Meet Our Tutors

Alex Marker

Artistic Director, Youth Theatre Director and Senior Tutor

Alex is the current director of The Questors Youth Theatre and has taught on the programme for thirty years. He is a qualified teacher (PGCE: University of Greenwich) and taught theatre craft subjects at Kingston Upon Thames College’s Production Arts course for 14 years. He also spent 6 years lecturing on the University of West London’s Technical Theatre BA (Hons) course. He has run workshops and masterclasses for a wide range of clients including:  The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages Project, The Little Theatre’s Guild of Great Britain, The National Operatic and Dramatic Association and The National Student Drama Festival. Parallel to his teaching career Alex is a critically acclaimed stage designer. Since graduating (BA Hons in Theatre Design: Wimbledon School of Art), Alex has designed over 200 productions for fringe, regional, touring, site-specific and West End venues. He is also Resident Designer at the Finborough Theatre and the Artistic Director of The Questors Theatre.

Ant Griffith

Improvisation & Comedy Tutor, Founder of 'The Slack Captains'

Ant Griffith is tutor for L1, L2 and L3 of Improv at Questors. He completed Questors Foundation and Advanced Performance courses as well as graduating in Foundations of Acting at Mountview Drama School and Directing at the City Lit. He has studied improvisation at The Free Association, Hoopla, and The Maydays under Suki Webster, Josie Lawrence & David Razowsky, and is the founder and tutor of the Questors home improv team The Slack Captains. He is also a musician and songwriter, with several songs in the movie ‘The Girl with a Clock for a Heart’ directed by Daniel Barber, currently in pre-production.

David Emmet

Director of Studies; Acting Tutor, Foundation Course in Acting

David is a hugely experienced director and acting tutor at The Questors Theatre. After training on the Foundation Course and the Advanced Performance Course, he acted and directed at The Questors and developed courses for young adults. He moved on to become the Acting Tutor on the Foundation Course in 1982 and took over as Director of Studies from Alfred Emmet, the founder of the course, in 1983, since when he has guided and trained the students in 42 Groups. He is the author of all the teaching materials used on the acting course and has directed over 60 productions at The Questors Theatre.

Jessica Balmer

Lead Tutor, Acting for All; Senior QYT Tutor

Jessica is an actor, director, facilitator and Associate of the National Youth Theatre. She has worked with a plethora of arts organisations and youth theatres across London and Berkshire to share her process, knowledge and love of the creative industry.

As an actor she has worked in TV, Film and Theatre and has recently finished a U.K. tour of ‘Macbeth’ and ‘A Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde’ with Dickens Theatre Company. You can see her star along side Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver and Christopher Llyod in ‘Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose’ streaming on Amazon Prime and as Mia in horror film ‘Pinocchio Unstrung’ alongside Richard Brake releasing this summer in cinemas.

Russell Fleet

Tutor

Russell trained as an actor in the mid-90s at The Actors Institute, sadly no longer with us, but an amazing experience.  After working for some years in professional theatre with varying degrees of success, he left to do other things, returning to the theatre at The Questors in 2006. He is now firmly established as a director, actor, stage manager and sound designer having worked on in excess of 60 shows in various capacities. In 2014 he obtained a Masters in Actor Training and Coaching from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.