About Us
Mitch Jenkins
Founder & Artistic Director
Mitch trained initially with Pennie Bardsley at West Sussex Theatre Studios, Worthing
and subsequently at Redroofs Theatre School.
Mitch has worked and performed with many industry favourites including Kate Winslet, Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson, Vicki Michelle and Rula Lenska and has worked extensively for major organisations including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
On May 25th 2015 he appeared on the live semi-final of Britain’s Got Talent where he and his dog Cally ‘The Wonder Dog’ broke the Guinness World Record for popping balloons – They are now the official world record holders popping 100 balloons in 41.67 seconds.
He has lead a West-End Sing-a-Long masterclass at The Royal Festival Hall alongside the cast
of Mama Mia, Jersey Boys and Priscilla Queen of the Desert for S.O.L.T.
Mitch was asked to direct The Reading Hexagon’s Pantomime ‘Cinderella’ with Rula Lenska as Fairy Godmother
after directing the sell-out production of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ at Dorking Halls for The Proper Pantomime Company.
He Directed and was the Vocal Coach for the musical ‘Return to the Forbidden Planet’ at the talent factory,
Kansas City and was also resident Musical Director for The Realistic Theatre Company of Edinburgh for five
years and also directed ‘The Railway Children’ for them. He was Assistant Director on ‘Billy Liar’ at
Southill Park Arts Centre.
More recently Mitch has been Vocal Coach to the $1 million rock group ‘Purplemelon’ and to up and coming
artists Dane Norris, Middlehill, Contrabanned and Locust Resin.
Writing credits include: Mitch has written and arranged the music to four musicals…
‘Children of the Clearances’, ‘The Railway Children’, ‘The Drummer Boy’ and ‘Barrie’,
all of which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. ‘Culture Vulture’ for The Realistic T.I.E company.
Theme and incidental music for ‘Frankenstein’ for Doug Rollins at the Greenwhich Theatre.
He has also written two comedy pilots for television with his writing partner Alex Raven,
‘Out of the Frying Pan’ and ‘The Ham Club’.
Theatre credits include: Nurse Nancy in ‘Robin Hood’ at The Connaught, Worthing, Caprice (Ugly) for QDOS
at The Hawth, Crawley, Widow Twankey in ‘Aladdin’ for Dick Ray at The Shaw, London.
Jamie in ‘Carnaby Street’ at the Arts Theatre, West End and Nomis Studios, Olympia.
The Soldier in ‘A Game of Soldiers’ with Kate Winslet at The Novello. Dream Man in ‘Mrs. Vershinin’ at
The Riverside, Hammersmith. Mr. Jarvis and Sparrow in ‘Stargazer’ for Polka Theatre, which toured
Wimbledon, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
‘Spencer’ in ‘Boogie Nights’, on tour for QDOS. ‘Walter’ in ‘Ketchups Kitchen’ at The Wolsey, Ipswich.
‘The Zookeeper’ in ‘Please Don’t Feed the Animals’, for ‘Green Carpet’.
Other theatre includes: ‘Mr. A’s Amazing Maze Plays’, ‘Into the Woods’, ‘The Secret Garden’,
‘ The Meg and Mog Show’, ‘Annie’, ‘Oliver’.
TV credits include: Jim in ‘Birds of a Feather’ (BBC), Rod in ‘London’s Burning’ (ITV), David in
‘Bad Boys’ (BBC), plus ‘Crimewatch’ and ‘Newsnight’ for the BBC. He is also featured as the vocal coach in
the ‘Purplemelon’ documentary.
Commercial credits include: Featured Soul Singer in the KFC commercials (ITV), IKEA commercial for
Norway, Telephonist for Northern Telecom,
Singing credits include: Lead vocals for the ‘Pirelli Calendar’, ‘Princess and the Goblins’ cast recording for
Robert Macintosh, Lead and Backing vocals on the ‘Carnaby Street’ original cast recording for Carl-Leighton
Pope organisation. Lead vocals for ‘Who Dares Sells’, to accompany the best selling book of the same name.
Perks in ‘The Railway Children’ original cast recording.
Laura Jeffery
Joint Artistic Director
Laura Jeffery trained at the Guildford School of Acting in Musical Theatre (BA Hons) and is based in Guildford,
Surrey. She has most recently finished the International Tour of Abbamania: The Original Tour from
London’s West End playing the role of Agnetha and is touring the country in ‘Wind in the Willows’
playing the part of Mole.
Her credits include: Agnetha in Abbamania (International Tour); Soloist at the International Press Party for
The Royal Wedding (St James’ Palace); Soloist in Broadway to Bond (Worthing Pavilion Theatre);
The Inspiration Awards (Codogan Hall) Cinderella in ‘Cinderella’ (The Hexagon, Reading);
Lead Vocalist (Headliners Theatre Company, P&O Cruises); Juliet in ‘Romeo and Juliet’
(Titchfield Festival Theatre); Susan in ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’
(New Theatre Royal Portsmouth); Mavis in ‘Stepping Out’ (Fernham Hall).
Tash Morley
Creative Manager and Artistic Associate
Tash trained in Sussex at Northbrook College and completed her Performance Degree in 2001. She has worked extensively as an actress, having toured the country several times with British Producer Ian Dickens. She has also worked for various local companies including Vanguard Productions and Shambush and has had the opportunity to perform at the Brighton Festival and at Brighton’s White Night Festival, as well as performing in various local theatres in Sussex. She has also had the fantastic opportunity to perform at Glastonbury Festival. Tash also turns her hand to the more technical aspects of theatre, having been Production Manager for Realistic Productions and Wardrobe Mistress/Prop Maker for various touring productions. She has worked in children’s theatre for many years, having been part of Rainbow Theatre Productions since 2005, and has recently performed in their annual open-air Shakespeare season at Highdown Gardens. She is currently working with Mitch at the East Preston branch and is very much looking forward to be part of the new Littlehampton branch.
Credits Include: Adele in Shakers, Ismene in Antigone, Mari in Little Voice, Connie in Memories are Made of This, Mrs Copper in We’ll Meet Again, Peggy Murdock in The Ghost Train, Betty Whitehouse in A Dangerous Corner, Mary in An Easter Story, Spirit of the Bells in Dick Whittington, Aladdin in Aladdin, Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Singer in Broadway to Bond and One Night Only, Ceres in The Tempest and Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Elizabeth Ball
Joint Artistic Director of SYT Vocal Group
Liz trained at Redroofs theatre college on a two-year performing arts course. She has appeared as the mother in ‘The Railway Children’ at The Novello and subsequently at The Edinburgh Festival. Phoebe in ‘As You Like It’ at The Novello and Lucy in ‘Carnaby Street’ at The Arts, Leicester Square. Mel in ‘Shakers’ at The Liverpool Playhouse and The Pomegranate, Chesterfield. Aunt Em in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at The Liverpool Playhouse. She was lucky enough to play Miss Casewell in ‘The Mousetrap’ which toured Israel and Europe. Florence in ‘Spring and Port Wine’ at The Grand, Darlington and appeared alongside Vicki Michelle and an all-star cast in ‘Stepping Out’ at The Theatre Royal, Lincoln. She was lead vocalist on the original cast recording of ‘Carnaby Street’, ‘The Railway Children’, ‘P and G’ for Robert Macintosh and had a national CD release with ‘Horrible Histories’ alongside award winning actor Geoffrey Palmer.
Liz has recently moved to Worthing and is very much looking forward to coaching and passing on her knowledge of the business with children and adults.
Georgie Gorringe
Artistic Associate
Georgie began performing at the age of ten, appearing and competing in many productions and festivals in the south east. Georgie went on to attend the Doreen Bird college in Sidcup for one year and furthered her training at London Studio Centre, graduating with a Ba (Hons) in theatre dance, awarded by the University of the arts London.
Georgie is very excited to be involved with the launch of Sussex Youth Theatre in Worthing and aims her classes to provide a relaxed, fun and creative environment that allows students to build upon their confidence and skills in performance.
Isaac Finch
Artistic Associate
Isaac completed his BA (Hons) Actor training at the University Of Northampton, School Of The Arts in 2013 and has since moved back to the south coast to pursue his Acting career. Since training Isaac has just come off his first theatrical tour playing Abanazar in Aladdin, taking him from Essex to Birmingham with Chaplin’s Pantos. He has recently signed a contract with his first agency S.T. Arts management, he also plans to take his one man show ‘Moment Twenty:20’ to the Brighton fringe festival. His skills include qualifications in stage combat with the APC as well as having participated in intensive clowning and story-telling workshops. He has worked with such creative companies as The Paper Birds as The Historian in ‘We Were Warned’ (Directed by Kylie Walsh) and has also played Friar Lawrence in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ on the Royal Stage Northampton (Directed by Ria Parry of Iron Shoes Theatre) Additional Theatre credits include Richard Roe in Machinal (Directed by Madeleine O’Reilly) and Disciple of Dionysus in Midsummer Bacchanalia (Directed by Dani Parr). Film and voice Credits include: Fowler in ‘The Damned’ (Electro Pop Productions), the voice of Ted in ‘What’s So Scary? (Directed by Gemma Whiteley ) and Tenderfoot in the same named short film in collaboration with Taner Tatham.
Isaac is keen for his workshops with Sussex Youth Theatre to be fun and engaging while securing a base work of skills everyone can be proud of and strive to develop.
Rosie Watley
Publicity And Marketing Manager and Artistic Associate
Rosie trained as a Dancer at The Legat School of Dance for seven years, before furthering her study at the University of Reading and graduating with a 1st Class (BA Hons) degree in Theatre and Film in 2013. She then went to work abroad in Geneva for a Youth Theatre Academy as a teacher and as the front of house Supervisor. She has also been a member of the National Youth Theatre since 2007 and has worked on their Open Access courses as a peer mentor, facilitating drama workshops for children in under-privileged areas. Rosie is passionate about the importance of theatre for young people and is excited to be back in the UK working with Sussex Youth Theatre as their new Marketing and Publicity Manager.
Her professional credits include ‘Woman in Black’ in the Woman in Black by Simply Theatre Productions (2014), ‘Cynthia’ in Baby with the Bathwater by GED’S (2014), ‘Archivist’ (original cast) in Surviving Objects Directed by Teresa Murjas (2013&2012), Stage manager for Drive In By Red Herring Productions (2012), ‘NHS Nurse’ in the London Olympic Opening Ceremony (2012), ‘Dancer’ in the opening ceremony of the Champion’s League football final at Wembley Stadium (2011). Other credits include writing and directing her own debut play The Punch Bowl, which was awarded the best theatre performance at the Reading University Film and Theatre Festival 2013.