Having graduated from the Young Producers course at Lighthouse two years ago, Tiger Deffee has returned to education, studying Performing Arts at Arts University Bournemouth. As well as singing and acting she has taken on the role of teacher at Lighthouse Youth Theatre, working with all three age groups.
So, how is it going?
It’s been fantastic; I really enjoy it. I love teaching, so it’s great fun. I got into teaching through my mum – I help her with youth theatre at home – then Lighthouse contacted me about this job, and here I am.
Is this a way of pursuing your professional practice while also generating some income?
Exactly, yes. I really enjoy teaching, so I always thought whatever can get me into the industry is fantastic, but I don’t plan to be a teacher forever even though I love it. I’m going to do this for a year, and then hopefully next year I’ll audition for drama schools again and see what happens.
Working with young people, can you see which ones are serious about it?
Well, they’re all pretty serious about it, otherwise they wouldn’t be here, but I think can you see which ones are actually going to do something with it.
It really depends, because some kids are very boisterous; they’re running around, they’re screaming, they’re just having fun, and then some kids really hone in and go: ‘This is what we’ve been asked to do, this is what I’m going to do.’ So, those kids I feel are more likely to want to pursue it, because they’re really like, I’m set on this.
And other kids are just having fun, which is absolutely fine, because that’s what drama is, just a bit of fun.
Without fun, you don’t get the joy of doing it. So, what have you been doing this year?
Lots of things. Mostly just drama games, so a bit of freeze and go, a bit of, OK, can we pretend we’re animals. They really particularly enjoyed this one game we played called Find the Lion, where we go around and we basically tell a story, because that’s what acting is, it’s just storytelling.
And they love getting to come up with their own ideas, and going on this big adventure, and they can picture it all with their imagination, it’s really fun. For the youngest group in particular, we just set the narrative and we go on the adventure. But for the middle group, because they’re so excited by it, they were able to go, oh, and we can do this, and we can do this, and we can bring this. So, it depends on the age group. The older the group gets, the more imaginative they are.
Are you able to guide the imaginations of the younger ones a little bit?
Yeah, in a way. We can set the scene, and we can go: ‘OK, we’re in a bog,’ and then some children will go: ‘OK, well, I brought this, which can help us get out the bog,’ which is fantastic.
And are you finding that you’re learning as well?
To an extent. I’m learning how to teach, because although I’ve taught in the past, usually I take the role of assistant teacher. As assistant teacher, your job is to look at the kids who aren’t joining in and see if you can motivate them to join in. And you can help the smaller groups out. But when you’re the main teacher, you have to focus on everyone. So, they’re all the priority.
