Academy Productions at DEMBE Theatre
An Academy production is the point at which months of work in a rehearsal room, a workshop and a lighting box becomes a show with an audience in front of it. These are the productions created and performed by young people in The Academy at DEMBE Theatre, and they are the clearest answer we can give to what this theatre is for.
What is The Academy?
The Academy is our programme for children and young people aged roughly eight to eighteen, led by theatre and education professional Liz Raba. It is a collaborative and supportive space where participants develop self-confidence and communication, work in a positive and inclusive team environment, and learn practical theatre and film making skills. The projects are crafted by experienced industry professionals and designed to welcome and encourage participation from everybody, not only the children who already know they want to perform.
That last part matters. The Academy covers performance, and it covers costume making, script writing, lighting and sound production, stage management, set design, directing and film making. A young person who has no interest whatsoever in standing on a stage has just as much to do here as one who wants nothing else.
What is an Academy production like?
It is a real production, run as a real production. The young people involved are not decorative. They are performing, operating the lighting desk, calling the show, dressing the cast, having built the set they are standing on. Work is pitched at the level the group can genuinely reach, which is usually higher than an outside observer expects.
Programmes vary with each project: a full play or musical, a devised piece the group has written themselves, a showcase of scenes and songs, or a screening of film work made during the term. Running times are generally shorter than adult productions, with an interval, and each production page gives the detail along with any age guidance.
Who should come?
Families and friends of the participants, obviously. But also anyone curious about what young people can do when they are taken seriously and given proper equipment, and in particular any parent weighing up whether their own child might like to join. Watching a production is by far the most useful thing you can do before deciding: you will see the work, how the group treats each other, and what a participant actually ends up doing.
It is an inexpensive evening and short enough for a young audience. Tickets are modestly priced because the aim is a full house, not a profit.
Why these productions exist
The DEMBE Theatre vision sets out four endeavours, and the fourth is to be educational: imparting essential life skills in confidence, communication and collaboration through participation in theatre and the creative arts. The Academy is how that endeavour is delivered, and a production is how it is tested. Anybody can run a confidence-building workshop. Rather fewer can put a nervous thirteen-year-old in front of a full house and have them come off stage taller than they went on.
The skills are transferable and deliberately so. Speaking clearly to a room. Being depended on by other people. Taking direction without taking it personally. Solving a problem at speed with an audience waiting. Those are what participants carry into school, into work and into the rest of their lives, long after they have forgotten their lines.
The other three endeavours hold this one up. Being local means a young person in Tring can reach the Academy without a parent driving an hour each way. Being economical means the fees stay within reach, and that the stage, lighting and crew a production needs are available at a rate the programme can bear. Being sustainable is what guarantees it will still be here when this year's eight-year-olds are sixteen: a theatre funded by one person's goodwill cannot promise a child a decade, and one that stands on its own can.
Taking part
If you are reading this because your child might want to join rather than because you want a ticket, the Academy pages on this site explain the programme and how to register interest. The projects are built to include a wide range of ages, confidence levels and interests, and no previous experience is needed or expected.
Booking, access and finding us
Each production has its own page here with dates, prices, the running time and a seating plan. Academy productions sell quickly in blocks as families book together, so do not leave it late. Concessions are generally available for children of fifteen and under, students in full-time education, over sixties, and registered disabled patrons with their carers, subject to proof. As with every ticket we sell, the price carries a DEMBE Theatre Restoration Fee that goes straight back into the building these young people perform in.
We are at Penny Royal Court, Station Road, Tring, HP23 5QY, with free parking on site, a bus stop on Station Road directly outside and Tring station a short walk away, roughly thirty-five minutes from London Euston. Wheelchair spaces are available in the auditorium; please contact us before booking if you need one or have another access requirement.
Coming up, and already performed
The list below shows Academy productions currently on sale, followed by those already performed. Past productions stay listed permanently, because a young person who was part of one deserves a record of it.
