studied at Harrogate College of Arts and Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He has been a professional Actor for over 30 years, performing seasons for the RSC, The Globe, National Theatre, Royal Court & the country’s leading Repertory Theatres. He has worked regularly in Film, TV & Radio.
Andy has been associated with Northern Broadsides Theatre Company for most of their 25 Year history. Starting as a young actor playing the role of Puck in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, to becoming an Associate Artist & working as Assistant Director alongside Barrie Rutter (founder & Artistic Director) and with Conrad Nelson (Associate Director). Andy was part of the company’s award-winning production of ‘Othello’. A joint production with the West Yorkshire Playhouse, starring Lenny Henry in the title role. The production toured nationally before transferring to the West End.
Other career highlights include playing the role of Eric Morecambe in the National tour of the Olivier award winning best comedy ‘The Play What I Wrote’. Playing Caesar in ‘Antony & Cleopatra’ at the International Theatre of Ideas in the USA, as well as a Royal Performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in Thailand. Andy has worked regularly at his hometown theatre in Scarborough, The Stephen Joseph Theatre. He has been part of Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s Company performing in Alan’s revivals of ‘Season’s Greetings’ & ‘Henceforward’ and the World Premieres of ‘The Karaoke Theatre Company’, ‘Consuming Passions’ & ‘The Divide’.
Andy is currently a part-time lecturer at Leeds College of Music teaching on the BA Acting and BA Actor/Musicianship courses.
In addition to his ongoing work at The Actors’ Workshop over the past fifteen years, Andy worked closely with the Education Department during his time with the RSC and was responsible for devising and running workshops for many of Northern Broadsides productions.
Tom Sherman
Tom Sherman received a degree from Aberystwyth University before going on to train as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Tom’s early career was spent in musicals at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre appearing in four successive productions during his university career. He then embarked on a rich and varied work life including two Christmas seasons at the Stephen Joseph Theatre under the direction of Sir Alan Ayckbourn and appearing in seven seasons with Andrew Hilton’s Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory. He has also appeared in productions at The Bike Shed Theatre, The Ustinov, Bristol Old Vic, Theatr Clwyd and on national and schools’ tours. He has performed in many radio dramas and provided voice over for BBC Radio 3 and 4 and Channel 4.
Tom has written, directed and produced shows for young audiences from early years performances to pantomimes for his own company – Creaking Door Productions.
Tom went back to school becoming a qualified teacher and getting a MA in Professional Theatre Practice from Staffordshire University. He is course leader in Performing and Production Arts at Wiltshire Creative (Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury Arts Centre and Salisbury International Arts Festival) and directs Shakespeare text projects at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
James Anderson
James joined our teaching team several years ago as a cover teacher and has gone on to become a hugely valued member of our core team. An intensely physical and playful actor, James is a wonderfully kind and positive teacher whose Mindfulness training is always an asset in supporting our students. A prolific writer, director and deviser, James directs our theatre-in-education tour every year.
James trained as and actor at Arts Educational Schools. After graduating, alongside working as a musician, James helped set up and run The Pelican Theatre in Stroud. As well as running adult workshops at the theatre he worked with FreeFall Theatre both as a director and performer.
James went on to study drama at Bristol University after which he performed with several companies in and around the West Country including Shakespeare At The Tobacco Factory , BareBones Theatre and Theatre West.
After the birth of his second child and the subsequent need for a stable income, in 2001/2002 James qualified as a teacher and took a job at Bristol Cathedral Choir School, where he went on to become Head of Drama. His children now grown, James left full-time teaching and returned to acting in 2018. He toured with Cheryl Stapleton’s company Learning Through Theatre and directed two of his own plays in a warehouse space in Bristol.
As well as his teaching skills, James has become invaluable to The Actors’ Workshop and The Actors’ Playground as a highly-skilled theatre technician and lighting designer.
Noah Marullo
Noah grew up with The Actors’ Workshop and then trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 2021.
As a child he played Gus in Tracy Beaker Returns & The Dumping Ground, BBC; Billy in Free Agents (dir. James Griffiths), Channel 4 and Shy Boy in Last Chance Harvey (dir. Joel Hopkins), Overture Films.
Roles at Guildhall include: Matt in Mr Burns, A Post-Electric Play (dir. Chelsea Walker), Elia/Plague Doctor in All Your Houses (dir. Barrel Organ), Company in Pod (dir. Jamie Bradley & Vicki Igbokwe), Ivan in Barbarians (dir. Oliver Dimsdale & Victoria Moseley) and Bring Me the Head of Alfio Marullo (written/dir. Noah Marullo)
Noah played Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest and Cassio in Othello for Changeling Theatre in 2022. He toured with The Duke’s Theatre Company, playing Malvolio in Twelfth Night.
Recent work includes The Time Machine for Original Theatre (Park Theatre, London, and national tour) which was nominated for an Olivier Award, and Wristwatch/Fallen Angel in The Nethernauts.
Alison Reid
Alison trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has gained recognition for her performances in her one woman show, an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s An Elephant in the Garden which in 2020 played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA having successfully toured for five years around the UK including the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Globe Theatre, Northcott Theatre, Bristol Old Vic Studio, Tobacco Factory Theatres, Vaults Festival and Edinburgh Festival, Underbelly 2018.
Alison has worked with leading theatre-makers and story-tellers including Robert Lepage, Tim Supple, Melly Still, Philippa Lowthorpe, David Fielding and Adrian Noble. Theatre includes Filter Theatre Company (Macbeth) Royal Shakespeare Company (Tales from Ovid, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Family Reunion, A Warwickshire Testimony, The Park, Bill - RSC Fringe/Live Theatre Newcastle), Bristol Old Vic (Macbeth, Cyrano de Bergerac, My Front Line) National Theatre (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) where she also played Jo-Jo in Michael Morpurgo’s Jo-Jo the Melon Donkey, Dorchester Arts/ Poonamallee Productions’ A Pure Woman and the Rose Theatre Studio (Bolingbroke in Richard II.) Alison regularly performs with Michael Morpurgo around the UK in a concert performance version of The Mozart Question.
Alison has recorded numerous BBC Radio Dramas and Audiobooks. Her television work includes: Bafta Award winning drama Three Girls, Five Daughters, Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Project, Neverwhere, Cyderdelic. Films include: The Heart of Me (BBC Films) and What You Will (Filter Theatre/Fluidity Films).
Special Adjunct Teachers
(Who regularly teach special classes/masterclasses at The Actors’ Workshop and are absolutely incredible practitioners.)
Gerard Logan
Monthly Shakespeare Intensives plus Masterclasses.
With his deep knowledge of the craft of acting in general and playing Shakespeare in particular, Gerard is an incredible asset. A passionate and gifted teacher who freelances everywhere from RADA to Tring Park, he takes our students’ work to the next level in every lesson.
Gerard trained at RADA where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal.
Credits include: leading roles in tv, film, radio and classical and contemporary theatre roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company (where he received an Olivier Award nomination), the National Theatre, in the West End, with numerous leading provincial theatres and in film, TV and radio.
Gerard won The Stage Newspaper’s Best Solo Performer Award at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival for his performance in Shakespeare’s great narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece which, alongside Wilde Without the Boy and The Ballad of Reading Gaol he is currently touring internationally. He recently won the Best Actor award at the 2014 Buxton Fringe Theatre Festival for his performance in Wilde Without the Boy.
Bryn Holding
Monologues and Masterclasses
Bryn graduated from LIPA in 2008 with a first class degree in acting, and now works both as an actor and as a director.
Acting credits include include work with the RSC, New Vic, Royal Exchange, Derby Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Theatre By The lake, Tobacco Factory/Myrtle Theatre Co, York Theatre Royal/Pilot Theatre Co, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Liverpool Everyman.
Bryn is associate director of Hammerpuzzle Theatre Co, Associate Artist for the Theatre Royal Bath and was resident Assistant Director at the New Vic Theatre (2016-2017). His directing work includes: Across the Sky (Opera - Cheltenham Festivals) The Sloe Pickers, The Arrivals (Theatre Royal Bath, The Egg ) The Velveteen Rabbit, Tales of Hans Christian Andersen and The Old Curiosity Shop (Hammerpuzzle Theatre Co / Everyman Theatre Cheltenham), On The Mend (Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham), Common Lore (Award winning - Breakthrough Performance Rural Touring Awards 2019 for Stute Theatre/ Northern Broadsides) , Little Potatoes, Tossers, (Out Of Your Mind New Writing Festival, Theatre Royal, Bath), Just Soph, (Stute Theatre/New Vic Tour) Tail Trail to The Snow Queen (New Vic Theatre, Studio), The Woodlanders (Everyman Theatre Cheltenham / Hammerpuzzle Theatre Co); King John (Hammerpuzzle Theatre Co, commissioned by Theatre Royal Bath); Dogs of War (Theatre Royal Bath, Engage); Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors (Greenwich Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream ;(UK Tour, Sell a Door); Did My Heart Love Till Now? (Bristol Shakespeare Festival) Player One Vs The World (Theatre 503).
Bryn regularly works as a guest acting lecturer both in the UK and Norway. He recently led the Adult Theatre School for the Theatre Royal Bath's Engage Programme and is currently a guest director at Birmingham Conservatoire and on Staffordshire University's BA Acting programme.
Paul Dudbridge
Screen Acting Course Leader
Paul Dudbridge is a director and producer, making feature films, television, and commercials.
With over 20 years experience in the business, Paul has numerous film and television credits to his name. His first broadcast credits include producing and directing ITV's 'The Christmas Storybook', featuring legendary actor Joss Ackland, as well as directing music promos for MTV.
As a producer and director, he helmed the science-fiction series, “Horizon”, which went on to win a number of awards at international film festivals, as well as earning him a Best Drama Director nomination at the Royal Television Society awards in 2016.
In 2022 he co-produced and directed a feature film based on H.G. Wells’s classic novel, The Invisible Man, titled “Fear the Invisible Man”. The following year Paul co-produced and directed the gothic feature film, “Frankenstein: Legacy” which was also released worldwide. His next film is a supernatural-western titled “The Legend of Dead Men's Gold”.
Paul has been teaching for over 20 years and when not filming, he guest lectures at various universities and colleges around the country. Most recently, he ran the 'Writing and Directing' module for the Masters course at the University of Bristol, supervised final year projects for students at the University of West London, taught Cinematography at Falmouth Film School, and Advanced Cinematography workshops for BECTU, the UK's media and entertainment trade union. Paul also taught Acting for Camera at the ITV West Television Workshop for 10 years.
His first book, Shooting Better Movies: The Student Filmmakers' Guide, was released in 2017. His second book, Making Your First Blockbuster is aimed at the more intermediate/professional film-maker and was released in 2019.