She taught me how to confront aggression, to look someone in the eye and to stand my ground. Anna Scher was a born teacher and her subject was drama. You may not have heard the name but you will certainly know her pupils - most of the EastEnders cast and the Coronation Street boys and girls among them.
Gerard McCabe, whose acting in and direction of the adult pantomime Aladdin at the Waterfront Hall was a great success, remembers Anna coming to the YouthAction NI Rainbow Factory “like a flamboyant whirlwind with enough energy and passion to convince any young person there that, no matter what, we were going to have fun”.
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“She spent a whole weekend with us and returned a second year,” remembers Gerard. Anna was genuinely interested in young people working together through drama despite their different backgrounds.
Rosie Turner was her pupil and she impressed this young woman who went on to run the Belfast Festival at Queen’s and has recently taken retirement after 20 years heading up the Festival at Canterbury: “I remember her wide smile and her glow, an energy, she had an absolute belief in the power of the arts but she wasn’t to be messed with.”
Again, Rosie recalls how Anna believed that drama could change young people’s lives for the better: “Joy, confidence and fun made her irresistible.”
Anna Was Special
Anna Scher was born into a Jewish Irish family in Cork, and as a teenager the family moved to London. She wanted to be an actress but her father wasn’t keen so she became a journalist. Then, in 1968, she founded her theatre school - and thousands of young people are thankful she did.
I met Anna through the television producer Derek Bailey. He asked if I’d talk to this drama teacher about travelling to work with children in Rwandan schools. I was just back from there and my answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely’.
I was sitting in the car outside the Irish News offices in Donegall Street when my phone rang. It was Anna. Sometimes you just bond with a stranger - within minutes the stranger became a lifelong friend and we talked and talked.
We discussed Rwanda and before long she did visit, and brought joy to those traumatised children. Before the end of the conversation she’d asked me to come to the theatre school’s birthday party in Islington. Again the answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely’.
What an experience. Not a posh place, rather a well-worn church building, a big room, raked wooden seating and an empty floor waiting for action. The audience was as spectacular as the show itself.
I was sitting beside Rabbi Julia Neuberger, two steps down was Martin Luther King’s daughter, as were ex-pupils the Kemp brothers, Martin and Gary, of Spandau Ballet, Patsy Palmer (Bianca from EastEnders), Kathy Burke and Linda Robson (Birds of a Feather). Alan Parker cast most of Bugsy Malone from her theatre school.
Her pupils have all benefitted from her influence - many were street children who gained confidence, worked out negative emotions and found a place in society.
Packing A Punch
The outpouring of love for this powerful little woman was evident in November when she died at the age of 78. She actually was a force of nature whose heroes were Anne Frank and Winston Churchill.
Amongst her many awards, in 1999 she received the Peace Person of the Year in Ireland and was chairperson of the International Song Contest for Peace, also in Ireland.
She was delighted to come to Belfast and held classes in the Waterfront Hall. We were a motley crew but she wrapped her arms round us all and began to spin her magic.
“There were three words I will not tolerate,” she told us. “The F word, the C word and the Y word used as a derogatory term for Jewish people.”
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Then we formed partners with one chair between us. One sat on it, the other challenged this and insisted it was their chair and a row broke out.
“Look him in the eye,” she said. “Explain how you came to have the chair, argue the point and end up with a mutual understanding.”
It was exhilarating exploring attitudes, words and physical stance, challenging your own beliefs. Anything seemed possible.
No wonder that six years after opening the school she had 1,000 pupils on the books and 5,000 on the waiting list. She took children off the streets and gave them hope and developed their self-esteem. Through improvisation they acted out their problems, found support, made friendships and danced to the joy of performing.
She loved the Zimbabwean proverb: “If you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing.”
This little lady from Cork was a mentor who walked the walk, talked the talked and above all, listened.
