Artsmonkey Blog

The afternoon session was a Master Class led by actor Jason Hughes whose CV is impressive, having given up a promising sports career to follow his heart and train as an actor at London Drama School – LAMDA, he has worked extensively in theatre appearing in productions at The National and The Royal Court before landing the role that raised his public profile as Warren in ‘This Life’. Currently appearing in the latest series of ‘Midsomer Murders’ in the role of DS Ben Jones, (DCI Barnaby’s latest side-kick) he somehow found time to work with us on a two and a half-hour masterclass. 

As an ex-education officer for a regional producing house, I tend towards the cynical when it comes to actors and workshops/master classes, I have always suspected that the secret ingredient of a good master class might have something to do with the size of the ego of the actor or director running it. That said, without wishing to dent it - if Jason Hughes has a big ego it’s well hidden, indeed his conversation is peppered with references to other actors he admires rather than references to himself and his commitment to the session was total, he thought carefully about suitable texts and what young people might get from them and despite never having run a masterclass before he produced a session that allowed his passion and his expertise for acting to shine through, offering insights into both the worlds of television and theatre.  

Jason Hughes, as is often the way with actors seen largely on our TV screens, wasn’t quite what I expected, being far slimmer and more athletic than my brief glimpse of his debut appearance in  ITV’s ‘Midsomer Murders’. His audience consisted of theatre students from Peer Productions - Woking, Drama students from Chichester High School for Girls and Longhill High School in Brighton, Film and TV students from City College Brighton and students from Sussex University plus Diana Walton, Head of the Arts Award, a smattering of Arts Award Advisers and as many of the Brighton Dome Front of House staff as could find an excuse to be there. A tough gig if ever there was, with ages ranging from 15 – 22+ years.

In more ways than one this really was a launch event for facilitators and spectators alike. I particularly enjoyed watching ‘Madoc’ an initially reluctant volunteer participate in this innovative ‘status’ improvisation where each time he came onstage, he drew me fascinated into a new world, as he grasped and employed the suggestions given. Lottie, 16 and doing her Bronze Arts Award said “Jason Hughes showed us one of the best workshop games I’ve ever experienced; with only an empty space and some actors, he transformed them into tourists, servants and kings… it was funny to watch the different interpretations of these three states of being.” My favourite moment was watching volunteers Chris and Daniel work on a brief piece of ‘Midsomer’ text – a filler scene to get the plot from A to B and marvel at how the two young men became articulate and riveting to watch as they took what initially seemed to be an uncomplicated piece of writing and give it a story, uncovering the life within the dry, sparse text.

What stood out from the session was the complete attention given by Jason Hughes both to the participants and the audience, Diana Walton, commented “He really captured young people’s interest and enthusiasm and gave them an experience that was definitely a masterclass rather than a workshop, engaging the audience as much as the participants”. He coaxed and charmed them into unselfconscious enjoyment of the work set, he kept on saying “this isn’t about giving a performance it’s about you having time to work on you, to look at how and what you’re doing” and they responded to this, sometimes with shy humour and sometimes with simple self-realisation of the smaller, subtler steps that can be taken to engage as an actor and help the words live off the page.Peter Grant, Adviser for Chichester High School for Girls commented “Jason is excellent, the girls feel very relaxed and comfortable to perform. By the time two large groups were working on the final piece, an extract from Sarah Kane’s ‘4:48 Psychosis’ the room was buzzing with snatched conversations about what we’d seen and the journeys made and the odd sigh as the occasional ‘This Life’ groupie watched Jason Hughes rev into action coaxing realisations out of his volunteer actors or to relish the richness of his voice as he enthused about a piece of sub-plot newly discovered.It makes a real difference to the credibility of the Arts Award when well-known artists endorse the scheme and support our work directly, and the response Jason Hughes got demonstrated that. I know that many of the adults watching were itching to join in, gripping their chairs to prevent their hands flying up to volunteer to join in. Jason (note by now, how familiar I’m feeling) told us that he had once been inspired by watching fellow actor and old mate Michael Sheen come on to a vast and empty stage and make the audience believe he was in a tiny confined space. I was inspired by this unassuming actor in front of me, unconditionally sharing his passion and his craft with strangers and I echo the comments of the lady from Front of House who beat off the admiring crowds of young girls initially “too cool for school” but now bent on getting close to their newly discovered ‘idol’ at the end of the session, which had ended all too soon and could have continued… well forever really, by asking “When will we see you again, will you be performing here anytime soon?”. Oh yes please! I don’t live in Brighton but I’d pay good money for a ticket to anything with Jason Hughes in it and as for ‘Midsomer Murders’ with which I have enjoyed a love but mostly hate relationship in the past – I’m going to be watching every single episode with ‘our Jason’ in it from now on.  

And so, somewhat ironically after my attempt to demonstrate to young people starting out in the arts that celebrity culture is shallow and short-lived and to help young people working on their Arts Award to gain a greater sense of the long-term prospects of careers in the arts and an awareness of the importance in honing one’s skills in ones chosen art form, I have inadvertently become a ‘celebrifanatic’ - me and the ladies from Front of House at the Dome will be starting a Jason Hughes ‘myspace’ any day now!

A rather nice post script to this event is that in May I’ll be going to watch a new musical ‘Young at War’ at the Rhoda McGraw Theatre, Woking. The book was written by aforementioned Daniel (Brewerton) and the music and lyrics by Anthony Springall (who was also at the masterclass) Could it be Mr Hughes that they’ve taken your words to heart and really are ‘going for it’ believing the future really is theirs? I wouldn’t be suprised.