Actress, writer, and production company owner Sarah Cameron-West shares her memories of Westbourne and the exciting developments in her career.
When were you at Westbourne House and did you board?
I arrived at Westbourne in September 2008. I went straight into Year 7 (aged 11) and stayed until the end of Year 8, leaving in July 2010. I did board and I loved it! I have such happy memories of rushing to Mr and Mrs Law's house to Bee’s Wing after school and watching Glee on Monday nights.
When you left, what did you miss most?
I really missed the atmosphere of the school - it really has a very special energy and community that I had never experienced anywhere else. The passion for learning, the importance of kindness and respecting one another, and the fun I had there really was so unique. I feel very privileged to have attended such a lovely school.
Did you always love drama best of all? Which was your favourite school production and why?
I adored Mr Cousens’ classes - they were the highlight of my week. I couldn’t wait for every Thursday and I went to every drama camp Westbourne put on in the holidays. I just couldn’t get enough!
I was only at Westbourne for two school productions, Oliver and Fiddler On the Roof. Oliver was cast before I arrived but I loved being in Fagin’s gang. Oliver was a Year 7 & 8 play and that was a lovely way of integrating the year groups. I can still remember being in Year 7 and seeing the Year 8s who were playing the main parts around school - I felt like I was talking to celebrities!
Playing Golde in the Year 8 play of Fiddler on the Roof was my all-time favourite. It was my first ever audition and the only one to date where I haven’t felt nervous! I remember not being able to sleep the night before the cast list came out. When I went into school to check the Millenium Hall column where it had been posted, I took my finger and went from the bottom of the list to the top. I started to get worried as I didn’t see my name and thought I had been missed from the play completely, but when I got to the top of the list and saw my name I burst into tears of joy! It was my first proper main part and I loved every second - I still have the pictures of me singing Do You Love Me? with Nico Mendoza-Sharman.
It also felt very special to come back to do My Boy Jack in the Millennium Hall years later with Mr Cousens and act on the stage that had always meant so much to me.
What is your fondest memory of Westbourne House School?
I have so many but the one that made me and my mum smile recently relates to Fiddler on the Roof. As I was 12 at the time and playing a 50-year-old woman, the makeup department were set on giving me quite intense wrinkles to make me look older. My mum thought it ruined my face, so before my big solo she came into the wings with a wet wipe and took off all my wrinkles! How outrageous - we couldn’t stop laughing!
Who was your favourite teacher and why?
It has got to be Mr Cousens - he was the first ever teacher to really encourage me and make me feel that I had a talent for acting - it is down to him that I had the confidence to go down this path in the first place. I remember very vividly him taking me aside after a lesson and saying that I could act as a career and I just remember thinking “I could do drama every day?! AND BE PAID?!” It seemed too good to be true. It was also Mr Cousens who put me forward for a drama scholarship at my next school, which I never would have had the confidence to do. I, very emphatically, said there was absolutely no way I would get it and he said “you never know until you try - and we are going to try!” He supported me all the way through the process, and I can still remember the smile on his face when I told him that my application was successful!
I then went on to do drama at my secondary school and was later awarded the Drama Scholarship to Durham University before heading to drama school, the Drama Centre London, where I received a distinction in my Masters in Acting. I know for a fact that none of that would have happened if Mr Cousens hadn’t spoken to me that day and brought me out of my shell.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years' time?
I would like to be running my own TV production company like my heroes Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sharon Horgan. I have set up two production companies, Any Second Now Ltd. and Greenlit Productions, so I hope that they will be doing well and that I will be getting to write, act and produce my own work on an international level. I would also like to set up my own acting fund and support up and coming writer-performers and help them get a platform to exhibit their work. That is the dream anyway!
Where or when did you discover that you also loved writing shows? Is that something you always wanted to do?
I have loved creative writing since we did it at school in English - I loved that we could be marked for our imagination. I think the idea of devising my own shows, however, came more into play at secondary school when I was studying drama GCSE and we made our own work. I wrote my first full play when I did an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice which I put on in my final year of school. I wrote, directed and cast 50 girls for the show.I then submitted us for the Guildhall Grade 5 Drama Exam, and I was delighted when we all received a distinction. That was the first moment I ever heard the words I had written be said out loud and it really lit something within me.
Once I left drama school, I started producing my own theatre nights, putting on my own sketches and bringing together other writers, actors and directors. It was during this time that I saw a post for a monologue competition, so I wrote a piece on my notes app and decided to send it in. That was the first 10-minute iteration of KAREN, which I have since expanded and performed as a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe and at The Other Palace and The Seven Dials in London. I have had a few pinch me moments with KAREN with it being signed by Hat Trick Productions for TV development as well as Yada Yada Productions for Radio 4 development – I feel so grateful for this recognition!
What is it about performing live that you particularly love?
Theatre will always be my first love and it’s the perfect medium to get something going. You have school and university plays, you can hire out a theatre space in London and put on whatever you want, you can go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival etc. I will always treasure the feeling of performing in front of a live audience and following the characters’ journeys rather than just doing take after take. Performing live has an electricity where you have to work with your live audience, you find the tempo with them a bit like a conductor, you adjust your performance to their energy. Nothing will beat performing to a live audience and the adrenaline that comes with it.
We talk to our pupils a lot about collaboration and empathy and encourage teamwork. Tell us about your collaborative experiences.
That is the ethos I always loved at Westbourne. Despite being a one-woman show, KAREN is far from a one-woman production, and I have had the most incredible team working with me and supporting me from the beginning. It takes a village to hone something to a professional standard and I am so proud of all that we have achieved. Listening is the most important thing about collaboration and bringing a positive attitude is always essential to make sure you are creating your best work - collaboration makes everything better because you bring everyone’s talents together to build something brilliant.
What advice would you give to any aspiring Westbourne actor?
Keep learning and keep doing! Learn as much as you can about acting, what plays and films you like and why, what roles you have fun playing. Keep fuelling your interest and most importantly, make things yourself. Don’t wait around for someone to tell you to create something. Write your own play, make a short film with your friends - you will learn so much this way, develop your passion, and have a body of work which demonstrates your experience!