New £1.4m home befitting top talent factory
MARK Jermin started teaching drama in the spare bedroom of his parents’ house when he was just eight.
He’d while away the hours after school teaching everything he learnt in drama lessons to his younger sister Nia, who’d hang on to his every word and dream of a life on the stage.
Fast forward a little over 30 years and the pair now run one of Wales’s most successful performing arts Saturday schools and have taught and trained thousands of Swansea children, including more than a few recognisable faces.
Seen by many as a “fame factory,” the place to send your child to have their talent shaped and developed, Mark’s stage school, The Mark Jermin School, is much more than that.
While it certainly sets some on the road to stardom, it’s also a safe space and creative outlet for young people from across the city and is often praised for helping grow the confidence of even the shyest of children.
For some, The Mark Jermin School is a step through the door on the way to fame and fortune, while for others it’s a way of making new friends and learning how to speak up and feel less anxious around new people or in a social setting.
Since its launch in 1992, huge numbers of children have been trained by Mark, Nia and their team.
While Covid-19 may have moved classes temporarily online, they’re back in person now – and at a beautiful new venue
As a youngster Mark loved drama. But while many children want to be on stage, Mark loved teaching and directing others more than performing himself.
He first got bit by the directing bug at the age of eight when his sister Nia wanted to learn everything Mark had been taught in school drama lessons, so Mark began teaching her to act and perform in the spare room in their family home in Pontlliw.
Nia was a natural, so Mark soon entered her into a local drama festival, and she began talking to friends about her ‘drama lessons’ from her big brother. Within days, Nia and Mark’s friends started coming over to their home to have drama lessons, and word soon spread.
By the time Mark was 15 he was hiring out Pontlliw village hall and had established a popular local drama club, passing on his knowledge and theatre skills to Nia and children from across the village.
Thanks to Mark’s teaching, Nia impressed casting directors when she attended an audition in London and was offered a part in Les Miserables in the West End when she was just nine years old.
Not wanting to separate the family, Mark’s parents moved the family to London so they could all be together while Nia was performing, and she soon signed with a talent agency.
Keen to get involved and help out however he could, the teenage Mark spent his weekends working at the agency, bringing coffees to directors and answering the phones to clients and businesses.
He watched and learned from the agents, and they soon offered him a job working for them, but Mark didn’t want to work full-time yet. Instead, he
wanted to go to university to get a deeper understanding of the industry and really hone his skills.
After finishing his degree in theatre direction at the University of Glamorgan and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, Mark moved back to London and found work as a talent agent and drama teacher, finding it easy to represent the children on his books as he knew them well.
While he loved life in London and was able to afford a flat at the age of just 22, Mark felt drawn back to Wales.
He said: “I didn’t want to leave my students in Wales so I’d work in London Monday to Friday, then drive back to Swansea to teach them on the weekends.
“I could get my Welsh students incredible opportunities in London because I had the contacts, and my students worked on series like Casualty, The Bill and Silent Witness – and the girls in the Mccain chips ‘Daddy or chips’ advert were two of mine.”
The BBC soon heard of Mark’s small stage school in Swansea and how it was feeding children into great professional roles, and approached Mark for a documentary series. The series, named ‘Starstruck’, followed Mark’s students from Pontlliw on their journey to stardom.
As soon as the series was broadcast, business boomed and Mark received enquiries from mums and dads across the city. Faced with a decision on whether to stay in London
full time or spend more time in Wales, Mark decided to come home.
He said: “I moved back to build the school, originally with [franchises in] Swansea and Carmarthen. And I built the Mark Jermin Management agency from the attic of my home.”
After officially launching in 1992, it wasn’t long before The Mark Jermin School became a household name in South Wales. At its peak, Mark had 14 stage schools across the region, with hundreds of children going to his school’s lessons every week.
Among the recognisable faces on his agency books is Amelie Bea Smith, a ten-year-old from London who has played Daisy in Eastenders (2018-19), Flora Wingrave in The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020) and starring in the new ITV series Hollington Drive. She is also the voice of Peppa Pig.
Mark Jermin Management is now one of the largest talent agencies for children in the UK and places talented young people in adverts, TV series, films and stage shows across the country and beyond.
In 2018 he decided he wanted to build his own arts facility in Swansea, a new home for his Swansea “Super Stage School” and a welcoming space for the wider performing arts community. He soon came across a unit in Fforestfach and Mark, Nia and their team transformed the former sofa store into an elegant and vibrant arts and wellbeing centre – at a cost of £1.4m of Mark’s own money.
The beautiful performing arts hub on Carmarthen Road, named “Venue No. 1, was ready to launch in spring 2019, with hundreds of children and teenagers signed up and other arts businesses set to rent extra studio space. Then Covid-19 arrived.
Mark was devastated, but with Covid restrictions having lifted this summer, The Mark Jermin School is back offering in-person classes.
Venue No. 1 features a beautiful 140-seat studio-theatre, pristine dance and fitness studios, meeting and conference rooms and a welcoming and “super Instagrammable” café, while also being the main base for The Mark Jermin School and Mark Jermin Management talent agency.
Mark describes the venue as a “creative, collaborative community” and “Swansea’s swankiest new arts and wellbeing hub”.
Venue No. 1 hosts a wide range of classes and events, from Mark’s own lessons for youngsters to externallyrun dance and fitness classes for adults, including Argentine tango, synergy dance and burlesque chair dance classes. There’s also musicalthemed baby sensory classes for parents and babies.
Whilst predominantly a performing arts venue, it is open to all. With beautiful performance and rehearsal spaces and meeting and conference rooms, it’s expected to be a popular venue for both work and play.
Mark said: “Venue No. 1 is my legacy. It can be used by anyone, it’s multifunctional, there’s something for everyone. Come and see it.”
I didn’t want to leave my students in Wales so I’d work in London Monday to Friday, then drive back to Swansea to teach them on the weekends. I could get my Welsh students incredible opportunities in London because I had contacts Mark Jermin