OUR ETHOS, Vision and People
Embracing Sobriety through the Craft of Acting
Crave Theatre is dedicated to providing a transformative space where sober creatives can rediscover their artistic potential and restore their confidence through the power of acting and education.
We understand that sobriety and recovery present emotional and psychological challenges upon any addict or alcoholic, and these demands become even more complex when combined with the rigours of performing or training as an actor.
Our company has been formed to become a bridge or helping hand towards achieving those career aspirations, and in doing so we relieve the sometimes overwhelming pressure of navigating those hurdles alone.
Our participants don't necessarily have a pressing desire to enter the acting profession, they may just wish to reconnect with an unfulfilled passion. In either case though, we guide them on their way, by providing expert guidance from those who have already trodden the path.
CRAVE's VISION
- To cultivate a compassionate environment for actors who are sober or in recovery after prelonged alcohol or drug dependency.
- To provide opportunities for self-expression, restored confidence, connection and inclusion through recovery-informed acting classes and performances.
- To unlock the potential of sober actors, helping them to discover or rediscover their passion for acting.
- To challenge the stigma and public perceptions of alcohol and substance abuse through fresh interpretations and adaptations of classical and contemporary plays.
- To shape future stories around addiction and how they are told in theatre. film or television.
- To grow a transformative artistic community that fosters resilience through a recovery-engaged approach to acting.
- To train and inspire future generations of sober actors to go on to be change makers in society and in the industry.
OUR People
Gavin Antony
Founder & Artistic Director
Gavin originally trained as an actor at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where he received a scholarship to study from 1998 to 2001. After graduating however, his growing dependence on alcohol escalated out of control and in 2004 he abandoned his acting career.
By 2015, after 20 years of sustained alcohol abuse, Gavin had become severely ill and was warned that he would only have 6 months left to live if he continued to drink.
The direction of his life changed when he received valuable government funding to spend a 24-week period in a residential rehabilitation centre in West Sussex. This carefully set him on a path to a sobriety which has now lasted over ten years, and whilst he has continued to rebuild his life, his recovery is still prioritised above all else.
Having achieved two years stable sobriety, Gavin established a small-scale immersive theatre company, and soon after directed his own addiction-based contemporary adaptation of Hamlet for various fringe festivals throughout 2018. The following year, he made his West End acting debut in Ian Rickson's production of Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the Duke of York's Theatre, alongside Tom Burke, Hayley Atwell, and Giles Terera.
Parallel to his directing and acting work, Gavin began teaching acting as a freelancer and in 2019 he completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Performance Teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 2023, he graduated again, this time with a master's degree in Actor Training and Coaching from the Royal Central school of Speech and Drama. He currently lectures in acting at several universities and conservatoires nationwide and is studying Psychodynamic Counselling at The University of Oxford.
CRAVE'S CREATION
In October 2023, having won a prestigious Enterprise Award from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Gavin Antony created Crave Theatre with a vision to create training and performance opportunities for sober actors. Drawing from his unique lived experience of acting and addiction and recovery, he created a concept which he is certain would have been inspirational and beneficial to him on his own journey through early sobriety.
His concept of the company is twofold:
1. To provide professional acting opportunities for those previously affected by alcoholism or substance abuse who wish to either reconnect to their love of acting or to pursue a career in acting for the first time.
2. To create high quality public productions that challenge existing preconceptions of addicts and, where possible, bring fresh and authentic perspectives on the 'the alcoholic' or 'addict'.
Now he has set his sights on combining these two passions for the benefit of others:
"Having rebuilt my own health and my life over the past ten years with the help of a huge number of people, my priority now is to give something back. I hope that the insight and experience I've gained through my own recovery journey can be used to assist others with a history of addiction; particularly those who want to re-engage with their passion for acting as I chose to. It is my ultimate aim to improve the recovering actor's experience by providing an simpler and more supportive pathway back into acting than I experienced.
I have built a strong team of performance, education, and recovery based professionals in order to grow our work, and reach as far as possible to achieve our charitable aims. Together we will grow a burgeoning and bristling sober community and theatrical company which is a standard bearer for anyone working in the arts or performance sector, or in the field of recovery and mental health."
If what you've read about us so far resonates or is of interest we'd love you to get in touch and come and become part of it!
OUR TRUSTEES
Christine Steele
Chris trained as an actress at The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
She performed for several years in London's West End and in film, notably working with such theatrical luminaries as Sir John Gielgud.
In 1976, she left her acting career in order to seek help for her alcoholism, and having found recovery she has now been sober for 49 years.
In 1980 she returned to University, gaining a BA in Drama and then undertook training as a dramatherapist.
In 1985 she founded and was the director of the original addiction unit at The Priory Treatment Centre in Roehampton where she stayed for 22 years, overseeing thousands of clients follow their journey into recovery.
She currently sits on the board of trustees for Crossroads Addiction Rehabilitation Centre in Antigua.
Barry Trodd
Barry trained as a humanistic therapist in 2001, motivated by his own experience of addiction and the interventions which helped him to turn his life around.
He views sustainable recovery as a holistic package of the ‘three thirds’ of the human condition - mind, body and spirit - and has brought this philosophy into his extensive work in addiction-focused settings over the last two decades, primarily in residential treatment, but also in a successful day programme in the south of England.
Barry is currently Senior Practitioner within the clinical services at Sporting Chance Clinic, where, having stepped up from session work to a full-time role when the clinic expanded in 2019, he works with clients on both longer and shorter-term residential treatments.
Daniel Hawksford
Before starting his professional acting career, Daniel trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
His work in theatre includes: Much Ado About Nothing and The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other at the National Theatre; The School of Night, The Tamer Tamed, The Taming of the Shrew and Cymbeline for the RSC; Jackets at the Young Vic, London; Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Wales; The Pull of Negative Gravity at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and 59E59, New York; Memory at ESG, New York; Aqua NeroReview of Acqua Nero from the theatre dance and drama in Wales web site for Sgript Cymru; Romeo and Juliet at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter and Lunch at The King's Head Theatre, London. He also played Malcolm in Shakespeare's Globe's production of Macbeth.
Daniel is an associate artist for Clwyd Theatr Cymru.
Dr Jessica Hartley
Jessica is Course Leader for the MA/MFA in Actor Training and Coaching at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Her recent publications have highlighted the urgent need for critically conscious actor-training, one that maximises the agency and uniqueness of each actor to shape their own work, identity and careers. Her PhD research questioned the ethics and tact-filled practices that are used when working with adolescent students in circus.
Her areas of expertise include freedom and coercion in Pedagogy, consent and boundaries in Actor Training, dignity and compassion in teaching, risk, vulnerability, wellbeing, phenomenology and neuroinclusivity.
In 2019 she delivered the Keynote address at AusAct Queensland University of Technology: ‘Vulnerability in a Crisis: Pedagogy, critical reflection and positionality in Actor Training ‘.
She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA.