My mother, Sylvia Jackson, who has died aged 87 of Covid-19, was a teacher whose passion in life was always the theatre. She set up two amateur companies, which she ran for many years, directing and acting herself, including performances at Nottingham’s Royal, Sheffield’s Crucible and Leicester’s Haymarket theatres.
Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, to Wilfred Amos, a miner, and Valetta (nee Stott), a classically trained singer, Sylvia had four brothers from whom she gained a love of playing tennis and hockey.
She attended Shirebrook grammar school for girls in the county and then, in 1949, aged 17, she went to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
She thrived there, but took a break from her studies in 1950 when she returned home to care for Wilfred, who was then dying. In 1953 she completed her acting studies and moved back to Derbyshire, where she married Norman Jackson, a miner, in 1954. They had two children, Simon and me. Our house was full of their singing and weekends were devoted to sport.
In the late 1960s, she decided to train as a teacher and went to Eaton Hall Teacher Training College, in Retford, Nottinghamshire, as a mature student. In 1969 she went back to teach at her old school, Shirebrook, as head of drama, and she also taught PE. She retired in 1985.
Sylvia had chosen family life in Derbyshire over a career in London theatre, but her passion remained. In 1953 she founded Langwith Amateur Dramatic Society, putting on more than 50 productions between 1953 and 1984. She also ran a children’s theatre school, Palace theatre drama school, in Mansfield, for several years.
In 1988 she started another amateur group, ACE Productions, which put on 35 productions at the Palace theatre and the Library and Civic theatre in Mansfield until 2005.
That year Sylvia helped the Cavendish family to restore the theatre at Chatsworth House. It had been used as a storage facility. She advised on how to restore staging and install lighting. She then set up the Chatsworth Players.
Her last production there was Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons in 2017, which she oversaw at the age of 85.
Norman died in 2006. Sylvia is survived by her children, Simon and me, and by her grandchildren, Naomi and Nathan.
