Celebrating 7 years running! 
ABDABS Youth & Community Theatre was set-up by professional actor Debbie Ruth in 2005 to provide opportunities to help build self confidence, build on self esteem, improve on acting, singing and dancing through workshops, drama activities and productions for people aged 3 to Adults in the Oxfordshire area.
All our team are CRB checked and the Team are as follows (click on the names to show/hide more information):
Debbie was brought up in a Theatrical family and is a professional actor, singer & dance, she belongs to Equity who represent professional performers. Debbie’s mum, Valerie, had her own Theatrical Agency and Dancing School. Debbie initially started dancing at the age of two, with Corona Academy in London and took her first ballet exam at the age of four and passed with Honours. She then went onto become a regular attendee at the Dance Studio (now known as Pineapple) in Covent Garden. She was trained by Gillian Gregory in EnglishTap dancing, studied American Tap and danced with the Junior Ballet Rambert. She has appeared in several adverts and in BBC productions such as Z Cars and The Little Silver Trumpet. Debbie also made a film with Eyeline Films, Children’s Film Foundation. Debbie attended Phildene Stage School.
Her career later in life took her into singing and dancing and she had her own Old Thyme Music Hall Show with which she toured the Counties. A Londoner by birth, Debbie was a member of the Pearly Kings and Queens and raised well over a hundred thousand pounds for many of her charities in the time she was a part of the Pearlies clan. Whilst appearing with Les Dawson and Faith Brown at the String of Pearls, she was presented to Prince and Prince Michael of Kent. Debbie says she never wanted to be famous when she was younger, just happy to do what she loved best, which was performing on the stage.
A trained teacher and manager, with three children and 3 grandchildren of her own, her passion are people and their self development. She says she’s happy to be behind the scenes and encourage the young people of our community to build on self esteem, self confidence, life skills and performing arts, and give them the opportunity to demonstrate their talents and hard work all the students put into Abdabs Youth & Community Theatre productions. You may see Debbie return to the stage or appear on film occasionally, she's still very active in the continuation of her own practice in Musical Theatre. She appeared in The Full Monty as Georgie in 2010 & Yvonne in Bad Girls The Musical in 2012. Debbie is an accomplished Director and has directed many productions including Bugsy Malone, Stuart Little, High School Musical, Back to the 80s Musical, The Witney Story, 'Allo 'Allo, Captain Blackboots & The Wallamagrumba, The Full Monty & more recently Bad Girls The Musical.
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Aimie Beth has been dancing since the age of two and has numerous dancing medals under her belt. She was actively involved in school drama productions, including The Wizard of Oz as The Sorceress of the North and has appeared in several dance shows. Aimie Beth produced the choreography for Bugsy Malone, Abdabs first Senior production in 2006. She completed her GCSE's & A'Level and has now completed her final year at Winchester University studying in a degree in Performing Arts (Contemporary Theatre). She is an accomplished performer and producer of devised performance achieving Distinction in LAMDA group devised performances. Aimie Beth has had total responsibility for the choreography for many of Abdabs productions and has definitely risen to the challenge each time! For someone so young she has made a great personal achievement in the production of dance and perfomance. Aimie Beth is a registered member of Equity and is now currently coaching in performance skills with Abdabs.
Theatre & Film experience
2005 - New Theatre, Oxford - Me & My Girl - ensemble
2006 - New Theatre, Oxford - Oliver - ensemble
2007 - New Theatre, Oxford - High School Musical - Mime artist and ensemble
2007 - Abdabs Youth Theatre - Gel - Principle Role - Debbie
2008 - Abdabs Youth Theatre - Score - Principle Role - Juanita
2009 - Abdabs Youth Theatre - High School Musical - Principle Role - Sharpay
2009 - Abdabs Community Theatre - Captain Blackboots - Victoria
2010 - Back to the 80s - Miss Brannigan
2012 - Bad Girls The Musical - Shell Dockley
2012 - Calendar Girls - Elaine
Film
2010 - Scumdog Millionaire - Small role as an Author
2010 - Appeared in a university film
Dan studied media production and art & design at Telford College of Arts & Technology. He has written & directed several short films and recently had a small acting role in 'Scum Dog Millionaire', a feature length movie. Since joining Abdabs in 2007 he has been involved in every production, such as The Witney Story, High School Musical, The Dracula Rock Show, Captain Blackboot's Island & The Wallamagrumba, Allo` Allo`, Back To The 80s & The Full Monty. Other than Theatre & Film, his hobbies include Graphic Design, Music, Parkour/Free Running, Martial Arts, Philosophy, History & Mythology.
Dan is director of media for Abdabs. He designs and creates all of the logos and posters for the company and for the shows. He also designs and maintains the Abdabs website.
Abdabs media involves:
Bio to come
Ally is fun loving and a very creative lady, she enjoys working backstage in Stage Management and is Props Manager for Abdabs. Her talents don't only lie in backstage management though, she has also proved herself to be a creative female actor on the stage and has appeared in The Witney Story, Hamlette, Mmmbeth, 'Allo 'Allo and The Full Monty. Ally was proactively involved in helping to set up Teenydabs but she now concentrates on being our Arts Award Adviser and Backstage Management, as she leads a very busy life with work, brownies, guides etc.
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As well as being a professional actress Laura has worked extensively in theatre in education; looking at Shakespeare, historical plays, devised tales, musicals and pantomimes. She runs a company called ‘act1to1’ (see our links page) which offers acting and public speaking tuition for individuals or pairs. Laura has also directed acting workshops and productions both in London & Oxfordshire. She does workshops with Stagecoach & Bigfoot Theatre Company and also tutors acting at Abingdon Prep School.
We are proud to also have Laura as one of our Patrons.
Roxanne trained at the Royal Conservatoire as an artist specialising in drama & vocal facilitation for ages 5-18, contemporary performance, movement, voice, devising and new writing. At the Conservatoire she studied under the guidance of Directors and artists such as Geraldine Pilgrim, Simon Vincenzi, Gabor, Kate Standard, Grace Surmon, Jess Thorpe, Nic Green, Fish N Game theatre company, Coralli, Independence and TIPP, Mischeif La Bar, Youth works, ISTA. Upon graduation she was awarded the Education award for her dedication to developing arts in education. Following graduation Roxanne assisted international artist Guelliermo Gomez Penya during his appearance at the National Review Of Live Art in 2007 and went onto to present her duo show ‘Freedom Chapters’ as part of the Into the New festival. The following five years Roxanne presented a variety of education works at Glasgow University, Caledonian University, Nu Arts, Tram Direct, UK Theatre School, Attic Space, Confidance. She has also co-organized performances for regional events such as Gala Scotland and for a time worked for the Merchant City Marketing and Tourism Co-Op, Glasgow. Roxanne has also worked with the South Lanarkshire Council Arts Development team and the Ecole Theatre Company. Her singing performances have been with Celtic Connections International Festival, Hydro Connect Festival, One Creative Events, Merchant City Festival, Glasgay! Festival and Blue Seraph film productions.
Cheryll's son started with Abdabs approx 3 years ago and Cheryll, more recently, has become involved with helping and supporting our productions. Cheryll is not new to the performance arena as she also belonged to a Drama Group some years ago. She made the fantastic costumes for Mulan and Aladdin and we are very grateful to have her on board with the production team. Cheryll agreed earlier this year to become our Wardrobe Manager for which we are delighted to have her as member of our team!!
Maddison is a student with Abdabs and is a very talented performer in all aspects of the performance arena.
Amber has been with Abdabs for several years now and is a very talented young actor and dancer. She recently choreographed all the dances for Abdabs version of Camp Rock and has been an integral part of being involved in other pieces of choreography for other Abdabs productions.
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Position available
