WEEKLY ACTING CLASSES

YPS shares your passion for your child's love of acting.
Providing exciting and challenging experiences from the best in the acting industry to help them grow as performers.

Is YPS for you?

No singing or dancing. Just high-quality acting classes.

All of our teachers are drama school trained & professional actors.

Students work towards projects every term.

Students meet different actors and experience industry workshops.

Warren Street Weekly Classes

Ages 10 - 13

Wednesdays

Ages 10 - 13

6pm - 7.40pm

10 week term |£280

Old Diorama Arts Centre

Ages 14 - 18

Wednesdays

Ages 14 - 18

7.40pm - 9.40pm

10 week term |£300

Old Diorama Arts Centre

Autumn 2024

Auditions | 18th September

25th September - 4th December

No class - 30th October

Spring 2025

Auditions | 15th January

22nd January- 2nd April

No class - 19th February

Free consultation call and audition
A chance for applicants and parents to get to know us.

First week is Trial Week
If the applicant decides to leave within the first week, we will only charge for one class.

"The students from YPS of Acting show great promise and enthusiasm, and it's workshops like these that refresh my excitement for the future of the industry."

JEREMY ZIMMERMANN, CASTING DIRECTOR.

Sign Up to Audition

Application to Audition

Autumn Term 2024

The Audition Process

And frequently asked questions...

Why does YPS audition?

At YPS of Acting we care about the culture and atmosphere of each acting class. We want everyone that attends to really want to be there. (Not because their friend is going or because their mum wants them to.) We want passion and commitment!

I haven't done any auditions before, does that matter?

No problem at all! Most of our students don't have much audition experience or even any serious acting experience. But they know that they love acting and want to learn more about it and work hard.

Do I have to memorise the speech?

The short answer is no. But we want to see that you've thought a lot about the monologue and rehearsed it as much as possible for you and the time frame you have, and usually if you've practised enough, you will remember it naturally.

Parent & YPS chat

After we receive your application, we usually give the parent/guardian a call to chat about the applicant and any experience they have. (It's fine if you don't have any previous acting experience!)

Following the phone call, we will send you a choice of monologues to choose from with the full audition details and an individual time slot.

Get rehearsing

We will send you a selection of monologues to choose from. Your job is to rehearse this monologue to the best of your ability. We do not expect you to learn it, however, we do think its important that you have thought about the character, what they are thinking about, who they are talking to, where are they and how are they feeling.

Top Tip: We recommend that you rehearse your speech in full at least 15 times.

If you applied last minute, we take this into consideration.

Audition Day

Whether you are auditioning in person or online, it is the same.

You will perform your speech to Lily (Director) and usually one or two other acting coaches. They will then give you some small direction or ask you to perform it in a different way

(so this is worth practicing before the audition day).

Following this, they will ask you some questions. Why you want to join, what you like about acting, which actors you like and why.

Lily Driver-Thurston

Director & Founder

Acting Coach | Surrey | Monday

Lily Driver-Thurston, founder and core coach at The Young Pro School of Acting trained at Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in Acting. Following drama school, Lily created her own theatre company, where she wrote, directed, and cast plays across London theatres. Lily worked professionally for several years. Credits include, roles at the Kings Head Theatre and feature film ‘Through a Dark Mirror.’

Lily went on to production manage plays with Peracals Productions and then worked as Head of Marketing within the same company. Alongside, the years of working in the film and theatre industry, she was teaching acting consistently to children and teens of all ages.

Above all, Lily is passionate about empowering young people to develop their self-confidence and achieve their goals, whatever they may be. Lily believes in the power of acting training and its positive impact on transferrable life skills, confident that any child can learn to act with excellent training and guidance.

Mollie Williams

Assistant Director & Student Support

Mollie is a professional actor, singer, acting coach & LAMDA exam coach who trained in Musical Theatre at renowned performing arts school Italia Conti. She has worked with various theatre companies such as the National Youth Theatre, The Orange Tree Theatre, and The Director's Cut Theatre Company to name a few. Working mostly on developing and performing new material with up and coming writers, she has performed at numerous notable venues including The Southwark playhouse, The Park Theatre, and The Pleasance theatre. Mollie started her teaching journey in 2020, teaching drama classes with The Orange Tree Theatre for young people.

Mollie is a specialist in the Meisner Technique, having trained with The Impulse Theatre Company led by Scott Williams. She is hugely passionate about having a positive impact on young actors and helping them to grow, whether that’s helping them to build their confidence, guiding them through acting exams or being a support for them in their classes.

Marina Tapakoudes

Acting Coach | Monday | Surrey

Marina Tapakoudes is a professionally-trained actor with extensive experience across theatre, television and audio.

She studied acting at the prestigious Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Additionally, Marina has trained extensively in physical theatre with Jaque Lecoq. She has since worked on various professional film sets for Peracals Productions, Pi Productions and Pinewood studios.

Marina's background is in theatre and toured theatres as a rep with companies such as Instinct Theatre, performing in spaces such as 'Leicester Square Theatre', 'Southwark Playhouse' and 'The Kings Head Theatre'.

Marina has been teaching acting for four years to all age groups and has directed several full scale productions.

Peter Losasso

Acting Coach | Central London

Pete’s a professional working actor and experienced drama teacher. He trained at LAMDA and on graduating, won the Spotlight Prize. He’s since worked at some of the UK’s top theatres: Leeds Playhouse, Theatre Royal Bath and the West End’s Arts Theatre to name a few. Pete’s screen work includes roles in BBC TV shows, short films and commercials.

Pete’s love of acting began at his local drama club which he attended from the age of 6. He began assisting at the club as a teenager. He’s gone on to create bespoke workshops for secondary schools, run an after school drama club at a top London secondary school and he’s put dozens of learners through LAMDA exams with a very high distinction rate. His years of training and work as an actor and teacher have instilled in Pete a deep held belief in drama’s incredible capacity to enrich lives. Pete loves nothing more than passing on the bug!