It is incredible to think that helping with my children’s year six productions would lead to what JFF has become. After my youngest child’s production, it was suggested that I start a local drama school. I pointed out that I couldn’t run a school as I wasn’t a teacher — and one of my friends suggested it didn’t have to be a school, it could be Just for Fun.
My husband pointed out I had nothing to lose, printed some flyers for me, and I put them out on the last day of term. In September 2012, fifteen children came for a free trial, and the rest, as they say, is history. From those fifteen children, there are now over 170.
Our sessions are fun-filled from start to finish. If you ask the children what they have done, they will tell you they played games — but there is method in the madness, and the madness clearly works. As the children become comfortable, their confidence grows.
Just For Fun is not a franchise. We’re now in our fifteenth year, and I still run all the sessions, where the ethos of the group remains the same: every child who wants to perform gets the chance to perform. Some of the children who now have the confidence to perform lines on their own would never have had that confidence when they first started. For some, just walking onto a stage is a huge deal — and I am incredibly proud of every single one of them.
Estelle