Senior Acting Lecturer
Martyn Dempsey is an Actor, Writer, Theatre Maker and Lecturer based in Edinburgh.
Training: East 15 Acting School, National Youth Theatre, Scottish Youth Theatre
As an actor Martyn has worked with companies across the UK including Les Enfants Terribles, Hull Truck, Derby Theatre, Gala Theatre, Chipping Norton Theatre, Greyscale, Gameshow, Supporting Wall, SCAMP Theatre, Mischief La Bas, Hopscotch Theatre, Tall Stories, Nabokov, Mansfield Palace Theatre, Magpie Puppet Company, Infinite Jest, Old Saw, Finborough Theatre, Scottish Opera, Young Vic and many more. Over the years Martyn has been involved in devising a range of productions which have toured both nationally and internationally to critical acclaim, as well playing in the West End. Martyn has regularly specialised in actor-musician work, new writing, devised performance, clowning, and children’s theatre.
As a writer Martyn’s work has been performed at venues including Theatre 503, Greenwich Theatre, Tron Theatre, Cambridge Junction and his play The Girl with the Imagination was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award. Over the last year as a writer/composer Martyn has been involved with Mercury Musical Developments BEAM Follow Up group in Scotland.
As a lecturer, outreach practitioner, and facilitator Martyn has worked regularly delivering workshops and specialist courses for a wide range of organisations including MGA Academy, Royal Conservatoire Scotland, Old Vic New Voices, Almeida Theatre, Impact Arts, National Youth Theatre, Shakespeare Schools Festival, Scottish Youth Theatre, and East 15 Acting School. Martyn is also currently in his final year of study for the MEd in Learning and Teaching in the Performing Arts at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where his research specialisms have been mental wellbeing in the performing arts, devised theatre practices, and music composition within devised performance.
Acting Lecturer
Samantha Robinson is a an Actress, Director, Writer and Teacher who trained at Rose Bruford College where she won the Laurence Olivier bursary award.
Her acting credits for theatre include: Two by Jim Cartwright at the New Vic, Rita, Sue and Bob Too (Out Of Joint and Royal Court Theatre London), Screwed (Theatre 503), Educating Rita (Mercury Colchester), The Grand Gesture (Northern Broadsides), Proper Clever and Dead Heavy Fantastic (Liverpool Everyman/Playhouse), The Tempest (Royal Exchange), Three Sisters On Hope Street (Hampstead Theatre), Order and Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down (The Lantern), The House Of Bernada Alba (Nuffield Theatre), The Laramie Project (Sound Theatre, Leicester Square), The Lemon Princess (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Untouchable (The Bush Theatre) and Song of the Western Men (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Television credits include: Little Boy Blue (ITV), Cilla (ITV), Five Days (BBC), The Girls Who Came to Stay (Granada), Shameless (Channel Four), Island at War (Granada), Final Demand (BBC), Holby City, Doctors and Casualty.
Film includes: Sixty Six (Working Title), and Jamaica Me Crazy (VBM Productions LTD); also FunTimes, a short film she wrote, and From Lewisham to Llandudno, a film she wrote and directed through lockdown of 2020.
Samantha’s recent directing credits include: Blink (The Lion and Unicorn), The Toad In The Hole (Barons Court), Motherhood Or Madness (Katzpace), Me, Mum and The Patriarchy (Tour/Tristan Bates), Darknet (The Union Theatre), and Attempts On Her Life (Drayton Arms Theatre). During Lockdown she created and directed the play Crazy For Loving You with ten students from LSDA in London for their socially-distanced graduation project. This can also be seen on YouTube.
Samantha is the Creative Director of theatre company Tiny Wife Productions.
Voice Lecturer
Mark gained a BA (Hons) in Drama, Theatre and Television Studies from The University of Winchester before going on to Guildford School of Acting to study Musical Theatre. His first job after graduating was the UK tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
After years working as an actor and singer around the UK, as well as for Cunard and Princess Cruise Lines, Mark decided to return to Guildford School of Acting to complete an MA in the Practice of Voice and Singing. He has since taught at various drama schools including Guildford School of Acting, The Urdang Academy, London College of Music and Laine Theatre Arts. He is delighted to join the team at MGA.
Acting Tutor
Tom is the owner of photography and video production company Twin City Pictures, working as a director and cinematographer across Scotland producing media for theatre shows and marketing. Twin City Pictures is also one of the leading providers of actor services: headshots, showreels, selftapes and private coaching.
Tom trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting. Since graduating he has worked consistently for over a decade in theatre, film, television and commercials.
Theatre credits include: Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Hamlet, Much Ado about Nothing, Comedy of Errors, Winter’s Tale, Mid Summer Night’s Dream, Henry IV, The Tempest, Merchant of Venice, Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, This Fearful Country, Queen Margaret (for Bard in the Botanics); Coma (Arches); Romeo and Juliet (Erasmus Theatre Company); Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, Cinderella (The Byre Theatre); Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast (MA Productions); Aladdin (PACE); Mother Goose (MacRobert); Last of the Dragons (Manhattan Children’s Theatre).
Film and Television credits include: Sunset Song (Terence Davies); Scrotal Recall (Elliot Hegarty); Meet Me on the Southbank (Adam Rolston); Joyeux Noel (Christian Carion); The Celebrity (Simon Whyte). Commercial work for Sony, Real Radio and Channel 4.