Olivia Carruthers and Elizabeth Fost

Liz and Olivia are both professional actors who first worked together at Polka Theatre in Wimbledon in the early 1990s. They then began collaborating on various educational drama projects and eventually formed Teach-it-through-drama in 2003. Their variety of skills lends a great diversity to the work of this company.

They devise, research and write all the shows and workshops. All other workshop leaders who are employed by the company are trusted friends and colleagues with whom they have worked in the past on projects for young people.

Everyone who works for the company has a current enhanced CRB Disclosure, is a member of Equity and has Public Liability Insurance cover of £10,000,000

Olivia Carruthers

Olivia has had been involved with theatre for young people throughout her career. She is a fully qualified teacher and, in the early days, became head of the Creative Arts department in a London comprehensive school. She worked as an actor/devisor with the TIE company Electric Theatre and for many years was one of the Spectrum Drama team, devising, writing and performing educational drama for major museums and galleries across London and elsewhere. She has written for BBC School radio and, for over ten years, she was a regular actor at Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, during the tenure of Artistic Director Vicky Ireland.

Olivia’s latest theatre credits are: ‘Barefoot in the Park’ (Frinton Summer Theatre); ‘The Secret Garden’ Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds and ‘Agatha’ (Pleasance Theatre, London). TV credits include ‘Cutting It’ (BBC), ‘Coronation Street’ (Granada), ‘Emmerdale’ (Yorkshire TV), ‘Killing Eve’ (BBC America), ‘Pennyworth’ (Epix) and ‘Life’ (BBC). She plays David Bowie’s mother in the movie ‘Stardust’ (IPC Films) and can now be seen in the movie '5 Lbs of Pressure', out on Amazon Prime..

Elizabeth Fost

Elizabeth Fost is an actress, puppeteer and workshop leader, specialising in work for young people. Her past experience has embraced everything from mainstream television puppeteering to writing and performing her own highly successful children's shows which have toured nationally. She regularly leads drama workshops for several theatre education departments, including Polka Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe. As a storyteller she makes regular appearances at Literature Festivals up and down the country.

She is best known as a presenter on the BBC's pre-school programme Playdays. More recently she has played some wierd and wonderful roles including several different monsters on ‘Dr Who’ and ‘Marge Simpson’ in the Sky TV ‘Real – life Simpsons’ campaign.