Victoria Munnich, Artsplan Trainer
After training as an Actor/Teacher, a combined degree at Sydney Webb College of Education and Central School of Drama, Victoria was in a great hurry to earn some real money and signed up as a supply teacher and worked across London in both primary and secondary schools, teaching “anything to anybody”. In between she attended numerous acting auditions, ending up in Profit share Theatre Companies. Determined to create theatre, she set up her own T.I.E. company and devised an “interactive show” The Spiders Race for early years, which was about issues of bullying and disability. She received funding from Islington Borough Council to tour the play to local primary schools.
As a result of it’s success and her new found confidence, she earned her first “equity” job as as Actor/Community Drama Worker with Solent People’s Theatre based in Southampton. While working there, she was asked to set up a Youth Theatre Company at the local Arts Centre: The Gantry. It started out with two people turning up, within months there was a long waiting list.
Being adventurous Victoria moved North to work at the Dukes Theatre Lancaster running the Youth & Community Dept and organising the Writers in Residence Scheme. Even though she loved the Dukes Theatre, Victoria needed to move on to a bigger city. So she packed her bags and ran Oldham Theatre Workshop, a specialist Young People’s Theatre Centre.
Victoria now has over twelve years experience of setting up Youth Theatre Groups both in house and outreach. She has directed both devised issue based productions and large scale musical theatre productions. Best of all she has taken Youth theatre groups out on tour both in this country and overseas in Poland and Romania.
Victoria’s major claim to fame, to date, is to be the only Theatre Director to produce and direct a play in a working windmill: Skidby Windmill in the East Riding of Yorkshire. That’s what she loves about creating theatre: it can and does happen anywhere anytime…………………………….
