About us

Gabi Maddocks

Gabi is a teacher, actor, director, and writer. She spent three years at Cambridge University. In between acting in and directing plays and musicals, she even managed to squeeze in a few lectures. She left in 1997 with a 2:1 in Natural Sciences.

After Cambridge, Gabi did postgraduate training as an actress at Drama Studio London. Her career history is a patchwork of drama and teaching, often at the same time. She taught English and Biology in a secondary school and toured primary schools across England as part of Quantum Theatre for Science. In 1999 she met Steven, who whisked her away to West Africa. Her numerous responsibilities at the English Language Institute in Cape Verde included teaching English to children and adults and helping to train teachers. She also gave a series of drama workshops.

After arriving back in England, Gabi taught after-school drama classes for various companies, and in 2002 she began teaching her own classes (Greenacre Drama Classes) in Greenacre Walk. In 2008 she and Steven decided to pool their resources, and Greenacre Drama Classes was reborn as The Playing Space. On top of all of her other skills and abilities, Gabi uses British Sign Language to a high level.

Steven Maddocks

Steven is a teacher, actor, director, and writer. He spent three years at Oxford University. He acted in plays too numerous to mention, served a term as president of OUDS (Oxford University Dramatic Society), and towards the end of his third year, even showed up at a couple of tutorials. He left in 1996 with a 2:1 in English.

After Oxford, Steven did postgraduate training as an actor at Webber Douglas. After a couple of years on the stage, he decided he needed some sunshine, retrained as an English teacher, and got a job in West Africa. Just before he left, he met Gabi and persuaded her to come with him. During his time working at the English Language Institute in Cape Verde (2000-2001), he taught English to children and adults and wrote and directed a series of children’s shows.

After arriving back in England, Steven fell into working as a freelance writer and editor, and before he knew it, he had produced five ten-volume historical encyclopedias and a handful of other educational books. But the lure of drama was too strong, and so in 2008 he decided to join up with Gabi and launch The Playing Space.