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20 years ago, sisters Donna and Bonnie Sullivan set up their musical theatre school - D&B Theatre School.
Having attended Italia Conti stage school and become performers themselves, Donna and Bonnie are aware of both the training and career sides of the industry and have since launched an agency for children and young adults as well as offering affordable professional training opportunities for students aged 16-plus via D&B School of Performing Arts.
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D&B Theatre School
The school was established in 1988 and, having decided from the start to not just be another dance school, the sisters offer tuition in all aspects of the performing arts on a part-time basis for children from 4 years-old to young adults. The classes now cover everything from singing, acting, dance and musical theatre to production and cabaret and range in level from beginners to advanced. The emphasis is to produce performers whether a pupil attends once a week for fun or wishes to one day enter the industry as a professional. Knowing first-hand the realities of the ups and downs of the industry, the Theatre School encourages all the pupils to concentrate on their educational studies at school as well as devoting as much time as they can to the vocational performance classes. Professional teachers, offering specialised training in all aspects of performance, run the classes and pupils who wish to can use the skills they learn as a foundation for entry to the full-time D&B Performing Arts College.
D&B School of Performing Arts
In 2000, having seen a need for affordable, professional training opportunities for 16- year-olds leaving theatre schools, Donna and Bonnie started their own further education college - D&B School of Performing Arts - offering a 3 year, full-time musical theatre course. The College is small, with forty one students enrolled across the three-years and numbers limited to 20 in each year. Though numbers are growing, the sisters see the benefits of maintaining the current un-intimidating atmosphere where all the pupils are known and their talent can be nurtured.
Fees for the course are heavily subsidised by the Sullivans and charged at £725 per term and many of the students self-fund by working part-time. To help them achieve this, in the first year each student does an aerobics teaching qualification under a qualified aerobics teacher. This helps the students understand their bodies but also gives them a saleable part-time skill.
Some of the students come through the D&B Theatre School but many come from further a field and are living away from home in local digs. Every student, wherever they have come from and who have completed the course since 2000, is in work.
D&B Management
Completing the potential route of progression from part-time classes through full-time training to actually working in the performing arts industry, Donna and Bonnie launched their agency, D&B Management. Representing children and young adults, they have placed clients in almost every show in London, many TV dramas, and recently placed a boy in the recent 'Harry Potter' film. All their clients appear in the Spotlight Children & Young Performers directory and attend regular workshops to allow the sisters to keep up with their clients' strengths and capabilities.
To find out more about D&B Performing Arts, visit www.dandbperformingarts.co.uk.
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