Meet the team
"The brilliant, talented and passionate team provide week after week of fun, active and creative workshops... that challenge and inspire young performers."
- Prologue Parent
Lucy
Lucy Betts is a freelance Director, Workshop Facilitator and playwright. Lucy has been working with young people to create theatre for over 15 years.
Lucy won the OffWestEnd award for Best Director in 2022 for her production of Lone Flyer at Jermyn Street Theatre.
Lucy is a Creative Associate at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury. She directed Lone Flyer at the Watermill Theatre as part of their socially distanced Autumn season in 2020, transferring to Jermyn Street at Hull Truck in 2021. Lucy is a visiting director at Rose Bruford College and Guildford School of Acting. In 2018 she was part of the Mid-Career Directing Development Programme at Chichester Festival Theatre, directing Sleeping Beauty in 2018 and The Wizard of Oz in 2019.
As a youth theatre director Lucy has created a varying range of productions – from full scale musicals to studio productions and outdoor promenade performances. She has also written for young performers – including musical adaptations of Just So Stories, The Secret Garden and The Railway Children.
jules
Jules has been a true pioneer of youth theatre for nearly 30 years. Having studied Drama and Education at university, she created a thriving youth theatre from a small existing group at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in 1993.
Since then, she has been directing, devising and running workshops in theatres and schools in the area and has a rich experience of working with and leading young people and practitioners. She has directed over 60 youth theatre productions, working with actors of various ages, performing in studio spaces and large auditoriums. She is also a keen promoter of new writing and has commissioned and directed many original musical premieres, which have since been published.
Jules is also a founding director of Story Pocket Theatre, an award-winning professional family theatre company. She is an important creative force in the company, co-directing many shows that have toured throughout the UK and abroad.
ellie
Ellie is a director, writer and facilitator, who graduated from the Arts University Bournemouth in 2014. Originally training as an actor, Ellie spent 2 years touring Europe and the UK, and from there took on a full time position as a youth theatre director, where her love of working with young people began.
Since then, Ellie has gone on to direct numerous productions, including: Bugsy Malone, Much Ado About Nothing, The Snow Queen and Arthur: From a Boy to a King; as well as writing and producing numerous projects - ranging from full scale musicals, to outdoor theatre.
Ellie has also pioneered several education and outreach projects in schools and local residential care homes, and is passionate about taking theatre out into the community and using it as a tool for learning and wellbeing. She is a Museum of Happiness Facilitator, and applies a nurturing, kind and fun approach to any group she works with.
david
David Perkins has many musical hats, working regularly as a musical director, pianist, composer and music arranger. Since 1994 he has been associated with Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Youth Theatre working on over 70 productions both in Guildford and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As a composer, David has had several musicals published, with many youth/school productions staged throughout the world on every continent with the exception of Antarctica! Professional productions include Re:Creation (St John’s Smith Square), Treasure Island (Leicester Haymarket), Snow Globe (Shakespeare’s Globe) and tours of Just So Stories (Apollo Theatre Co.) and AniMalcolm (Story Pocket Theatre).
After many years working in youth theatre, David is still constantly amazed at the natural musical ability that can be found in children. He believes it is a huge privilege to be part of a team that helps young people develop their artistic skills and to grow in confidence.
adam
Adam Forde has been making theatre with and for young people for more than 35 years. He has worked with and mentored hundreds of young actors, many of whom have gone on to make a career on the professional stage. Adam was at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre for 14 years, directing more than 40 productions in that time and taking shows up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As the Head of the Youth Theatre and Education he presided over one of the busiest and most successful youth theatres in the country.
Adam has written many plays and musicals and his adaptations, with music by David Perkins, of Arabian Nights and The Wind in the Willows are regularly performed around the world.
As a director of award-winning family theatre company, Story Pocket Theatre, Adam has devised, written and co-directed many shows that have toured across the UK and abroad.