One of her students has been signed up for a top TV series, but young performers’ dreams do not always come true, says Flintlock Theatre School joint artistic director Anna Glynn

Providing performing arts training to young people in Oxford is both a privilege and a pleasure. Over the five years that the doors of Flintlock Theatre School have been open, we’ve got to know hundreds of young people and their families, all uniquely talented and unfailingly creative, taking part in classes that fizz with enthusiasm and energy because of their combined contribution.

As professional theatre makers, we see our teaching work as an essential part of our practice. Our young people challenge, provoke and inspire us and play an essential role in the theatre we produce.

Students join our classes for a variety of reasons. Some come to build confidence. For others, it’s an energetic day of release from the pressure of school tests and assessments, whilst a small but determined group are pursuing dreams they’ve long harboured of being professional performers themselves.

One of the most difficult questions that we are asked by parents is “Has she (or he) got what it takes to be a performer?”. We always take a deep breath before replying. Our present culture frames fame as an elusive golden ticket, a gilded destiny made possible by a combination of hard work and extraordinary ability.

Simon Cowell and TV personalities of his ilk reprimand young hopefuls every Saturday night and enhance the drama of their carefully-crafted shows by implying that someone is failing because they “just don’t want it enough” and that they must “prove that they have what it takes” in order to succeed.

Sadly, the life of a professional performer carries no guarantees. You can be extremely gifted and work unfailingly hard and yet, unlike almost any other walk of life, opportunities are more likely than not to simply fail to present themselves.

There’s nothing more wasteful than an intelligent young brain and a charismatic personality condemned to a lifetime of table-waiting and the frustration of unpredictable employment. We have a real responsibility to manage those dreams and aspirations sensitively and with great care.

And what happens when those dreams come true? Frequently, our students take up professional work locally and it rarely interrupts their domestic and educational lives. Occasionally, though, things take on a life of their own.

Last year, Garsington Opera approached us asking if we had a young boy who could audition for a role in a forthcoming production. The director visited the school and selected Louis Hynes. A summer of fun ensued with the whole family revelling in the wonder of Wormsley and Louis’s first professional experience. A Guardian review picked out his performance, agents got in touch and one of the world’s most influential firms signed him up.

Since then, it’s been six months of auditions, overseas filming and casting agents clamouring for his time. Last week, Louis was given special permission to miss classes at Bartholomew School in order to fly to LA for meetings. That work has now been confirmed, so Louis will soon be relocating to Vancouver for seven months of filming.

The conventional life he knew in a sleepy Oxfordshire village will be changed, perhaps temporarily, perhaps forever.

What’s happening to Louis is wonderful, exciting and utterly well-deserved. He’s a talented, bright and charismatic young performer who works hard at every task he encounters, be that GCSE homework or auditioning for LA directors.

An unspeakably glamorous experience for a young man, he’s fortunate enough to have the most loving, supportive family possible and a strong and humble head on his shoulders that I have no doubt will handle fame and fortune just as well as the more conventional challenges and achievements that his peers are immersed in.

Our role as performing arts teachers is to support both the highs and lows of his professional ascent, and to make sure that the same supportive environment remains available to him no matter what the future brings.

* Louis Hynes has been signed up to play the lead role of Klaus in Netflix’s adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

* For information about Flintlock Theatre School, see www.flintlocktheatre.com