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There has been some big changes as former student Anne Marie Rützou has gone from Performers House to a life as a student at a private acting school in London. Although the apartment where she lives, lies in the same corner of the city map as the school, it takes her a good hour to get there by public transportation.
"At Performers House you have everything in one place. In London, not even the school facilities share place - there are department at several locations in the Kensington area, and besides I have singing lessons a third place - in Battersea."
Anne Marie is back at Performers House for a short visit. She knows the current student on the dance line Javanna Dybbroe. She tells about the many challenges since she started at the London School of Dramatic Art in October.
Moved into a rough neighborhood
"I started to live a very 'exciting place' - near Brixton in a rather tough neighborhood. It was a group of students from the school, who shared the apartment but the lease ran out a month after, I arrived. Actually I was quite happy to get away from the area, but it is only recently that I have found a permanent place to live - in the Wimbledon area. It is however a little boring there."
Work at school is hard, there are many subjects, and the teachers are ambitious on students' behalf.
“There is no one who can teach you to act, teachers can only try to show you what worked well for them, and not all methods works for everyone. It is something that I first grasped now when I go to a school with so many different teachers, each with different methods. While one teacher may be too flattering, I had another teacher who intentionally tried to "bully" me to achieve the desired result. It is not a constant bed of roses, but it is often in the moments where I've been very close to giving up, that something has fallen into place. And it is also precisely the development that makes education interesting.”
The language makes a difference
It's not cheap to follow the teaching, but Anne Marie would like to continue after the first 'foundation'-year - if she cannot be admitted to a Danish Theatre School. Although she is aware that having a foreign education, she will not really be counted as a professional at home. However, it is primarily because of the language that she has considered taking the education in Denmark.
 "It dawned on me how much the language means when you work with acting. So even though I can easily play in English and has never really done anything else - at Performers House teaching is also in English - then you simply have a better emotional connection to your own language and a better understanding of the different dialects."
The students are a mix of nationalities with only very few British nationals - which incidentally also has an immigrant background. Anne Marie works closely with a girl from Holland - who have become interested in the Performers House after the meeting. She now shares the apartment with another former actor student, a Ukranian who is beginning to build a career.
"He gets many odd jobs around, it works out for him, but you have to work really hard. You just have to take yourself seriously in this profession, otherwise you can easily be tempted to push it away and say 'that was not me anyway'"
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