Anna Scher Theatre

The Anna Scher Theatre School
Type Drama school
Established 1968
Principal
  • Anna Scher
  • Bernie Burdis
Students ~1000[1]
Location London, England, U.K.
Affiliations St Silas Church, Islington
Website www.annaschertheatre.com

The Anna Scher Theatre is a community-based drama school based in Islington, north London. It was founded in 1968 by Anna Scher.

Anna Scher

Anna Scher is the daughter of an Irish mother and Jewish Lithuanian dentist father. Starting out as an actor, her father told her to get a proper job, so she became a journalist specialising in theatre with the Islington Gazette for five years, and reviewed for The Times Literary Supplement.[2]

Scher's philosophy is based on promoting love, peace and understanding through both learning and professionalism. Her heroes are Martin Luther King, Anne Frank, Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill.[2] She frequently shares with her pupils various meaningful words or sayings which she calls Winston words after Churchill, but which are not necessarily attributed to him.

“ Ubuntu is my favourite Winston word - it means community care, collectiveness. I love that word. It was Archbishop Desmond Tutu who taught it to me. ”

In the past, Scher was chairperson of the International Song Contest for Peace also in Ireland, and served on the juries at BAFTA, the Sony Awards and the Royal Television Society.

Since its founding in 1968, Scher has been awarded:

Theatre school

In 1968, Scher started an afterschool drama club at Islington's Ecclesbourne Primary School. 70 pupils came the first week, including future Birds of a Feather stars Pauline Quirke (aged 9), Linda Robson (aged 10) and Ray Burdis (aged 11).[2]

In 1970, the classes moved across the road to a council hall in Bentham Court on Ecclesbourne Road. By 1975 she had 1,000 pupils and 5,000 on the waiting list,[4] so moved to the custom converted mission hall on Barnsbury Road in 1976, when the school was established as a charity.[2]

Scher's teaching style produces what critics call a natural delivery, but Scher comments that she just uses their natural voice. Of her improvisation technique, she told Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian in 2004:

“ I fell into that quite by chance - necessity is nearly always the mother of invention, and because 70 turned up and because a lot weren't too hot at reading, improvisation fell into place.[2] ”

In 2000, Scher suffered ill health and stepped down during her recovery period.[5] Scher was never reinstated as head of the theatre, despite a vociferous campaign led by her and her supporters, The Friends of Anna Scher.[1][6] In 2005, the remaining staff and board set up a new school [7] but Anna Scher went on to continue her theatre school under her own name at the nearby Blessed Sacrament Church Hall, Islington. Since 2009, the Anna Scher Theatre has been teaching from the St Silas Church in Islington and classes are run 3 days a week by Anna Scher and former pupil Bernie Burdis, who together have taught for over 30 years.

Scher is married to Charles Verrall, an acting and public speaking coach who has also written and directed several stage plays and a musical. He was co-director of the Anna Scher Theatre for many years, and co-authored several of Scher's books on acting. They have one son.

Alumni

See Category:Alumni of the Anna Scher Theatre School

References

  1. 1 2 Reynolds, Nigel; "Angry actors back ousted drama teacher" Telegraph.co.uk, 27 December 2003
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Hattenstone, Simon; "I just want to be back at my theatre" Guardian.co.uk, 24 March 2004
  3. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 60534. p. 22. 15 June 2013.
  4. ↑ Wynne-Jones, Ros; "School for working class heroes — and heroines" Independent.co.uk, 25 May 1997
  5. ↑ "Bid to build Anna a new theatre" IslingtonGazette.co.uk, 8 June 2005
  6. ↑ Austin, Jeremy; "School removes Scher name" TheStage.co.uk, 20 July 2004
  7. ↑ Austin, Jeremy, School removes Scher name, The Stage, July 2004

Literature

External links

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