More recently, Jo won Best Actress (Richmond Arts Swan Award 2008) for her role as Olive in ‘Summer of the Seventeenth Doll’ at Hampton Theatre. She also, to her students delight, donned a bee costume and played the title role in Buzz Theatre’s production of ‘Bea’ at the Riverhouse Barn in 2010. As well as Monkey Theatre, Jo co-runs two adult performance groups: Alter Ego (acting) and Mama Vox (singing) and also coaches students for LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) exams.
Jo began her acting career at the age of 6, playing lead angel in the school nativity play. Since those first tentative steps on stage she has seldom looked back. She studied acting at The Poor School in London, performed and directed at the Edinburgh Festival and worked as an actress for some years in a variety of roles - eg Krumpcracker for Pop-Up Theatre, Ugly Witch for Mimus Theatre, Mad Woman in Wig for Israeli TV, sometimes up trapezes, sometimes in old deserted houses … sometimes playing to hundreds of people, sometimes not …...
Jo began Monkey Theatre in 2005 to offer a theatre club to children and young people where the focus would be on drama rather than musical theatre, and which would give every student plenty of opportunities to perform. Since the first year with just one class, Monkey Theatre has now grown to offer four different classes, with student ages ranging from 7 – 15 years (see Monkey Theatre Classes for details). Each year each Monkey Theatre group is involved in a performance.
There are no auditions for Monkey Theatre. Jo says: I believe that everyone has something to offer. If they enjoy acting and work hard they will be good enough to perform in a Monkey Theatre show. It is also important that all the actors contribute fully to the shows – there are no walk on parts – if you’re in, you’re in!
At the heart of Monkey Theatre lies an important principle: making exciting drama happen on stage means the actors have to work together as a very committed team. Actors at Monkey Theatre learn this through the workshops and the performances, and it gives them confidence in each other and in their performance work. They have a lot of fun together but also produce shows of which they can feel very proud.
Jo Humphries
Chief Monkey
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