Jimmy

I am a London based theatre director who has run my theatre company Proud Haddock for the past 7 years directing plays on both the West End and the fringe. I originally started as an actor playing Young Sirius Black in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. This inspired me to join the National Youth Theatre and then university followed by drama school when I then became a freelance director whilst still working as both a drama teacher and tutor alongside my career.
I have a strong passion for educational activity and restoring arts back onto the school syllabus. Alongside directing jobs, I enjoy working with children of all ages.

Tutoring Experience

My experience in drama teaching began when I was 19 working as an English teacher in Uganda after leaving school. I was inspired to direct the school play at the local village and this was my first proper experience of working with children.
As part of my course at university, I had the opportunity of working in a school as part of my second year, giving me the opportunity to run workshops for secondary school children studying drama.
After university and drama school, I worked for the Bedouin Shakespeare Company; again running workshops for children aged 11-18 both in the UK and abroad. I then taught drama part time at Glyn School in Surrey, working with students on their GCSE practical examinations and subsequently Forest School in Snarsbrooke where I taught the same syllabus.
My main passion is helping to restore drama back onto the school syllabus and in 2019 I joined Speak Up UK, a wonderful company committed to engaging young children across London with drama and a taught an after school club.
I also work for another company called Action It Theatre where we have the opportunity to travel to Italy to teach drama to children at schools in Tuscany.
Additionally, I have worked on several projects for Rebound Productions where I am hired as a visiting director to work with young actors who would like to apply for drama school.
In almost all of these cases, I have experience in teaching drama online. For Speak Up I run regular zoom workshops for the children and also enjoy teaching drama one on one through the same medium. my passion has always been teaching drama both as a tutor and director.

Tutoring Approach

I always strive to create an engaging and positive environment. I believe very much in student feeling as through they are finding ideas themselves and not having anything imposed on them.
I have the sole motivation to inspire and engage the student whereby they look forward to learning and feel inspired and they don't come to any sessions half heartedly or demotivated.
Above all, I believe in making the student feel as though they are in control. The imagination is the most important weapon in a child's arsenal and I want to create as exciting an environment as possible for them to feel fully free to explore this.