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About three months ago that smart-aleck brain cell that we all have (you know the one I mean; the one that often gets us in trouble with teachers, law enforcers and the elderly) suddenly leapt into overdrive and shouted: “Hey! Why not set up your own youth theatre!?”

Immediately my brain was a hive of activity!

“Setting up a halfway decent youth theatre!?!? You!?!?”

my Common Sense cried;

“It can’t be done!”

“Well…”

said my Delicate Ego

“…it probably can be done…”

“but it’s not worth doing.”

said my Self Doubt.

Now, three months later, it feels as though my entire brain, even my Common Sense, is allied at Stage 3 and chanting, albeit quietly, “I knew it was a good idea all along!” I hope it will not be long before it’s a strong and confident mantra running through my brain day in, day out.

Of course I know exactly where that brain cell got the inspiration that led to three months of brain chaos (I may have to drop the brain metaphor before the men in white coats come to take me away). I was just coming to the end of my second year of drama school auditions; after some initial hope with a Bristol Old Vic recall audition it soon became apparent that it was not my year.

Of course I knew the maxims: “It’s about numbers and luck as much as it is about talent!”, “If you got a recall then it means they think you should be at drama school, maybe just not yet!” and “They don’t know what they’re missing out on!” (Thanks Mum); all wise, all true (well…). But it’s still dishearteningly frustrating. I can only imagine how the people I met that were on their 5^th or 6^th years of auditioning felt.

In many ways the second year is harder than the first. Certainly it was for me; in my first year of auditions I was nervous, not sure what to expect, had the security of a part time job to go back to and, as I’d only been out of school a year, no major expectations from everyone else. The worry in the first year wasn’t “Did I do it ‘right’” the worry was “What on earth DO I do?”, you don’t really expect to get anywhere so you aren’t too distraught when you don’t.

But in the second year you pretty much know what to expect (my second RADA audition was identical in format to the first; same room, same panel, even a few of the same fellow auditionees!), which is, by and large, a good thing; you walk into the room with more confidence, you smile without feeling a little bit ill, your palms aren’t as sweaty so you don’t worry about shaking the panel’s hands, your voice remains at around its normal octave and it doesn’t have the tempo of an upbeat Gilbert and Sullivan number. Of course you still get nervous, but it’s the nerves you know; the ones you’ve felt every opening night of every show you’ve done since you were 10, the ones that drive you and make your eyes sparkle; not the ones that make you go “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit and shit” and forget your lines!

But with this added confidence comes added disappointment when the, sometimes inevitable, rejection letter comes through the letterbox. This time round I was left with an overwhelming, though short-lived, sense of defeat. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t cut out to be an actor! My mannerisms are awkward, my interpretation of lines all wrong! I’ve no sense of space or even of my own body! Luckily Abigail Anderson, an absolutely fantastic director who I know through my association with the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, got me involved in a fantastic street theatre project that completely boosted my confidence and lifted me out of my moment of despair. To think: a professional director had cast me in a piece of theatre with other professional actors and was giving me lots of ‘arty’ directions and I was understanding them and getting good feedback! Hurrah! I was back in the game!

But what to do next? I had at least another year before I had another shot at drama school, what could I do? More importantly; what did I want to do? I started to remember my sixth form days when I ran a lunchtime drama group for intrepid Year 9s. For the most part it was a bust; half of my mates who said they’d lend a hand never turned up to sessions so I was left on my own to manage 20 of the most challenging 13 and 14 year olds I’d ever met! And in my own 17 year old naivety I had the bizarre notion that running a few noisy theatre games and making the entire group lay down on the floor with their eyes closed to listen to the opening 6 minutes of ‘Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds’ (don’t ask) constituted good drama teaching. Sometimes I feel I failed those Year 9s; I see a fair few of them here and there involved in various local productions and think: “My god, these kids are talented!” Yet I failed to live up to my own potential as a tutor and, worst of all, failed to encourage them to realise their own potential. Luckily they all seem to haveth other tutors who did help them realise their true potential and many of them are on the road to being professional actors themselves.

But it got me thinking; Bury has a wealth of great youth theatres, but how many of them actually provide professional advice to young people wanting to go into the theatre? The answer is very few, if any. How many of them teach a series of random theatre games instead of the sort of exercises a young person could expect to encounter in drama school? The answer is a vast majority. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But would it be a good thing to have a youth theatre that does offer professional advice and does teach exercises and concepts that are found on a drama school curriculum? The answer, I believe, is yes.

And so Overactors Anonymous was born. In my head. The next step was getting it realised; so I turned to Emrys Green, local young person, business entrepreneur, arts manager and all-round marvel. As well as owning/directing a technical theatre business, CEG Theatre & Entertainments Ltd, Emrys also works with the Arts Council, the National Association of Youth Theatres and was the founder of the Bury St Edmunds Youth Council; clearly the person to go to for some business savvy!

Emrys was immediately enthused by the idea of Overactors Anonymous and together we set about some extensive planning for the organisation; some of which is still going on now.

One idea that came out of our planning meetings was this development blog. This blog is as much a part of our creative work as it is our marketing work. We understand that not all people who want to get into the arts professionally want to be actors; many want to be directors, arts managers or the founders of new theatre companies and this blog will offer a step-by-step process of how we set this organisation up and will be an invaluable resource for any creative person out there who has a similar idea!

So; what exactly will Overactors Anonymous be? Overactors Anonymous will be an exciting new youth theatre run weekly, during term time, for any young person aged 15-25 who has a vocational interest in theatre. Each term a wide variety of skills will be taught based on work that would be covered at drama school in a fun and safe environment. As well as working with myself (the Artistic Director) and our Assistant Director members will get the opportunity to work with a host of guest practitioners including professional actors, directors, musical directors, vocal coaches and choreographers. In the first year we will cover the topics of Improvisation, Musical Theatre and Devised Theatre, each term will culminate in a small-scale performance project for family and friends.

As a non-profit organisation you can be confident that we funnel all membership fees and any donations we receive directly into the work we do, ensuring that we provide the best quality we can.

We will launch our workshops in September 2010 and will have some taster sessions just before then for people to decide if the group is for them. If you’d like to be updated about exactly when this will all take off then keep an eye on this blog and follow us on Facebook and Twitter (links below).

Thanks for reading; I hope you’re as excited about Overactors Anonymous as I am. If you have any questions, comments, ideas or even if you want to, very kindly, make a donation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me on greg@overactorsanonymous.org.uk

Take care for now,

Greg Hanson

Artistic Director

Ps. I promise the next blog entry won’t be so long. Or so self-effacing!

You can find us on Facebook using this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bury-St-Edmunds-United-Kingdom/Overactors-Anonymous/145289802153217

We’re also on Twitter: @overactorsa