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A shared passion for theatre and painting brought two people together almost nine years ago and sparked enough creativity to produce an art school, a Corporate Training Company, two children and more recently the Limelight Theatre Company.

Mitch and Hanna Waite met during the preparations for the Shakespeare Review back in 1998 at the Red Pear Theatre Company in Antibes. “She came to me like an angel from the darkness” explains Mitch. In fact this romantic notion is not so far from the truth. He was working on the set design when Hanna – who was involved with the production -walked into the darkened auditorium and approached the stage, “I looked up and saw this beautiful figure in a halo of stage lights. What chance did I have? It was practically love at first sight”

Two years later they had married and created the now well established art school Maison des Arts in La Colle sur Loup where Mitch is the principal teacher. Maison des Arts has quickly built an international reputation for quality. Their one-week residential painting courses have attracted several hundred participants over the years from all over the world, many who return repeatedly.

Hanna’s first talent lies in the theatre. She was professionally trained in England at East 15 Acting School after leaving her home country of Sweden. After a variety of roles in and around London she decided to head for the South of France to explore her passion for painting. She is a tremendous artist and of course now regularly exhibits in the Maison des Arts gallery.

Their shared love for all things artistic - whether it’s painting, theatre or music (Mitch confesses to being a keen but strictly amateur guitar player) has fuelled their extraordinary creative drive. Three years ago they formed IntuThink – a company devoted to the development of innovation and creativity for individuals, teams and organisations. Mostly run at Maison des Arts their one-day workshops and 4-day courses are designed to unveil the mystery of how creativity works and get left brained executives to break out of their boxes. “Much of our resistance to the flexibility required to be creative is due to our innate desire for security” says Mitch, “we live in a constantly changing world and we must learn to change with it, hanging on to the safety of the tried and trusted is not an option. We need to be able to break out of our conditioned thinking and see from a fresh perspective”.

Mitch and Hanna don’t seem to be short of fresh perspectives. This year Hanna formed The Limelight Theatre Company. “Our aim is to produce high quality English speaking professional Theatre.” Hanna explains, “We want to bring back truly excellent productions to theatres up and down this coast”.
It’s as ambitious as it is exciting. Their first production is the West End hit Private Lives by Noel Coward to be shown this autumn - "A gleaming and gleeful comedy" ~ N.Y. Post. After that there will be 3 or 4 different productions through 2007. “We have brought together a great team of theatre professionals all living locally. Our only addition to the team from the UK is our director Richard Derrington who will come over for a four week rehearsal period this September”. Private Lives will go up on Friday the 6th of October for three consecutive nights as well as a matinee on Sunday the 8th at Théâtre Antibéa in Antibes. In addition there will be another performance in Menton and one in Fayence, dates to be confirmed.