Staff and Tutors
ACTING
ADAM MEGGIDO
Adam Meggido studied drama at Birmingham University and trained as an actor
at Webber Douglas - although he cites his years with Claude Chagrin (formerly
of LeCoq) at the French Institute as the most important part of his training.
From 1995-1999 he was a director of Counterpoint Theatre, an innovative
company which merged business with the arts. Adam is the Artistic Director
of The Sticking Place, a company committed to the development and production
of new writing and improvisation. His Sticking Place director credits include:
The Lie, Dark Meaning Mouse, Reanimator, The Premature Burial, The Disappearance
and two of his own plays - Stress and Best Men - for the Guerrilla Theatre
Experiment. He is also the writer/director of Chaos of Delight (Soho Theatre)
and Teenager In Love for the National Youth Theatre's 50th anniversary celebrations.
Adam is Head of Foundation at the London Academy of Music And Dramatic Art.
'Meggido takes time with his actors to make sense of the words and they
deliver them with clarity and a genuine feel for storytelling.' (Time Out)
CAROLINE DEVLIN
Caroline Devlin graduated from The Drama Centre London in 1995 and has enjoyed working at such theatres as The Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, where she was a regular member of the company for various seasons playing many parts, including Masha in Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Hero in Much Ado About Nothing, Lady Macduff in Macbeth, Arte O'Neill in Boucicault's The Shaughraun, and Wendy in Barrie’s Peter Pan. She has also played Marina in Pericles (Greenbelt Theatre Company), Michaela in Carmen, Gwen in Merlin (Citizen’s Theatre Company-Glasgow), Miranda/Ariel in The Tempest and Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream (both Actors From The London Stage). Caroline's television and radio projects include Casualty and The History Man, Ruth Rendell's Lake of Darkness and played alongside Albert Finney in My Uncle Silas. Caroline's more recent theatre projects include Spring Awakening (Union Theatre), Open Ground (Theatro Technis), Roots (Royal Exchange, Manchester) and Creation Theatre Company's productions of Oxford Passion, Measure for Measure, Much Ado About Nothing and Othello. Caroline spent the later part of 2009 touring the U.S. with Actors From The London Stage with in a production of King Lear. When not working as an actress, Caroline directs professionally on a wide range of projects, most recently for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Sydenham Arts Festival. Caroline also teaches at many leading London drama schools where she specializes in text analysis, the Stanislavski and Method approaches, and classical text. Caroline is a professional singer working on an acoustic album of ambient Celtic music with Matt Eaton and will later in the year direct in London the rarely-performed Debussy Opera Pelleas et Mellesande.
HOLLY DE JONG
Holly is most famously known as Newt's Mother in Aliens and Lady Farrow
in Blackadder. Her acting experience is extensive starring in the National
Theatre and throughout the West End.˜ Holly's television and film work has
included: The Duchess of Duke Street, Lyttonçs Diary, Van der Valk, Poirot,
The Detectives, The Assassination Run, The Chief, Doctors, Daniel, Deronda,
Electric Dreams, The Hiding Place and Soaked. Most recently Holly has been
involved in a couple of short horror films,one of which has just won a best
foreign film award at the Fire Island film festival in New York. She has
recently appeared on Casualty and has a semi-regular character on Eastenders.
JILLIAN O'DOWD
Jillian has twenty two years professional industry experience in theatre, music theatre, cabaret TV, and film. She is a National Institute of Dramatic Art graduate (NIDA Australia-grads Cate Blanchett, Judy Davis and Mel Gibson.) Most recent credit ; The Comedy Theatre Company’s No.1 UK tour of Victoria Wood’s ‘Dinnerladies’. Australia’s Channel 7, the award winning TV drama 'All Saints', four plays for 'The Sydney Theatre Co', ‘The Tempest’ for Bell Shakespeare Co. Hugh Jackman 'The Boy from Oz' arena musical tour directed by Kenny Ortega (‘This is it’ fame). Her many TV credits have included a guest role in the popular Granada TV series 'Cold Feet' and a guest role as Miss Little in Home and Away. Her 2010 up and coming credits are playing Trinity in the feature film ‘Diana Clone’ and Martha in the stage play ‘Beautiful Bodies’. Jillian has 20 years experience as a teacher of drama and audition technique. She is the co-founder of Re:actor Acting Services at Fox Studios Sydney and ‘Hair of the Dog' theatre/film company. Jillian has a teacher's diploma from Trinity College London. Her work as a performer and teacher go hand in hand. She very much enjoys bringing the best out in her students at LSDA and passing on her years of experience to our future industry professionals.
JUDY BROWNE
Trained at the Guildhall. Theatre credits include 'The Rivals' with the Women's Playhouse Trust,
'Extremities' at Derby Playhouse, 'Hyacinth Blue' Clean Break tour and 'Local Boy' at Hampstead Theatre.
Television includes 'Band of Gold', 'The Bill', 'Touch of Frost' and 'Kerching' CBBC. Judy has been working
with the National Youth Theatre including the Shakespeare for Schools induction.
SAMANTHA ROBINSON
Samantha trained at Rose Bruford College where she won the Laurence Olivier Bursary award. She played Miranda in the Royal Exchange Theatres production of The Tempest alongside Pete Postlethwaite. Additional theatre credits include: Three Sisters On Hope Street (Hampstead Theatre) The House Of Bernada Alba, (Nuffield Theatre) The Laramie Project (Sound Theatre, Leicester Square); The Lemon Princess (West Yorkshire Playhouse); The Owl Service (Plymouth Theatre Royal); Untouchable (The Bush Theatre) and Song of the Western Man (Chichester Festival Theatre). Her Television credits include: Laura in The Girls Who Came to Stay (Granada); Anna in Shameless (Channel Four); June Mahy in Island at War (Granada) and Lucy in Final Demand (BBC), Holby Ciry and Doctors. Film includes: Sixty Six (Working Title) and Debbie in Jamaica Me Crazy (VBM Productions LTD).
Sam was recently seen on BBC1 as PC Natalie Cryer In the series Five Days.
FRANCEEN BRODKIN
Franceen Brodkin trained at East 15, and extensively in the Meisner Technique in New York City. She also has a BA in English/Drama from McGill University and an MA in Dramatherapy from Concordia University.
She has worked internationally as an actor and director for over 20 years. Acting roles have included leads in Pygmalion, Miss Julie, A Doll's House, Taming of the Shrew, Mourning becomes Electra, Ivanov and the Glass Menagerie, among others. As a teacher / director she has worked at many leading drama schools including the Oxford School of Drama, Central School of Speech and Drama, East 15, Drama Centre, London, the National Theatre School of Canada and the Canadian Film Centre. She also co-founded her own theatre company, Bardkin Productions, where she wrote, directed and produced new work on both sides of the Atlantic.
STEVE WATTS
Steve is an actor, musician, singer and teacher. He has a Bachelor of Education (Hons.) and taught full-time for five years before training for the stage; he now combines teaching with a busy performance career. Steve passes on old-school, no-nonsense technique. Through repetition of straight-forward physical exercises, the student develops a set of skills and a thorough grasp of his/her craft, ensuring that nothing is left to chance in performance and allowing the unique creativity of the individual to take flight, whilst always respecting and putting over the writer's intention.
BRIGID ZENGENI
Brigid trained at London's Drama Centre and spent several years with Cambridge Experimental Theatre. Theatre credits include: Volpone & The Duchess of Malfi (Greenwich Theatre), The Hypochondriac (Liverpool Everyman/ETT), A Christmas Carol (Rose Theatre), Macbeth (AFLS, US Tour), Wide Sargasso Sea (Citizens Theatre Glasgow), Dr Faustus (Bristol Old Vic), Dembosch & Three Sisters (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), Two Gentleman of Verona (RSC), Julius Caesar (RSC), Oliver Twist (The Lyric Theatre), The Wedding (Southwark Playhouse), The Soul of Chi’en- un (Young Vic), The Winter Tale (Royal National Theatre), Bedroom Farce (English Theatre Frankfurt), Twelfth Night (RNT), Madame De Sade (Riverside Studio), The Taming of the Shrew (Southern Shakespeare Festival), The Legend of Pericles (Greenbelt Theatre), The Mikado & The Pirates of Penzance (New Victoria Theatre), Passion Play (Greenbelt Productions). Television includes: Identity (ITV), New Tricks (Wall to Wall), Holby City, Beck, Casualty & Silent Witness (BBC), Inside Out (Tiger Aspects), The Bill (Thames Television), William and Mary, Holding the Baby and In Defence (Granada), The Cry (Sally Head Productions), A Touch of Frost (Yorkshire Television), The Greatest Store on Earth (Film and General) and Wycliffe (HTV). Film includes: The Hardest Part. Brigid regularly reads for BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please. She is currently rehearsing for Giants Theatre Company’s production of Pandora which opens soon at the Arcola Theatre.
ALICYA EYO - Acting for Camera
Alicya studied at the Court Theatre Training Company and has been working professionally for 14 years. Television credits include Casualty, Band of Gold, Doctors, The Bill, Holby City, Spooks, Hetty Wainthrop Investigates, Paradox and Bad Girls, in which she spent 5 years as a regular. Film credits include The Low Down, Tube Tales and Stalin My Neighbour. Alicya has also performed at various theatres including the Royal Court and the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. She also performed in the critically acclaimed play 'Any Which Way'.
JAMES CARTER-JOHNSON - Acting for Camera
James followed a Masters degree in Philosophy at Edinburgh with a successful period as a theatre director. He has also directed documentaries in such far-flung locales as Madagascar and Zanzibar. James worked for 3 years at Jeremy Thomas’ Recorded Picture Company where he became an integral part of their development team working with many writers and directors including Milos Forman, Terry Gilliam and Bernardo Bertolucci. He since worked for a year in acquisitions for New Line Cinema - the people behind ‘The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’, representing the company at many European festivals including Cannes, Munich, Locarno and San Sebastian. James is now working as a film director in London. He recently completed a 35mm TV special entitled ‘Clive Hole’ from the short story by Alexei Sayle’.
RONNIE MCCANN - Acting for Camera and Improvisation
Ronnie is a professional Actor/Director. He trained at the Royal Scottish Academy and Lee Strasberg, New York. Television and Film
credits include Casualty (2 years as a Regular), Judge John Deed, Inspector Lynlie, The Royale, The Acid House Trilogy, Heavenly
Pursuits and the Last Minute. He has worked in theatres in England, Europe and Scotland and was Assistant Director at the Citizens
Theatre.