Royal Birmingham Conservatoire - Acting - Tutors

Roger Bartlett

Stage Combat Tutor

Roger is a Master Teacher and Examiner with the British Academy of Stage & Screen Combat (BASSC) – the UK’s leading provider of stage combat training. He has over 14 years of experience and has taught at schools and workshops around the world including USA, Germany, Switzerland and Israel.

Maria Blundell-Palethorpe MSc Dance Science

Visiting Lecturer

Maria is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham School of Acting, teaching contemporary dance and physical theatre on the BA Acting course. Maria’s career spans choreography, film making, teaching and performing. Maria has been commissioned as a choreographer on several high profile projects including a commission by Birmingham City...

Dr Paola Botham

Senior Lecturer in Drama

Dr Paola Botham (née Sotomayor) is a theatre academic who specialises in modern and contemporary drama. She was born in Chile, where she studied Journalism and Aesthetics at Universidad Católica, ranked among the top higher education institutions in Latin America. After moving to the UK, she completed an MA in British Theatre...

Stephanie Dale

Visiting Lecturer in Playwriting

Stephanie writes for stage, radio and large-scale theatre. Currently she is a Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham School of Acting, teaching playwriting and applied drama. For five years she was a supervisor on the MPhil in Playwriting at the University of Birmingham. She also taught Applied Drama at Loughborough University, for...

Aleksandar Dunjerovic

Professor in Performing Arts

Aleksander is an internationally award winning professional theatre director. His research and theatre practice informs his learning and teaching and development of student experience. In his 26 years of theatre career, he has directed across Britain, Ireland, Serbia, Romania, Iran, Colombia, Japan, Brazil and Canada. His...

Jacqui Findlay

Programme Director for Stage Management - BA (Hons) and Production Manager

Jacqui Findlay is Programme Director for Stage Management - BA (Hons) and Production Manager. During her freelance professional career Jacqui worked on a diverse range of projects from Shakespeare to contemporary dance via opera and panto. Many of these projects toured both nationally and internationally. Just before joining...

Ellie Forrest

Lecturer in Voice

Ellie is a voice and accent coach and lecturer based in the West Midlands. She holds a master’s degree with Distinction in Professional Voice Practice from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She currently teaches across all years of the undergraduate and postgraduate acting courses. She specialises in accent and dialect but is...

Francesco Gabriele

Head of Screen and Audio

Francesco Gabriele is a British-Italian film director, producer, and academic. He studied acting at Scuola d'Arte Drammatica 'Teatro Azione' in Rome and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles before completing an MA in Filmmaking at the London Film School, specialising in directing and producing. In 2014, he...

Dr Polly Hudson

Associate Professor in Dance

Polly is a Reader in Dance, and Head of Movement at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. As an artist-scholar Polly’s practice engages with process within artistic making, ethical embodied approaches to teaching and leadership, and EcoSomatics, with a current focus on working class women’s labour of the body and on the land. ...

Iain Jackson

Resident Accompanist

Iain is a graduate of The University of Birmingham and Birmingham Conservatoire, where he studied piano accompaniment under Simon Nicholls and Robert Markham. He also studied composition at The Royal Academy of Music, and is a qualified teacher, holding a PGCE from BCU. He is now employed as the in-house accompanist at the...