Partnership Projects

22-year-old Joanna is from Wakefield, West Yorkshire and has always wanted to pursue a career in acting. She began by taking part in school productions and studying a BTEC Performing Arts and A level Media Studies.

Oliver is 20 years old and comes from Nottingham. His interest in acting grew from a love of story-telling, and at the age of ten he began taking classical violin lessons
before joining the Nottingham Youth Orchestra.

The Genesis Assistant Director programme is a major new partnership between the Genesis Foundation and Welsh National Opera. Launched in 2012, it offers an up and coming young director a two-year contract and the opportunity to work on WNO’s newest work while being mentored by Chief Executive and Artistic Director David Pountney.

Abu Salim is 18 years old and lives in Welwyn Garden City. He comes to LAMDA this year fresh out of school straight after finishing his A levels. Abu’s passion for theatre began when he joined a local youth theatre company. Determined to pursue a career in acting, he went on to successfully audition for the National Youth Theatre. There he appeared in his first professional show at the National Theatre, taking on the role of Osric in the Prince of Denmark.

Sam was born in Nottingham, where he lived for four years before moving to Belgium and then York, where he has lived for most of his life. Sam has been performing from a very young age but had never comprehended acting as a career until being accepted into the National Youth Theatre at the age of thirteen. In 2007, he was asked to perform in White Boy at the Soho Theatre, which proved to be an invaluable experience for him as a young performer, giving him an insight into the profession. Following this, he was asked to appear in Victory Street at the Lowry Theatre, Manchester.

Summer 2010 brought a work commissioned from Chris Levine by the Genesis Foundation – a light-based cross installed in the former Holy Trinity Church on Marylebone Road in London.

In 2010, with the support of the Genesis Foundation, 15-year-old Hayley Stobo from Renfrewshire became the first Scot to receive a place on the full diploma course at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy.

In 2009, 16-year-old Natalie Carter became the first female British dancer to study at Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet Academy, with support from the Genesis Foundation.

Ryan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has lived in the countryside on a Christmas tree farm 10 miles outside of Belfast for his whole life. He has been actively involved on the farm for as long as he can remember and his first taste of the stage came in the form of Observe the sons of Ulster marching towards the Somme which he saw at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast when he was 10 years old.

In October 2009, Spanish artist Greta Alfaro became the first beneficiary of the two-year Genesis Foundation Scholarship for a graduate artist studying at London's Royal College of Art. Joanna Piotrowska is the current beneficiary of the Genesis Scholarship for Photography at the Royal College of Art.