The Little Tanks Team

Debi Rush gained a BA Honours Degree in performing Arts at the University of Hertfordshire in 1998. She then began work as a professional actress in children’s theatre working with the legendary ‘Sooty’ and touring with ‘Art Attack’. After travelling the world, purely for pleasure, Debi decided on a slightly different career path on her return. She has never looked back and has been teaching drama to children aged 5-12 years for the past 18 years. Debi began Little Tanks in 2003 teaching all the classes herself, however after a growth spurt in the company and starting a family, she decided to take a more managerial role. Little Tanks has grown from strength to strength building up to 18 schools per term!

Emma Duncan7907Emma Duncan Trained at the University of Central Lancashire gaining a BA Hons degree in Acting. Since then as well as perusing a career in acting Emma has also found a love of teaching her skill to others. Emma has taught at Stage Coach teaching children from aged 5 up to teens all the disciplines; drama, singing and dance before setting up her own holiday theatre workshops that proved very successful before taking some time out to travel the world. Now Emma is back in the UK and working as a nanny for 2 families looking after babies and toddlers she is keen to get back into teaching by joining the Little Tanks team.

Lucie Rutherford qualified as a teacher of Performing Arts from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2007, with a pedagogy and practice Masters in Voice Studies. Previously, she trained as an actress at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Queen Mary, University of London, graduating in 1998, with a BA (Hons.) in Drama. Since graduating, she has taught Voice, Acting and Drama to adults in drama schools and the business sector; taught children in stage schools and senior schools (GCSE and A Level); has coached privately in the West End and for drama/stage school/scholarship exams.  She currently teaches LAMDA Acting Grades to teenagers.  Lucie is thrilled to be joining the Little Tanks family.  She believes that all subjects feed into drama; there is a reference point for everyone, encouraging them to get involved creatively, whether through performance, design, construction, writing and story-telling, or stage management. There is truly something for everyone!

Ana Hannan trained in Musical Theatre at The Wilkes Academy of Performing Arts and graduated in 2019. Since graduating she’s been working as a singer for events and working a variety of jobs within the performing arts industry. Throughout her adult life Ana has taught Musical Theatre and dance classes for children aged 6-18 years for The Dance Academy. In 2022 Ana gave birth to twin girls and has been itching to get back to her love of drama and singing so is over the moon to be joining the team!

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lane is currently in her second year studying English and Drama at Royal Holloway University of London. She has been on stage for as long as she can remember, all the way from primary school shows to university. Along the way, she has gained 95% in her Grade 8 Musical Theatre singing exam, began training at West End Musical Theatre in London, and gone on to establish herself in a whole new group of talented and friendly performers at uni. Going to drama clubs just like Little Tanks is what inspired Lizzie to pursue a career in musical theatre in the first place, so she is so excited to be joining the team and helping inspire a new generation of performers!

Florence Hiscox is currently in her second year at Royal Holloway studying Drama and Creative Writing. Her love for drama started at age four, and since then she has always belonged to several drama clubs and socities, and has participated in many productions and performances with them. Her hope is that by joing Little Tanks, she can leave the same impact on other children that she was left with, and show how drama can be such a joyous and positive activity for all.

Alfie Lucas is currently studying English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has performed in several plays and musicals, including a completely improvised musical! Alfie has a deep rooted passion for using Drama to boost children’s confidence as he found much of his own confidence through Drama in both school and in Drama clubs. He cannot wait to see all the talent shown by the young performers and to help them in any and all ways possible!

Lily Dyball is currently in her third year at Royal Holloway University of London. Her passion for Drama began when she attended a youth theatre company as a child, and she hopes to help provide young people with the same opportunities, memories and skills that she gained at her drama club. Since then she has continued to develop and grow in her field, participating in performances as well as facilitating workshops and teaching opportunities. At university, she helps to direct performances and is in the process of writing her second political play, with hopes to bring it to the stage in the future. She is so excited to support Little Tanks and hopes that she can help create memories and enable students to grow and develop their skills.

Aisha Theophilus is currently in her gap year continuing her love for drama before she begins studying it at university this following academic year. She has experience in drama teaching as she’s written and directed plays for younger students within her secondary school. She aspires to teach drama one day to help children find the same passion for the arts she has and is desperate to start this with Little Tanks!

Anastasia Gorelova is currently in her first year of uni, studying Drama and Creative Writing at Royal Holloway. She’s loved theatre and performing since she was young, taking part in various musicals and productions in school, drama clubs and local youth theaters, as well as singing in different choirs. She’s very passionate about theatre, especially musical theatre, as it’s helped her find lots of confidence and a supportive community, and she hopes it can do the same for many others. She’s incredibly excited to join the Little Tanks team and help to create fun memories for the young performers, and to show them all the best parts of drama and performing.

Elisa Musson graduated with a BA (Hons.) in Performing Arts at Buckinghamshire New University in 2020. Although she initially wanted to work as an actor, since graduating, she has decided to pursue a career in casting, working in theatre, film, and TV. Over the past few years, she’s worked with many productions, finding and casting children in exciting projects. She’s also taught several casting workshops for actors in the creative industries and children at stage schools. Elisa is excited to join the Little Tanks team, as her determination to have a career in the creative industries stemmed from being in after-school clubs and performing shows at a young age. She only hopes to incite the same confidence and passion to be creative in the new generation of performers!

Amelie Owen is currently studying her A levels and enjoys helping in her role as a drama assistant. She has performed in many school plays and has enjoyed a background of dance performing at festivals. She has recently completed a Musical Theatre course at Read College for Theatre and Drama. She finds joy in watching children grow in their love for performance and hopes to encourage the children to use drama as an outlet to fully express themselves!

Anna Wellman is currently studying to graduate her BA in Drama and Theatre Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2023. She has completed LAMDA grades in both Acting and Musical Theatre, alongside both performing in and directing multiple productions both in and out of the university setting. Anna’s passion for teaching drama to young people began as a pupil at her own drama classes by helping to mentor the younger members of the class, and believe that drama is a wonderful method to help every child reach their full potential.

Jack Kidson is currently in his third year studying drama and theatre studies at Royal Holloway University of London. He has a lot if performing experience ranging from completing his LAMDA acting exams as a teenager to performing in plays and musicals at university. He even performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival just last Summer! Jack’s passion for theatre came from when he himself took part in a local after school drama club and he can’t wait to pass his experience and knowledge on to the next generation of young performers!

Alexandra (Alex) Searle graduated from GSA in July 2018 with a degree in theatre and performance. During her training Alex completed her Lamda grades and spent a placement year teaching and gaining plenty of experience at Berzerk Productions. During her final year at GSA Alex co-created Tales & Trails Children’s theatre company that took ‘Eliza’s Big Adventure’ to the Edinburgh Fringe 2018. Alex has always had a passion for working with young people and enjoys working for Surrey Youth Music Theatre during the holidays helping to create musicals in a short space of time with groups of young people. You may also find Alex dressed as a princess and covered in glitter working as a party host for CTP, making children’s party dreams come true!

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