Shocking: The real Alan Montanaro

I received the email hereunder with the following note which I am publishing as a proof of its veracity;

DEAR MR BEDINGFIELD, I would appreciate it if you published this letter on your blog in its entirety. With regards to my name you can leave just Edward and I’m sure Alan and all those who attended his classes with me will get the message. Thanks.

Alan Montanaro is one of the biggest elitist bullies and hypocrites around. I do not agree with you on many things Glenn, but to see Alan Montanaro (of all people) calling you a cyberbully whilst hiding behind a veil of beatification is just beyond ridiculous. Don’t buy any the bs he says about his ‘charity work’.

It’s all a pr exercise from his end to promote his drama school, Helen O’Grady. When he first opened Helen O’Grady in Malta, I was around 9 years old and my parents thought it would be a good idea to send me to his classes at Tumas Dingli Attard Primary School.

The main reason was because during this period my parents were going through a tough separation and I was facing severe bullying at school so they thought it would help serve as a distraction from my problems. It was at these classes that I saw first hand a side of Alan which very few people know about.

From a young age I was very visibly ‘different’ from other young boys, what some people would call ‘effeminate’ or ‘camp’. The way I spoke, walked, moved, and generally behaved made me stand out and would often lead to sever physical, psychological and emotional bullying from those around me. One of those bullies was Alan Montanaro.

Would you believe it? Alan of all people, used to bully me for acting in what many would describe as ”gay” and nowadays he hangs out on Grindr to try and pick up barely legal boys for quick hookups. Instead of helping to build my self- confidence his lessons had quite the opposite effect on me. Alan thought it was amusing to refer to me as a girl, given my ‘effeminate’ behaviour and making me the butt of his mean- spirited jokes during his ”lessons”, which often singled me out from the rest of the class.

He took his teasing so far that he would call me by the female version of my name. So instead of Edward he would call me Edina in front of the whole class. During certain exercises he would make it a point to pair me with other boys and pass inappropriate remarks on how I should ‘stop flirting’ with them, even though I clearly wasn’t. Once during a particular lesson a girl from Bormla who came from a difficult social background came to the lesson and no one noticed anything strange.

The next lesson while she wasn’t there Alan told the entire class of her family history in a gossiping tone and passed crude jokes about her weight and how she reeked of cigarettes. Needless to say, this girl did not return to any other lessons. Nowadays I am well past Alan Montanaro and his type but it really makes my blood boil to see him claiming to be a victim of a form of bullying after remembering what he made me and so many other students go through.

I have absolutely no personal agenda whatsoever against Alan, and all those who know me can say that I do not have a vindictive character, but I honestly hope that this letter serves as an eye-opener to the many people currently defending him and to any parent considering sending their children to his drama school.