Lights, camera, action! Essential Surrey magazine, September 2024

Richmond Theatre hosts acting classes for the over 50s. Deana Luchia takes to the stage.

Wednesday morning and I’m already in the bar. At Richmond Theatre, to be precise, standing between Gwyneth Paltrow and James Bond, and just across from detectives Vera Stanhope, Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes. I’m actually Thomas the Tank Engine – at least, I’m working on it, searching hard for Thomas’s voice and mannerisms.

To clarify, we’re all here – 12 men and women aged early 50s to late 70s – channelling TV, film and book characters as part of Class Act, an acting class for the over-50s run by Richmond Theatre’s Creative Learning team. Those attending for the first time are slightly nervous, unsure what to expect; those of us who have been here before are smiling and can’t wait to begin today’s session. We know this is going to be fun.

“Everyone starts by saying how apprehensive they are, but you can see how quickly they’re up for silliness,” says Class Act’s acting practitioner Jess Haygarth. “Most people aren’t taking the sessions because of anything to do with their career. It’s not a work thing, so inhibitions are down. There’s a nice atmosphere in which everyone laughs and learns something new.”

The ‘something new’ is the craft of acting – and it’s fascinating. After quick introductions – as well as several retirees, there’s a yoga instructor, a stand-up comedian and a writer here today – we begin by choosing a mimed gesture that encapsulates the character assigned to us. Then we work on how he or she might talk and move around the room.

There’s a lot of chatter as everyone tries out their ‘new’ voice before walking around the bar – or, in my case, jogging round on invisible train tracks – and interacting with the other characters. I bump into a fussy Hercule Poirot and a contemplative Sherlock Holmes (actually a retired couple from Wandsworth), toot my horn at a coolly aloof Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep’s Oscar-nominated role in The Devil Wears Prada) and hurry past a fabulously pompous Captain Mainwaring.

Next, Jess asks us to write a short monologue about how our characters feel when they find themselves out of their comfort zone. This is exactly why I have joined Class Act – as part of a yearly resolution I make to try a range of activities I’d normally avoid. I haven’t acted since I was a miserable angel in a school play, aged six.

But I love today’s session. Maybe it’s an age thing. In my 20s I would never have considered acting – too shy, too self-conscious, too worried what other people thought about me. Now, I just want to have fun.

“Lots of people will have done am-dram, or something similar,” says Jess, in answer to my question as to why these classes target the over-50s. “They are interested in theatre and now they finally have time to give it a real go.”

Like me, most people here haven’t acted since school, though my previous class included a couple of actors who’d appeared as extras and minor characters on TV. The majority are here to try something different, or simply to have a laugh and meet new people.

I might not be a credible steam train, but huffing and puffing my way around the bar is the most fun I’ve had in ages. And I’m not the only one: everyone is laughing and joking as they bring their characters to life. It’s rare to be this playful and silly as an adult; even rarer to be doing so in a room filled with strangers.

“Being creative, having fun with people you don’t know, is a great and unusual thing to do,” agrees Jess. “Acting helps people feel more confident because, while the thought of doing it in front of strangers is scary, just diving in proves to yourself that you can.”

It’s also great for mental health, she says, as it “gets you out of your own head to pretend to be someone else for a while”.

And so to the ‘hot seat’, an exercise during which participants take questions in character. The idea is to know your character inside out; to know how he or she would respond in any situation. There’s no pressure to take the hot seat, but those that do – Captain Mainwaring and Miranda Priestly – are brilliant.

Class Act is a huge hit: amateur thespians actually wait at the theatre door in hope of returned tickets. Happily, the Creative Learning team is to host monthly sessions till the end of the year.

For more info and tickets: atgtickets.com/venues (richmond)

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This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Essential Surrey magazine and was posted online at: https://www.essentialsurrey.co.uk/things-to-do-surrey/adult-acting-classes-over-50s/