Gary Owston: MA; BA (Hons.); ADVS (Dip.)
Gary is the Director of the Bristol Acting Academy and has been teaching for the last 40 years. He teaches Voice, Accents & Dialects and Acting. Gary trained as an actor at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, and at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Gary has taught in most of the top London Drama Schools, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the Children's Theatre in Minneapolis and is currently the Head of Voice at the Bristol School of Acting.
Sam Bridges
Sam is a teacher specialising in theatre. He trained in musical theatre at The BRIT School of Performing Arts and then in Devised Theatre Acting at Bretton Hall. Sam has been working as a specialist leader in education for drama for the Cabot Learning Federation and as a teacher of drama for nine years.His directing credits include A Letter To Lacey at the National Theatre, #YOLO at Bristol Old Vic Theatre, Alice by Heart at Latitude Festival and Welcome to the Jungle at the Tobacco Factory Theatres. He regularly writes and directs work to tour to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and around local venues. He has worked in collaboration with Frantic Assembly, Bassline Circus, Cartoon Network and Circomedia.He is currently working on a Masters degree in Applied Theatre at the Royal Central school of Speech and Drama.
Frazer Meakin
Frazer is a Nottingham-born Director, Movement Director and Educator working across theatre and film. He studied Drama and Acting at UWE then on to Bristol Old Vic Theatre School to study in the MA Drama Directing program. As an artist, he is passionate about bold, ambitious and innovative stories that engage audiences beyond being simply observers. Frazer has directed across a range of styles and forms including musicals, Shakespeare, drag performances and work for young people. He has worked in the West End and taken productions on tour throughout the UK. He is also a resident of the Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio. Frazer is an interdisciplinary artist and loves using movement and music at the heart of his practice; whether to understand emotion and text in rehearsals or by integrating dance and physical theatre into his productions. As well as his work in theatre, Frazer has worked in production for film and TV: including being a Casting Director and in the crew for HETV and film productions.
Toby Hulse
Toby Hulse is a director and playwright who creates theatre for young and family audiences,
and in educational contexts. He has made work for Bristol Old Vic; Polka; the egg; Oxford
Playhouse; Shakespeare North; Derby Theatre; Theatr Clwyd; Watermill, Newbury; Leeds
Playhouse; The Theatre, Chipping Norton; Lakeside Arts, Nottingham; Birmingham Old Rep;
Southwark Playhouse; The Theatre Shop, Clevedon; The Point, Eastleigh; ALine Art; Bristol
Old Vic Theatre School; and Goat and Monkey.
Toby is one quarter of Roustabout, a Bristol based company that tours new work to
theatres, schools, and community venues. Roustabout’s recent productions include
Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish, This Island’s Mine, Luna and The Great Big Story Mix Up, an
improvised story telling show for children, in which he performs.
Toby has twice won the Distinguished Play Award from the American Alliance for Theatre
and Education, for his plays To Dream Again (2018) and Beowulf (2019).
Toby is also a teacher of acting, improvisation and clowning at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
and Bristol School of Acting.
Katharine Rogers
Kath trained as an actor at RADA. She has played leading roles in TV, radio and theatres across the
UK including five seasons at the RSC.
Kath was a Senior Lecturer in Drama and Acting at UWE from 2017 – 2022 specialising in Acting for
Stage and Screen.
Kath has directed over a dozen productions at Central, Guildhall, Drama Centre, RWCD and RADA
as well as numerous text projects, most recently for Bristol School of Acting (BSA). She was an acting
tutor on BOVTS Summer Schools for 10 years (Shakespeare and Modern texts) and at Bristol Acting
Academy (BAA),and has been an audition panelist for Drama Centre, Guildhall and BOVTS.
She ran the Acting for Screen course at Weston College for three years and created the OnIt
Academy Acting for Screen course at the Tobacco Factory. Previously, workshop leader for the North
Somerset Hub running drama projects at Nailsea, Yatton and Ravenswood Schools.
Kath is co-producer and director of Bristol based company Splice Productions. Productions to date:
A multi-media Macbeth co-produced with the BOV. Sus by Barrie Keeffe, a site specific multi media
production at The Bridewell (now The Station). Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas at the Tobacco
Factory Brewery Theatre and venues in the South West. In 2013 Splice commissioned The Dug Out
By Amanda Whittington, set in the legendary Bristol night club. The show had a sell out run at the
Tobacco Factory with a cast of professional young actors and a 'clubbers chorus' of local teenagers.
Professional productions include My Judy Garland Life by Amanda Whittington at Nottingham
Playhouse and Beautiful Thing at Salisbury Playhouse.