Martha masterminds great new opportunity for young actors in Chichester

My Dream Fun Palace will be in St John’s Chapel on October 4 and 5, and organiser Martha Mosse is looking for 15 young actors to take part in the completely-free activities. The idea is to give aspiring actors the chance to practise and develop their monologues with a view to drama school, auditions, university etc. The participants will receive coaching from theatre professionals and from one another. The coaches will include a casting agent, a director, a playwright, an actor and peers.

The event will also teach the participants techniques in self-criticism as they work towards performing their chosen monologue before an invited audience.

Over the weekend of October 4 and 5, more than 100 Fun Palaces will pop up across the UK and globally as part of a campaign for culture that everyone can join – combining arts and sciences, welcoming and free, at the heart of our communities. Martha, daughter of novelist Kate, is delighted to be bringing the concept to Chichester for the first time.

An artist by training, Martha has close links with the theatre as a former member of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre, and though she decided acting wasn’t for her, she believes her event will plug a crucial gap, the difficult in-between time hopeful actors face after youth theatre, but before taking the plunge into formal training or auditions: “You go through a complicated process, and you have to be prepared,” Martha said. “Events like My Dream Fun Palace for a small number of people will help them get through. We are hoping that it will be a 
recurring event yearly, but maybe with a different theme next year.”

For Martha, it ties in with her plans to move into arts administration: “There will be 15-20 participants who don’t know each other, but the point is it will start their creative critique of themselves, which is such an important tool. When I first started having to critique my own work, I found it was impossible because you can’t be objective.”

It is so hard to find mentors who can give you useful one-to-one feedback. As Martha says, self-critique is a step towards becoming your own mentor, and then at the end of the weekend when the participants perform their monologues, on the back of what they have learnt, they will get a taste of the audition process.

Martha added: “The weekend will conclude with eight inspiring speeches. A range of speakers from different stages of life will make short presentations about their hopes and dreams – and how they intend to achieve them.”

If you are interested, email your name, age, address and a paragraph about yourself to [email protected]

“Come and join us!” Martha said. She is looking for aspiring actors aged 16-25.