Meet the Fourth Monkey Team

We are a team of people whose joint mission it is to create change in the world of performance.

Our close-knit community of dedicated staff, work collaboratively with some of the UK’s finest theatre and performance practitioners, directors and theatre-makers, creating a truly unique working environment where individual creative expression is valued making Fourth Monkey unique.

Steve Green

Artistic Director

Steve Green is the founder and artistic director of the critically acclaimed Fourth Monkey Ensemble and is Artistic Director and CEO of Fourth Monkey Actor Training Company. As writer, director & producer Steven has overseen and created in excess of thirty productions which push boundaries and challenge perceived convention within the sector.

Originally from Devon, Steve trained at Middlesex University under the inspirational instruction of John Wright (Told by an Idiot), Steve Tiller (The Wedding Collective), John Topping and Huw Thomas amongst many others. This experimental and risk-taking training environment led Steve toward what has been both a diverse, far-reaching and collaborative career within the arts.

Charleen Qwaye

Director of Training

The only black female Co-founder of a drama school in the UK, Charleen is Fourth Monkey’s Director of Training as well an actress, choreographer and director, and a huge advocate of local theatre, both for the community and indeed for local talent as well as diversity and inclusion within the performing arts sector.

Charleen’s theatre credits include: Ocean at the End of the Lane and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for the National Theatre. National tours of Chicago, I Can’t Stop Loving You, Oh! What A Night! and Viva La Diva and the European tour of The Blues Brothers. Many other UK productions including A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Our Country’s Good at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol.

Course Team

Poppy Rowley

Head of Acting & BA (Hons) Acting Year Two

Poppy is a graduate of the Birkbeck, University of London MfA Theatre Directing and hold a BA in Philosophy from the University of Leeds. She has also trained with the National Theatre Directors Course. Poppy is a hard of hearing director who has worked nationally and internationally, including working as Artistic Associate for Eastern Angles Theatre Company.

Her Directing credits include Pramkicker (2018 & 2021, Melbourne); Grounded (2019 & 2020, Adelaide); Tuesday (NT Connections); All Wrapped Up In Westwood, The Trials of Mary, Future Floodlands, Nativity Blues (all Eastern Angles). Poppy’s directing work in Australia has won numerous awards, including the Graham F Smith Peace Award.

Anna Blackburn

Student Mentor

Louis Cruzat

Student Mentor

Giulia del Fabbro

Student Mentor

Skills Team

Stephanie Osztreicher

Head of Move

Originally from Melbourne, Stephanie is a movement practioner, director and performer. Her work also includes interdisciplinary performance where she regularly facilitates collaborations between artists from film, visual art and contemporary and classical music.

Her key interest is in the potential of creative, social and cultural exchange performance can provide. Stephanie’s is a graduate from the Lecoq school in Paris, has an MA in Movement from RCSSD, a BA Acting from Federation University and a GD of Arts in Art History from The University of Melbourne. Stephanie has been affiliated with various institutions in the UK and Melbourne including ICTheatre, East 15, The Conservatoire Blackheath and London College of Music.

Magda Tuka

Head of Make

Magda’s practice is rooted in Jerzy Grotowski’s notion of Art as Vehicle. She began her career as an actor in Piotr Borowski’s Warsaw-based Studium Teatralne company, a long-term associate of Grotowski himself.

The essence of this formative work was in its physical training – a rigorous investigation into the relationship between the body and space, between precision, improvisation and intuition; the aim, a creative onstage existence, a continual search, on a moment by moment basis, for what and where the performer’s attention is, which inspired her to initiate her own projects. These include devising a succession of shows with dancer Anita Wach, in collaboration with sound designer Opaean and working with Polish organisation Ja Ja Ja Ne Ne Ne.

Megan Burns

Head of Voice

Megan is a Voice Teacher and performer hailing from the United States. She has worked professionally as a theatre actor in America since 2014, where she performed in large regional houses such as the Guthrie Theatre, produced and wrote her own work, and participated in a variety of new play processes. As a voice and accent coach she has worked on

theatre productions in the US and has taught at numerous drama schools in the UK, including Central School of Speech & Drama, East-15 (Southend), Mountview, Rose Bruford. & Guildford School of Acting, where she received an award for inclusive teaching practices. Megan is passionate about new and accessible teaching practices, and the capacity of the Voice to free an actor’s creativity. She holds a BFA from the University of Minnesota Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program, and an MFA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Voice Studies. When she’s not at Fourth Monkey, she’s performing stand up comedy at venues all over London.

Associate Artists

Jane Jeffery

Jane is an Actor and Director, who has worked extensively in Film, TV and Theatre. She has directed shows at Soho Theatre, Theatre 503, Finborough Theatre, Kings Head and The Other Palace; as well as over 50 shows and projects on both BA and MA Acting, and Musical Theatre, courses at a number of different London Drama Schools, and was until recently, Head of Acting at ALRA.

Jane is Artistic Director of First Sight Theatre Company, and is currently working with Refugees to explore lived experiences and narratives through theatre. Her Acting credits include Top Boy 2 (Channel 4), Coalition (Channel 4), Voyage Round my Father (Donmar Theatre/Wyndhams), Silent Witness (BBC), EastEnders (BBC), Coronation Street (ITV),Emmerdale (ITV), Holby City (BBC) Casualty (BBC).