08 Nov 2025
In 2015, 18-year-old Marlborough school-leaver Phoebe Shergold-Willis was in a quandary. She had excelled in the performing arts at her nurturing school, worked hard at her A-levels and yet didn’t want to continue on the school/university treadmill at that point, writes Debbie Heath.
Having grown up in the East End of London, only moving to St Albans in her late teens, Phoebe was painfully aware of how a child’s socio-economic background can be a barrier to pursuing their dreams of theatrical success with after-school training being too expensive for many.
Sitting down at the kitchen table with her mother Elvie, a marketing guru, Phoebe quickly established her intention – to set up an acting school for St Albans young people run by young people.
She sketched her business logo on a Post-It note and soon began a small acting class which grew and grew. Over the next few years, Phoebe continued to teach and run her business alongside studying for her Theatre Arts degree at Middlesex University where she specialised in production management and technical theatre.
Her life was extremely full-on at this point but if anything that seemed to invigorate her more.
“I’m from a working class family,” she explained. “Working hard was ingrained in me from a young age.”
Phoebe soon became so well established and respected as a teacher that she eventually brought and incorporated the Living The Dream’ performing arts school into her own portfolio of classes. Eventually in 2018 she rebranded as SASA; things were on a roll and it looked like nothing could go wrong.
“It was a whirlwind,” she smiled “My pupils took part in the procession for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and performed as the main act for the Mayor Of London’s Duke of Edinburgh Awards evening at Mansion House. We also performed at the Wembley Arena for a youth charity event, being introduced by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle! It was amazing going from a small local stage to an audience capacity of 12,500.”
Of course, we all know what happened in 2020: COVID was bad news all round including for small businesses.
“We were days away from having to shut down,” Phoebe reflected.
Fortunately, with her business background and gritty determination, she rose to the challenge and applied for Arts Council funding which was duly awarded.
“We don’t churn out loads of profit but that’s not who we are. We want to help people. That’s our USP – we are one of the only performing arts schools in the district that offers financial help to their pupils. Growing up in the East End helped me to see where there are pockets of poverty amidst wealth.”
In 2025 Phoebe was proud to win the National Community and Social Impact Award for Hertfordshire.
As a young business woman with widening participation in the arts at the heart of all her ventures, it seemed like Phoebe has so much to be proud of but I asked her to pick SASA’s top three achievements to date.
“Well surviving COVID is one.” She smiled “The second is the community ethos we have built with children from such a range of backgrounds. Honestly, if I could bottle up the feeling families get from when we do a show I would be a millionaire. Lastly, it would be that amazing performance at Wembley Arena.”
Looking to the future, Phoebe is excited to have just incorporated a Kings Langley dance school into the SASA portfolio and is looking forward to establishing it.
However, she has a bigger dream and that is to address the problem that she faced in the sixth form – wanting do a practical performing arts course rather than traditional A levels.
“My big dream is to open our own premises, not just for our classes and performances but as an arts hub too [SASA is currently based at The Pioneer Club]. We could then use the facilities to deliver a BTEC in Performing Arts. Failing that I would be genuinely interested in having a conversation with local sixth forms to see if we could run one at their school.”
I have no doubt that this idea will soon become reality.
Phoebe is such an inspiring person to interview with a passion to succeed not for herself but for the benefit of others. She believes, as I do, in the power of performing arts and the right for every young person to have the opportunity to try it. I really look forward to seeing what happens next for SASA.
Details of SASA classes in St Albans and Kings Langely can be found on https://sasa-arts.co.uk/classes
If any local businesses are interested in helping with bursaries they can contact phoebe@sasa-arts.co.uk
