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Guildhall's energy was so unique and captivating… you're constantly discovering more versatility, truth, power and imagination in your acting

Amber James
BA Acting 2015

The teachers are experienced, passionate, supportive and down to the very core committed to your growth as an actor

Nicholas Richardson
MA Acting 2016

At Guildhall, they don't hold your hand, but they're going to push you to become the actor that you want to be.

Daniel Adeosun
BA Acting

Studying at Guildhall is really cool because you are in a setting where the arts are valued by an entire community

Natasha Mbwana
BA Performance & Creative Enterprise

One of the best things about PACE is it's very experiential - you are not just thinking about the theory of it but you are actually putting in the work and you get to experience both sides of it.

Natasha Mbwana
BA Performance & Creative Enterprise

Home > Drama > Programmes > BA (Hons) Performance & Creative Enterprise > Tutors

BA Performance & Creative Enterprise Tutors

Gilly Roche, Head of Interdisciplinary Practice

Gilly read Hispanic Studies at the University of Glasgow, with a focus on radical socialist Catalan theatre under Franco. She is an established producer of contemporary theatre, specialising in professional development, artistic strategy and creating risk-ready multi-disciplinary events.

As well as working as a producer, she has developed partnerships with and delivered training to students from a range of Higher Education institutions, including the University of Glasgow, York University, Leeds College of Music, Leeds University and Birkbeck University.

Most recently, she was New Work Producer at Leeds Playhouse. During her tenure in Leeds, new work developed by the Playhouse won or was nominated for two Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Awards; multiple Fringe Firsts; the Stage Special Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Playwriting.

Originally from Glasgow, Gilly has worked as a producer with the National Theatre of Scotland, the Citizens Theatre and freelance and as a graphic designer in Barcelona and San Francisco.

Module Leaders

Gail Macleod

Gail is a co-director of Soundcastle and graduate of the Leadership Masters at Guildhall. Gail works as a performer, composer, collaborator and recorder specialist. Gail loves to create new music and believes that everyone has a musical and creative contribution to make that is both valuable and interesting. As a member of Consortium5, Gail has performed at Kings Place, the Purcell Room, the Spitalfields Festival and the Barbican alongside making regular appearances on Radio 3’s In Tune.

Detta Danford

Detta Danford is a flute player, composer and project leader whose work involves collaborating, performing and creating new work with ensembles and orchestras and within theatre, film and the visual arts. She is co-founder of contemporary music ensemble Jetsam, whose most recent projects involved collaborations with writer and blogger Gareth E. Rees and actor, poet and director Tanroh Ishida. She has recently worked with the Southbank Centre, Barbican Centre, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. As well as teaching at the Guildhall School she is also a tutor for the Masters in New Audiences and Innovative Practice programme at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.

Natasha Zielazinski

Natasha Zielazinski is a London based cellist and composer. She enjoys working collaboratively in dance, theatre and visual arts, most recently composing and touring with Kate Tempest in the theatre show Brand New Ancients. Natasha has performed at Sadler's Wells, the Southbank Centre, the Barbican Centre, the Melbourne International Festival, and Madison Square Gardens. She leads the Barbican Creative Learning ensemble Future Band, and additionally has worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Tokyo College of Music, Peabody Institute of Music, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra among others.

Hannah Dunster

Hannah Dunster is a flautist, facilitator, teacher and coach with a strong focus on collaborative partnerships in community settings. Following her studies at The University of Nottingham (2007) she developed an active performing and teaching career, however it was after graduating with distinction from the Masters in Leadership course at Guildhall School of Music & Drama (2011) that her work developed a strong community ethos.

Hannah’s teaching work at Guildhall revolves around Creative Enterprise, coaching interdisciplinary arts students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and prepare for the professional demands of the arts industry. In addition to this, Hannah teaches at the Royal College of Music’s Creative Education module, preparing music undergraduates to interact and make music with primary school children.

Beyond Higher Education, Hannah is Founder-Director of Soundcastle, a music social enterprise delivering community projects, facilitator training and coaching for creatives. Hannah’s community music practice has taken her into a vast range of settings including schools, hospitals, prisons and care homes, however it is through Soundcastle that she has been able to build sustainable, longterm programmes with long-lasting impact.

She is currently project lead on Soundcastle’s 'People’s Music Collective' - a programme which supports adults facing mental health challenges through the development and celebration of their creative musical skills. She is also project lead for 'Musical Beacons Coastal Connections' – a programme which collaborates with young mothers in supported accommodation, exploring interaction and playfulness with their babies through music making. Alongside this, Hannah delivers coaching and training for professional creatives on Soundcastle’s Music and Wellbeing training programme. She advocates for creatives to develop skills in managing their own resilience within the sector, exploring routes of collaboration, resourcefulness and co-building an artistic community of practice.

Rick Holland

Rick is a poet, thinker and independent artist. He gained recognition for his 2011 Warp released albums with Brian Eno, 'Drums Between the Bells' and 'Panic of Looking'. In recent years he has recorded albums with Eno and Hyde, Jon Hopkins, The Heritage Orchestra and made experimental independent work with Old Man Diode and guests including Beth Rowley, I am Fya, Chris James, Andrew Plummer and Onallee (Roni Size/Reprazent). His traditional collections of poetry have been independently produced and released. Ongoing work with technologist Robert Thomas explores how new relationships with our artistic outputs may look in the future.

Photo - Winta Yohannes

Paula Varjack

Paula teaches devised performance and spoken word on the Performance and Creative Enterprise BA. She trained in Stage Management & Technical Theatre Production at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and Technique of Filmmaking at London Film School, with a focus on screenwriting and producing. After a career as a video technician and production manager in animation, she then trained at Goldsmiths, where she received a Masters degree in Performance-Making.

She is a theatre-maker, video artist, writer and performer. Her body of work includes performance, film, monologue, installation, and participation. She makes work as a way of amplifying marginalised stories and voices, engaging in a way that both provokes thought and entertains. Having begun her practice as a solo artist, her work has become increasingly collaborative, shaped by the artists who inspire and collaborate with her.

Central to the art she makes is a question she is preoccupied with that explores through research and devising. She is currently developing I, Melania with filmmaker Chuck Blue Lowry, exploring their dual heritage and what it means to be foreign. Recently she presented her multimedia performance The Cult of K*nzo interrogating luxury brands and her fascination with them ,with a critically acclaimed national tour to thirteen venues, many shows selling out. Her performance and research project “Show Me The Money” – based on interviews with 44 artists across the U.K. , now continues as an ongoing blog on art and money.

She is a Barbican Open Lab Artist, London Pleasance Associate artist and has had work commissioned by The Barbican, Battersea Arts Centre, Camden People's Theatre, Fuel, The Cortauld Institute, and Attenborough Centre for the Arts. Born in Washington D.C. to a Ghanaian mother and a British father, out of many places she has lived she considers east London to be "home".

Year Tutor

Jacob Sam-La Rose

An indefatigable facilitator, mentor and supporter of young and emerging poets, Jacob’s writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Wasafiri, In Their Own Words (Salt, 2012), Poetry by Heart (Penguin, 2014), and more. Commissions include the National Gallery, the BBC and Nitro (Black Music Theatre Co-Operative). He’s toured with the British Council, featuring at a range of international festivals and venues. He co-founded Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, developed the Roundhouse Poetry programme, established Barbican Young Poets and Burn After Reading. Jacob is also Artistic Director for the Spoken Word Education Programme and Shot from the Lip. On BA PACE Jacob teaches poetry, creative writing and creative use of technology.

Craft Tutors

Brigitte Beraha

Brigitte Beraha is now recognised as one of the most versatile and exciting vocalists on the UK jazz scene. As well as performing and recording with many jazz legends, including Kenny Wheeler, Stuart Hall, Martin France, John Parricelli, Bobby Wellins and Henry Lowther she is closely involved in the work of the new generation of jazz musicians and in particular the Loop and E17 jazz collectives. An experienced educator, Brigitte leads jazz workshops throughout the year and also teaches at The Welsh College of Music & Drama. She has performed and led workshops in the United States, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Turkey, Nepal and the UK.

Jamie Bradley

Jamie is a director, actor and artist. He studied acting at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and fine art at Chelsea College of Arts.

Recent directing work includes Crackpot (Living Words, Folkestone Quarterhouse), Matt (CEJI, Brussels) Women of Troy (FONACT at Theatre Municipal de Fontainbleau, co-directed with Laurent de Montalembert), Life Songs and My Voice In Me (Guildhall, devised with Dinah Stabb and BA singers), The Country Wife (LAMDA), as well as multiple projects with Guildhall actors including Now or Later, The Faith Machine, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Fen and original devised work Smithfield.

His short film the The Full Cup was shown in the official selection of the Mexico Film Festival, 2015.

As an actor he has extensive experience in theatre, television and film and has performed with companies such as Complicite, Kneehigh, Transport and Fevered Sleep, as well as several shows at the National Theatre, most recently in Ella Hickson’s ANNA in 2019.

Laura Bridgeman

Laura Bridgeman has written for the theatre and BBC Radio 4. Theatre credits include: Medicine Girl, (The Etcetera Theatre,) Maison Splendide (The Young Vic), Loonatik (Festival of Visual Theatre). Radio credits include: Dogfood Diary co-written with Charles Lambert (BBC Radio 4) Caterpillars co-written with Charles Lambert (BBC Radio 4), Etiquette (BBC Radio 4). Bridgeman has a PhD from UEA in Creative Writing where they were awarded the HSC Scholarship. Published short stories include: Gregory (Brand Magazine), and How Was The Party? (Grafton Way Books), Letter To My Future Lover (F, M and Other, Knight Errant Press).

Bridgeman runs their own press: hotpencil with Serge Nicholson publications include: There Is No Word For It, The (Trans) Mangina Monologues, exploring the trans male experience and The Butch Monologues, exploring female masculinity, trans masculinity and gender rebellion.

The Butch Monologues premiered at WOW festival in the Southbank in 2014 has toured: Soho Theatre, La Mama New York, Outburst Festival Belfast, Theatreworks Midsumma Festival Melbourne, Seymour Centre Mardi Gras Sydney, and will have its final UK tour Summer 2020.

Bridgeman is currently working on a screenplay and an adaptation. They teach Creative Writing in Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Imperial College and have also taught in 5 UK prisons.

Chiel Busscher

Chiel Busscher is a composer, music producer and collaborator with an extensive background in leading creative workshops. Having finished his Composition, Music Production and Studio Production degree in Groningen, the Netherlands, in 2012, he then moved to London to attend the Guildhall Artist Programme in Leadership MA, which he finished in 2014. Since then he has been working in all kinds of creative and musical contexts from eduction to high end studio work and from talent coaching to composing new music for others and himself. Chiel moved from London to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, over the summer of 2020.

Endy McKay

Endy is an actor, writer and theatre practitioner. She is particularly interested in the space where art and activism meet.

Endy trained as an actor and continues to work nationally and internationally in theatre, television, film and radio, working for companies such as the RSC, The National Theatre, Universal Studios and ITV. She was a regular in Channel 4’s Bafta award winning comedy series Peep Show and a semi-regular in CBBC’s The Dumping Ground.

As a practitioner Endy has devised, written and directed numerous theatre and film projects often with marginalised groups. She has worked with institutions including the BRIT School, Lyric Hammersmith, Arcola Theatre, The RSC, Barbican and Hackney Empire, using theatre and film to respond to social issues and spark change. Endy has worked as a consultant on the forming of pioneering BTEC and BA Performing Arts courses, and in 2011 co-founded Outspoken Arts. She has completed the Enhanced Optimist Producer Course and has written her first stage play #Regeneration, developed with support from ACE and Ovalhouse theatre.

Currently a resident tutor at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, a visiting director at Mountview and a Barbican Mentor Artist, she sits on the board of Theatre Peckham and the US Charitable Trust.

Endy also contributes to blogs and articles surrounding race, motherhood and the arts. She is an advocate for inclusivity, a public speaker and podcaster.

Gareth Mattey

Gareth (they/them) is a writer, director, and dramaturg from the Wirral. Their work often focuses on the relationship between opera, contemporary music, and different media (from film to video and VR) and they are keen to prioritise queer narratives and characters in all their writing. Recent work has included the short opera film No Room. No Room. No Room. for Opera Harmony and OperaVision, the song Melancholy (and Buttercream) for Helen Charlston's 'Isolation Songbook' project, the chamber opera Little England with Mark Bowler and the short film Quartet with Random Acts North. They have undertaken residencies with Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh, the Banff Centre in Canada, LOD muziektheater in Belgium, Junge Opera im Nord in Stuttgart and digitally with the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. They are currently writing their first feature film for director Nick Hampson as well as the libretti for chamber operas with Alex Mills, Robert Reid Allen, and Ana Seara.

Sam Mumford

Sam Mumford is a guitarist, singer, composer and sound artist. He released his solo debut album Scatter in 2014 to critical acclaim and double A release Before the Love Goes in 2016. Sam is an artistic associate of Drumworks and also performs in contemporary music ensemble Jetsam.

Justin O'Shaughnessy (Producer for Final Year Project)

Justin is in Production – with work encompassing performance, theatre, dance, film, visual arts, site-specific, spectacles, festivals and community-based work. Institutional positions include: ICA (1993-98); Rich Mix (2005-08); Shoreditch Trust (2008-15), where, as Creative Producer with the charity, he led the Creative Mentoring programme and produced the annual large-scale free Shoreditch Festival (2008-13). Other projects include Newham Millennium Celebrations (1998-2000); Live Culture at Tate Modern (2003); Panorama (Notting Hill Carnival) in Hyde Park (2007); Spill Festival of Performance (2009); Park Nights and Marathons for Serpentine Gallery (2005-12); Frieze Projects (2014-19); Everyday on Canalside (2014-17), Who Are We? at Tate Exchange (2017-19) and Clapham Park Creative Co-op (2017-) with Counterpoints Arts; Art Encounters Timisoara Biennial 2019 (Romania); and Liverpool Biennial 2021.

In education, Justin was Visiting Lecturer on City University's Creative Cultural Industries Foundation Degree and BA (2009-17) with live project delivery at the Roundhouse, Camden and other venues.

Justin studied Drama, Radio, Film and Television at Bristol University and has an MA in Sociology from the Centre for Urban & Community Research at Goldsmiths. He was chair of governors at a large Hackney primary school for eight years and sat as a Non-Executive Director (Board Lead for Performing Arts) of The Learning Trust, Hackney's not-for-profit local education authority from 2008-12. Current governance positions include Open School East (2014- ), Crux Easton Wind Engine Conservation Trust (2014 -) and Tate Britain Advisory Committee (2017-).

Seth Scott Deuchar

Seth Scott is a sound designer and composer whose work explores the politics of sound and space. With particular focus on urban and architectural spaces, he works with sound, text and technology to uncover and reconfigure the sounds around us. His work has been exhibited across the UK, in venues including the Barbican Centre, Bloomberg Space, The Holden Gallery, and BBC Maida Vale.