'I've been known to be starstruck'

 

Deborah Galea is mum to Amelie, four, and Luca, who will be two in a couple of weeks. She and her husband moved to Cookham from Iver in 2006 as they fell in love with the pubs – apparently the thought of sunny afternoons sitting outside The Crown and strolling home were a big selling point! She is now teaching her Phonic Adventures class at Sparky's in Cookham...

 

My passion has always been in acting. I trained at ArtsEd Drama School
in Chiswick, where I gained a BA in Acting. After leaving drama school,
I worked mainly in theatre, plus some radio, TV and film work. I also taught drama to children. But after moving to Cookham, the commute to London
for castings became a chore and aided me to redirect my skill.

   I trained to be a primary school teacher in 2009, and attended a training course in teaching phonics. During this course, I kept thinking how adding drama to teaching sounds would make the children's learning so much more memorable and fun. Having two young children, it has been difficult to put
my ideas into action, but then I met Amber Edlin, who set up Sparky's Drama. 

Amber has worked in theatre, TV, commercials and films, and has also been a teacher at a number of drama schools and for franchises. Sparky’s Drama was born out of her love of teaching and a passion to bring professionally run classes to her local community. 

   Amber and I both have children at Cookham Nursery School, and after attending a parenting workshop there, we got chatting about our experiences
of teaching drama. We went over to Costa and I told Amber my idea of a pre-schoolers class mixing drama and phonics. Amber emailed me later on to say... 'Shall we?' I replied: 'Yes, let's!' She gave me the motivation I needed to start teaching the classes. 

   I feel my experience in acting, teaching primary children and teaching drama has given me the knowledge I need for the classes. And I am in my element 

teaching drama as it means I can play a range of characters whilst helping children to learn sounds and build confidence. 

   I would like my classes to help parents who aren't confident in helping their children to read phonetically. Parents will be given a list of sounds I intend to cover each half term, and at least once a term the parents will be invited to come into the class and see a display of drama and sounds to keep them
in the loop. The goal is to take Phonic Adventures to other local towns in the near future. 

   Finally, we all have an idol, and mine is Juliet Stevenson. I saw her on stage when I was a teenager, playing Nora in A Doll's House. I was inspired by her to
go to drama school and dreamt of being able to act with as much passion and believability as her. A few years ago, I had a small part in a film she was in - Pierrepoint. I wanted desperately to introduce myself but became starstuck and couldn't quite find the courage! Next time...

 

WANT TO TRY A FREE TRIAL CLASS OF PHONIC ADVENTURES?

It's on Wednesday 18th March, 13:30-14:10pm at Cookham Dean Village Hall. 

Email Info@sparkysdrama.co.uk 

 

For more info, visit

 

 

And to read all about Amber and Sparky's, click