Rigorous Professional

Annemarie Lewis Thomas, composer, musical director and founder principal of Musical Theatre Academy chats to Susan Elkin.

It was a walk in the park with her partner, Angie Peake and their dogs which propelled Annemarie Lewis Thomas into founding the remarkably successful Musical Theatre Academy (TheMTA) in 2009. “I’d been head of musical theatre in another school, had had some very unfortunate experiences including being both fired and slandered by the management” she says. “It was February 2008 and I was unhappy with everything. Then came the idea of starting an entirely ethical school of my own., ‘Do it’ said Angie. And we were off …”

I first met Annemarie early in 2009 when she invited me to sit on auditions for her inaugural group of students. She is short, fierce, funny, very Welsh and a fabulous musician. I watched her and two colleagues audition Sam Hallion and told her afterwards that I hoped they’d offered him a place. They did. He was one of her first group of 13 students. Six years after graduating Sam has played Matthew in the European tour of Jesus Christ Superstar and toured nationally (several times) as the youngest brother in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat among other things. He is one of MTA’s many success stories.