Drama Alumni @ CLFS since 2001

Steph Hyam Steph Hyam first emerged into the world of Drama at CLFS as a Yr 10 GCSE Drama student with her audition for our 2006 Edinburgh production,  'The Lonely Sea and the Sky'. Not only was she a fabulous member of the ensemble but she also played a really important role as the Doctor at the AIDS clinic. From there on she never looked back starring in 'Boating For Beginners' and 'Phaedre' and taking the lead in 'The Withering' in Edinburgh 2008.  In her final year here at  Freemen's she gave us two outstanding performances in 'Mind The Gap' and 'Chatroom' Steph, this year (2009) begins her professional training at Mountview  and I have no doubt that this immensely talented and versatile actress will have a career to rival the very best of  those who have gone on to earn their professional wings here after CLFS!
	Gabi Dempsey Gabi Dempsey was an 'A' Level Drama student at CLFS from 2005 to 2007.  She came here on the recommendation of 'The Guildhall School of Music and Drama' and showed her quality within the first term. She gained 100% for both performance exams at AS/A2 level and is the first student since the 'Golden Group' of 2004/5 to have gained that distinction. She also showed real qualities as a director here in her work on both the unit 4 and unit 5 performance pieces. Gabi gained a place on the actors' course at the Central School of Speech and Drama and will graduate in 2010. I have had the privilege of teaching some great actors during my time as a drama teacher but Gabi is certainly up with the best of them. It will be exciting to see what she achieves in the future.
Andrew Garfield Andrew was an 'A' Level Drama student here at Freemen's between 1999-2001. During his time here he was in a number of productions including ‘A Mother’s Song’ (Edinburgh 2000) and ‘Making Echoes’ (Edinburgh 2001) He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama (B.A. Hons. in Acting), leaving in 2004. After graduation he went straight into ‘Mercy’ at the Soho Theatre in London and then on to star in ‘Kes’ at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, for which he won the ‘Manchester Evening News’ Best Newcomer Award in 2005. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, joining the National Theatre company for their productions of Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship and ‘The Overwhelming’ directed by Max Stafford Clark. No stranger to television either he was in ‘Sugar Rush’ on C4 and was in the final series of ‘Dr Who.’ He was named ‘Outstanding Newcomer’ for his performances in ‘Beautiful Thing’, ‘Burn/Chatroom/Citizenship’ and ‘The Overwhelming’ in the 2006 Evening Standard Drama Awards. In October 2007 he made the move into films with two new films opening at the 'London Fim Festival'; 'Boy A', a powerful new independent film with Peter Mulan about the resettlement of a child murderer - resonances of the 'Jamie Bulger' case here - and 'Lions For Lambs', the Robert Redford film which looked to address the questions about the war in Afghanistan.  He has a leading role in Terry Gilliam's, 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' with Heath Ledger (his final film) , has just completed filming 'Never Let Me Go' with Keira Knightly, and has the lead in the film about the invention of Facebook, 'The Social Network'.
	Faye Winter Anyone who has seen Faye work will not be at all surprised to hear that she finally decided to be an actor; when here she turned in some stunning performances in ‘42nd Street’, ‘A Mother’s Song’, ‘Making Echoes’ and ‘Tales of Ovid’. Having completed her ‘A’ Levels in 2001 Faye went to Hull University to study Drama. She completed her BA. Hons. in Drama in 2005. Having completed her first degree she decided that she wanted to act and so decided to apply for post-graduate actor training courses at Drama School. She was accepted by Mountview and began her course in September 2006. At the end of her studies she was awarded an M.A. in Performance as well as her Equity card as a result of this route into post-graduate actor training. In September 2007 she gained a senior understudy role on 'The Country Wife' at The Haymarket Theatre in London's West End and is presently on Broadway in Jude Law's Hamlet. I believe Faye has it in her to become a major actress in British Theatre and Film; so watch this space.
Karina Cornell Karina, who made a huge impact on the performance work here at Freemen’s with starring roles in ‘Yerma’ as well as in ‘Making Echoes’ in Edinburgh 2001 completed her A Level studies and then went to study for a B.A. Hons in Acting at the Birmingham School of Acting in 2001. Since graduating she has been making her way in the profession as a professional actress, gaining tremendous notices for her work in Edinburgh 2006, as well as for performances on TV and in a number of independent films. She was also to be seen in a gala performance of ‘Sweet Charity’ at the Drury Lane Theatre. Recently she has completed an MA in Screen Acting at he Central School of Speech and Drama and has not stopped working since.
	Kate Mieko Ward  Kate is one of the finest naturalistic actors we have produced here at Freemen’s, starring as Elizabeth in ‘Abandonment’ by Kate Atkinson before triumphing as ‘Tita’ in the award winning adaptation of Laura Esquivel’s ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ in Edinburgh 2003. She went on to play ‘Jackie’ in ‘My Mother Said I Never Should’ with huge intelligence, passion and integrity, gaining full marks in every performance examination within that cohort of ‘A’ Level students. She began her training (B.A. Hons in Acting) at Central in 2004 and graduated in 2007 with full equity status. She immediately succeeded in gaining the role of Mrs Marchmont in Manchester Royal Exchange's production of Oscar Wilde's 'The Ideal Husband'. She has just finished filming a role in 'The Last Jazz Musician'.
Lucy Benson-Brown  Lucy Benson-Brown made a huge impact on the department when she arrived as a new AS student from Singapore in September 2003; no-one who saw her as ‘Hannah Snell’ in Shirley Gee’s ‘Warrior’ either at CLFS or in Edinburgh 2004 will ever forget the ‘tour-de-force’ performance that helped earn this show the following accolade in our 5* review in ‘The Scotsman’... “This is one of the highlights of the Festival and Lucy Brown is clearly a star in the making.” Further she produced a tremendous performance in ‘Kvetch’ by Stephen Berkoff in 2004 and was part of, possibly, the best piece of devised theatre, to that date,  we have witnessed here at CLFS in ‘Excursion into Philosophy’. Forming their own company, to perform my play 'Paula's Children',‘New Flight Productions’, Lucy, Yasmin Shabankareh, Kate Le Versha and Laura Wilson took ‘ther show to the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 and gained a 5* review in ‘Three Weeks’ for their efforts. Lucy was finally recognised as being one of the ‘Top Ten’ A Level Drama students in the country when the results were published in 2005 and was part of the group that made us the winners of the ‘Good School’s Guide’ award for the best A Level results in Drama for girls in an independent school in 2005. Lucy completed her  ‘B.A. Hons in Acting’ at 'Manchester Mertopolitan School of Theatre'in 2008 and has just been cast in a touring production of 'Bink and the Hairy Fairy' in 2009. We all look forward to watching her career  develop over the next few years!
	Caitlin Thorburn Caitlin joined Freemen’s as an AS Drama student in 2004 following six years of education in the USA.   She immediately made an impact with her wonderful portrayal of the eponymous heroine in ‘Complicite’s’ ‘The Three Lives of Lucy Cabrol’. She then starred in the critically acclaimed ‘The Lonely Sea and the Sky’ in Edinburgh 2005 as well as producing one of the outstanding performances of 2006 in ‘5 Kinds of Silence’ by Shelagh Stephenson. Gaining a place on the actor training couse at Manchester Metropolitan Universitty; a course that trained Anthoney Sher amongst others Caitlin appeared in the 'Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre' production of 'Children's Hour' in 2008 and finally achieved  the status of  'Best female actor-graduate' at 'Man Met'. As one of the NCDT accredited courses, she was then assessed for the 'Spolight Award' to find the best actor-graduate in 2009. Whilst she didn't achieve the award, it's fantastic that she came so close! Since graduating she has already secured her first job!