Linda Rose - youth worker & community consultant, playwright, musician, and pioneer of the 'Love and Laughter' trauma therapy

Drama

Love of the dramatic keeps Linda Rose producing new dramas, especially ones she has written herself. Drama is often a vital exploration of the world we cannot directly experience, and an expression of emotions we dare not demonstrate.

The drama and writing sections will overlap and repeat but seemed to be too distinctive to have combined. Drama includes writing as well as performances of a variety of productions, not just self written pieces; whereas writing includes more strands than just scripts but also includes articles, poems and stories. So if the information you are looking for is not in one section please check the other sections just in case.

Linda was still in Primary school in Sheffield when she wrote her first play at the age of 10, Sleeping Beauty and Co which the teacher kindly allowed to be practised in breaks and lunchtimes and then performed to other year groups, in which she played the King - as she often preferred playing masculine roles. At the same time she worked with a friend creating comic plays at lunchtimes where she played a hen-pecked husband called Ernie, in her mini show Elsie and Ernie. Sadly none of these lunchtime scripts survive but that is probably good!!

Linda was part of a very vibrant church where drama and music was used often for large scale performances and one of the members was a professional writer whose writing credits included some episodes of Dr Who in the 1980s. Linda was encouraged to start experimenting more in acting and writing during her early teens. When she went to Calvin College, Grand Rapids USA at the age of 16 she studied drama in earnest and became an avid member of the Thespians, receiving an award for her portrayal of Mags in Winners and Losers by Brian Friel. She also performed in German in the parallel play to Midsummer Night's Dream, Herr Peter Squentz by Andreas Gryphius who was born in 1616, the same year Shakespeare died. Linda played the Wall and enjoyed the challenge and experience of speaking in German, and especially the stage fight. The year spent at Calvin College whetted Linda's appetite for more theatre work and she began acting and writing in earnest.

At University in Aberystwyth, Wales, she studied Drama, English and Education, going on to specialise in drama with her exchange year at UCSD, in California, USA where she performed in several plays and wrote a number of one act plays as well as studying 'acting for the camera' under a former Hollywood director. Linda took paid employment with the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego working for the marketting department and Front of House, where she learned a lot more about professional theatre from the atmosphere, watching a diversity of performances, and the professional staff and writers. The teaching code at UCSD was very conducive to professional learning, as all staff had to be professionals in their own field before they were allowed to teach - a marked and important difference to the staff in the UK. This year out was a deep and rich experience in Linda's development.

Her final year back in the UK saw her majoring in writing where she wrote her final year play Blind Elektriks about incest.

Having started a family after University, in 1991 Linda started sessional work in the Brewhouse Arts Centre running children's drama clubs and parent and child toddler sessions with folk singer and arts worker Chris Foster. Linda ran Dramaworks for the Brewhouse for several years, which was an integrated drama session for adults with different needs.

Linda set up her own preschool music and drama club called JUMP! This ran under the Lifelong Learning section in her home town and leisure centre, and taught children to explore their bodies and movement as well as rhythm and music skills alongside their parents.

Linda ran Dramaworks for the Brewhouse which was an integrated drama session for adults with different needs for several years.

For the last few decades Linda has continued community drama within her church and local community writing and directing many pieces of religious and educational drama, examples of which can be found on the writing page. Most years Linda is responsible for the Christmas Eve play in her local church which has been the recreation of the Christmas story set in various different forms to make it relevance to a modern audience, including her full length musical called 'The Strangest Night' which was performed in 2001 and in 2011. In 2012 Linda wrote and directed a children's musical called 'Our Town' which was a fantasy story based on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Linda has enjoyed acting in various sketches but her youth work took over her evenings meaning that her acting took a back seat to her professional youth work.

Puppets

In recent years Linda has developed puppet work and has a large number of puppets stored in Sri Lanka as well as in her home in the UK which are used for public performances as well as for church and workshops. Linda encourages children to use the puppets for their own storytelling as well as for therapeutic uses, and uses them in the 'Love and Laughter' workshops with adults and children. Puppets are very useful for children expressing themselves more clearly than acting as themselves and free them from embarrassment, especially when hiding behind a screen to perform. Linda has developed techniques for using puppets in child protection education and exploration as well as fun projects using traditional stories and faith based work. In 2016, Linda wrote and produced a full length puppet play, 'A Very Puppet Christmas', for the Gresley Church Christmas play which was packed out both nights.

Linda sees drama as a very powerful educational tool and has used street drama to very positive effect in many places including internationally. She has a very large costume department which causes some difficulties in the home environment but she enjoys making her own costumes for every age group.

To buy Linda Rose's book of sketches, visit Amazon or Lulu.com.

A review from Amazon verified purchaser Angela Jackson on 8 May 2016 wrote:

Great book will come in very useful, used one sketch already and gone down very well.

A review from the Lulu.com site: Winston John wrote on 15 Oct 2009:

Busy Churches sure could do with these Easy Sketches! This book is really great. The plays in it are mostly short, easy-to-perform dramas, and each has a solid meaning. Our church has really enjoyed and appreciated the ones we've performed so far. Linda Rose clearly has great talent in writing these church sketches. I hope to see more of her work one day. W.J.