Showdown Theatre Arts is a part-time theatre school based across Surrey and West Sussex for young people who have a passion for performing. Showdown enables members to learn about the industry whilst training and exploring their talent, working alongside professionals and working towards performances in professional theatres to gain true insight and exposure to a performing career. Many of our past students have gone on to train at top drama schools, music academies and universities across the UK and USA and many of our past and current students have worked professionally in Film, TV, Commercials and in the West End!
Principal - Carli Jones
Carli has been, teaching and directing for over 18 years and performing for many more! She is a great believer in young people using the performance arts to develop and express themselves whilst developing their personal skills and talent in the three disciplines of performance. Carli founded Showdown 12 years ago and couldn't be happier with the quality of training that the school is continuing to provide and the students that the school produce, many who are working and training professionally around the world. Carli is also an agent for ‘Showdown Management’ and spends most of her time building the professional careers of her students and adult clients when she is not teaching and directing.
ABOUT US...
Musical Director/Vocal Coach - Dustin Conrad
Dustin is a Musical Director, Pianist and Arranger. His training includes a BMus (Hons) from Surrey University, a PGCE in Music from Reading University and a PGDip in Musical Direction from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
Credits as MD include 9-5 (The Savoy Theatre) Fame (UK Tour); Our House (UK Tour); Little Shop Of Horrors (UK Tour); Jane Eyre: A Musical Drama (Bernie Grant Arts Centre) Blues In The Night (London Hippodrome); Cinderella (Qdos, Theatre Royal, Plymouth); Jack & The Beanstalk, Aladdin, Cinderella (all Millfield Theatre, Edmonton); Violet (Bernie Grant Arts Centre); On The Town; Spend, Spend, Spend! and City Of Angels (Chichester University); Tick, Tick, Boom! (Southbank University); The White Feather (The Union Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Karamel Club) and Love’s Labour’s Lost (Unicorn Theatre & Globe Neuss, Germany) for all three of which he also devised and arranged the music. Additional credits as Assistant MD include Carrie: The Musical (Southwark Playhouse) and Ruthless! (Karamel Club).
MT\Dance - Jane Doyle
Jane Trained for 3 years at Arts Educational Schools London on their musical theatre course. Credits include -Spirit of the Dance, Grease (Germany) Starlight Express (Germany and West End) Godspell (UK tour) Fame(National & European Tour and West End) Boogie Nights the Musical (West End & National tour) Rent (West End and National tour) Oh What A Night (National Tour) Footloose (UK tour) Oliver (Aberystwyth Arts Centre) Simply Ballroom, All you need is love (National tour) Just to name a few, along with various concerts including singing many times at the prestigious Regents Park open-air theatre, The Royal Albert Hall and the O2 to name a few. As well as singing in her function band, Jane is also in great demand as a session singer and has done backing vocals on various albums. Jane has also sailed the high seas as the principal singer and with her own cabaret on P&O and Celebrity. Jane also teaches Singing, Dancing and Musical production at some of London’s top Musical theatre schools
Dance - Mark Lee Davies
Choreographer, Yoga Teacher and Conservationist; Mark has created 8 full length contemporary and commercial dance productions and has many performance credits. Mark is now focusing on choreography and performance art which educates, moves and motivates people of all ages about animal and environmental conservation as part of the MLDAnimaste movement. Mark believes each choreographic piece he works on is a chance for the dancer to learn and grow not only in dance form but as a person, each choreographic piece becomes a journey for the dancer involved. Mark has taught for many performing arts schools since 2004 and is always happy to work with the #teamshowdown students!
MT\Dance - Nathanael Landskroner
Nathanael has been working in theatre for 4 years and is currently Assistant Dance Captain on the musical: Back to the future. Other work includes: An Officer and a Gentleman (UK Tour); Scrooge (Curve Theatre, Leicester); Legally Blonde (International Tour); Grease (Curve Theatre, Leicester/Dubai) and Spring Awakening (National Youth Music Theatre). He has a passion for teaching that works alongside his performing career and loves working with the Showdown students!
What the experts say….
You may be wondering what your child may gain from this type of training and apart from the key element of enjoyment there are a wealth of benefits to young people in this field. You’re probably already aware that your child can become part of a team and improve their self-confidence alongside developing any skills they may have in this area, other benefits are development of the imagination, physical co-ordination and fitness, fluency of speech, social awareness, discipline and self-respect. Drama is also a fantastic vehicle for general knowledge and can be linked with many other subjects at school, English, Art, Music and History to name a few.
Child Welfare
To ensure all parents are comfortable that their children will be left in a safe and secure environment, all our teachers/volunteers are CRB police checked and/or a registered matron licensed by their local authority.