Update to Performing Successes
In our information packs to parents who enquire about Stagecoach, we include a little booklet with details about the successes that Stagecoach Yarm and Darlington students have had in the past. It is a while since I updated it, so I used my time today when Stagecoach was cancelled to do so. It has become almost an historical document. Every time I read through it I am staggered by the amount and range of success that we have managed to help our students towards so I thought that I would let you share the update. If you can think of any glaring omissions let me know.
If you want to read more details about any of the stories then type a name or key word into the search box on the site to see what it brings up
These boys played Lost Boys in “Peter Pan” at the Durham Gala Theatre about 5 years ago, so we `lost` them in the shrubbery of a photoshoot at Teesside High.
Zoe Birkett, became the last female finalist in ITV’s original “Pop Idol” show. Zoe has returned twice to Darlington Civic to star in the annual pantomime. She has toured with the musical “What a Feeling” and headlined in The Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. Recently she has toured as the female lead in a musical based on Michael Jackson called “Thriller”. Zoe is now a professional Musical Theatre actress and has been holding down a lead part in the Number 1 best-selling musical in the West End - “Priscilla Queen Of The Desert”. Zoe was a Darlington Stagecoach student for three years right up to the time that she reached the finals of “Pop Idol”.
Jamie Bell, aged 12, played the title role in the British film “BILLY ELLIOT”. He won the BAFTA for “Best Actor” for his role and subsequently 11 other awards. Jamie is still making successful films e.g ‘King Kong’, ‘Hallam Foe’, ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ ‘Jumper’, ‘Flags of our Fathers’ with Clint Eastwood, ‘Defiance’, with Daniel Craig. We have just learned that Jamie has also won the part of TinTin in a series of films, the first of which is to be directed by Stephen Spielberg and the second by Peter Jackson of “Lord of the Rings” fame. Jamie was a student at Yarm Stagecoach for a year and was sent for the “Billy Elliot” auditions by us.
“Bad Lashes” who made it to the finals of the 2008 “X Factor” shows, have a lead singer called Sophie Wilson. Sophie was an original student from Yarm Stagecoach in 1997. One of our Further Stages boys - Nick Brown made it through to the London stage of last year`s “Britain`s Got Talent” with his band.
Adrian Coates, aged 6, played the lead child part in “BAIT” - a short film for Channel 4 which was nominated for a BAFTA in 2001. He was on screen throughout the film. This film helped Adrian to get into the finals of a TV performance award for children. Adrian then performed with Shakespeare 4 Kidz. Adrian has also played Michael in Peter Pan and performed in “The Wizard of Oz”. Most recently he acted in a film, shot in Redcar, called “Clarissa”.
Wesley Kipling, aged four, gained a part the week after we opened in Yarm in an autobiographical Art film, directed by Mike Figgis, who has several times been nominated for an Oscar for the films he has made. Wesley now lives in Australia, where his mum runs Stagecoach Perth.
Sanaz Lavasani, Charlotte Broadbent, Hayley McKay and Lauren Power have all won the honour in separate years of being “Young Soprano of the Year” in Darlington. Sanaz and Charlotte subsequently attended the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester for weekend voice training. They were both chosen to sing in a new musical at the new Sage Building in Gateshead. Sanaz has recently completed her studies at London’s prestigious Guildhall and Hayley reached the National Finals of The Festival4Stars talent competition.
Elliot Francis, of Yarm Stagecoach won the Stockton Arts Award of the SMART children’s award in 2002, Elliot has appeared in a couple of the Harry Potter films. He has also appeared in the BBC TV series of ‘Little Dorrit’. Callum Batkin, of Yarm Stagecoach won the same award in 2003. Astonishingly another Yarm Stagecoach student - Adrian Coates completed the hat trick in 2004.
The Francis family of Ingleby Barwick were the “Family of the Week” on the Big Breakfast show in 2001 which led to their switching on the Christmas lights in Stockton. Our regional Entertainment Troupe entertained at the Christmas lights switch-on in Darlington 2002.
80 students from across the region have performed in “Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat” on four occasions in the region, most recently in November 2008. Previously, 40+ students have performed in “The Demon Headmaster” at Billingham Forum Theatre, and 20+ senior students performed at the Civic with Tara Arts - a prestigious Asian theatre group. 120 Students have performed in “Abbamania” at the Civic. This was the third time that we have appeared with this cast.
Jodie Taibi has recently graduated from Webber Douglas and The Central School of Speech and Drama in London and has been seen in the ITV Drama series called “Midnight Man”. Jodie also had a regular role in an ITV comedy series which aired in 2009 called “Monday Monday“. She also played a lead role in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” at a Northampton theatre. Jodie is currently teaching Drama to our Further Stages students.
Six students from Yarm and Darlington have performed in West End tours of Lloyd Webber’s “Whistle Down the Wind” in Sunderland and Newcastle. Nine more played orphans in 2 productions of “Annie” at Darlington Civic Theatre. Three boys - Efram Wolf, Evan Reid and Ethan Hurworth played the part of Chip the Teacup in Disney`s “Beauty and the Beast”, when the tour came to Darlington Civic in March 2008. Very recently in March 2008 we had 9 students performing with Anita Dobson and Darren Day in “Hello Dolly” at Darlington Civic and four students later performed in “South Pacific”. Four more performed in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” at Darlington Civic in March 2009.
Seventeen ex-students - Jodi Taibi, Rebecca Jennings, Chris Mitchell, Eugene McCoy, Elliot Francis, Lauren Newton, Hayley Rossington, Sanaz Lavasani, Robin Mills, Vicky Bilton, Rachael Deverell, Suzie Potter, Georgia McIntyre, Matthew Corner, Lauren Power, Jenny Wiper and Elliot Allinson have gained admission to prestigious Drama schools - RADA, LAMDA, Webber Douglas, GSA, Redroofs, Italia Conti, Arts Educational, Guild Hall, London Studio Centre, LIPA, SLP College Leeds, Silvia Young`s and Manchester Met. Many others from Yarm and Darlington have gained degree places on Performing Arts courses at a variety of universities and colleges, throughout Britain.
Chris Mitchell, who graduated from GSA in Guildford, and then toured America as part of a singing group called the ‘Twelve Irish Tenors’, had a part in the leading show of the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2008 - “Only the Brave”. He then won the leading male role in another show “Mathilde”, running alongside the first one. He ended the year as the lead male in a pantomime in Greater London.
Our students have won places with the two National Youth Theatres (NYT and YMT) and the National Youth Choir on 20+ occasions in the past. Alicia McKenzie, Sarah Warbey, Georgia McIntyre and Elliot Francis have won the distinction of winning a place on both, within the same year - a rare feat.
All main school students are entered for Trinity College London exams in Group Musical Theatre every two years. We have a 99% pass rate with 80+% getting higher grades of Merit and Distinction. In addition, every year, optional LAMDA exams are sat in Acting or Speaking and we have enjoyed similar success rates in these examinations. We are very proud that by the end of the summer term 2008, all our 385 main school students had been entered for Trinity exams and ALL gained merits and distinctions.
The West end tour of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” came to Sunderland for the second time recently. We are very proud to say that the lead boy part of Jeremy, which was auditioned for locally, was won by our Darlington boys on ALL THREE occasions. The successful boys were Thomas Hunter, Elliott Allinson and Owen Stubbings. We have also had the following children win chorus parts - Amy Cossins, Elliot Belshaw and Dylan Childs (twice).
We have had three students hold down lead children`s parts in musicals in runs in theatres in the West End. Thomas Hunter, from Darlington, went on from Chitty in Sunderland to play the lead role of Michael Banks in “Mary Poppins” in the West End. Annabelle Crosby has just finished playing Debbie in “Billy Elliot” and Elliot Allinson has also just finished a year long run as one of Fagin`s gang in “Oliver” with Rowan Atkinson as Fagin. Zoe Birkett is also currently appearing there in “Priscilla Queen of the Desert”
About 30 senior students from Yarm and Darlington went to be part of a choir of 3000 at The Royal Albert Hall in London, in March 2002 and sang there with Cliff Richard and Gabriele. The same group, plus extras, paraded down The Mall during the Golden Jubilee celebrations in June 2002, as part of a 5000 choir to sing for the Queen outside Buckingham Palace. More recently 25 of our youngest students performed live at the NEC at Birmingham in August 2005.
Robin Mills currently studying at London Studio Centre was seen in the documentary based upon the making of the ITV Series “Britannia High” because he made it to the boot camp stage for the casting of this series. He has also appeared recently as a backing singer to Andrea Boccelli, on “Strictly Come Dancing”.
Our two schools have held two “Guinness World Records”. One for the longest Locomotion Dance when we took part in a celebration to mark the anniversary of the first journey of the Locomotion steam engine in 2001. The record was beaten by a group in Wales and we attempted in July 2008 to bring the record back. Unfortunately we failed, despite increasing our original numbers by a third. The other Guinness record was for taking part in the largest ever simultaneous performance of a musical in 2000 and then in Dec 2008, in an attempt to improve the record. World wide over 12,000 Stagecoach students took part. Locally we had 430 students involved.
Five students - Robin Mills, Sarah Warbey (3 times), Alex Robinson, Tegan Ellershaw and Lara Tysseling (3 times) have won places in the national Stagecoach “Easy Stages” drama production, staged in a London theatre every summer. Students who have served with us for three years are eligible to apply. Stagecoach also stages two showcase performances a year at ‘Her Majesty`s’ theatre in the West End. Our `boys only` dance class blew everyone away with their performance in June 2009.
Many children have played minor roles in touring professional productions at Darlington Civic Theatre, children’s productions such as “The Wizard of Oz”, “The Twits” and “George’s Marvellous Medicine” (twice). They have appeared in operas like “Madam Butterfly”, “Yeoman of the Guard”, “Turandot” “La Boheme” and “Tosca”, ballets like “Swan Lake” and “Coppelia” and musicals like “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”and “Carousel”. They have also appeared in serious plays like “Five Nights in Naresbrough”, “A Dolls House”, “The Turning of the Screw”, “Dracula” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and tribute shows like . “Think Floyd”, “Abbamania”, “Stardust” and the Keith Jack tour.
Nine of our students from Yarm and Darlington have won through to gain the title roles in local Operatic Societies and Youth Theatre productions. Brittany Knowles, Holly Gray and Charlotte Churchman for “Annie”; Elliot Francis, Josh Mason, Thomas Wells, Elliot Allinson and Ethan Hurworth (twice) for “Oliver”, David MacNab as “Dodger” in three productions of “Oliver” and Elliot Francis for “Kes”. Many others have performed in main or supporting roles. Holly Gray, Robin Mills and Matthew Corner in “Fame” and Matthew again with Christopher Mitchell in “Les Miserables”, Alex Robinson as Dorothy and Rob Hancock as the tin man in “The Wizard of Oz” and seven young boys appeared as Lost Boys in “Peter Pan” at Durham’s Gala Theatre (cover photo).
Charlotte Churchman, Georgia McIntyre and Charlotte Curry of Darlington Stagecoach have been successful in gaining parts in television adverts - Darlington dance teacher Kate Ruddick and her family have also recently appeared in several adverts for Haven Holidays and our Drama teacher Phil Harrison regularly appears in different adverts. He has also recently appeared in two episodes of ITV’s Emmerdale.
Dylan Childs recently won through hundreds of auditionees to win a place singing in a new piece of musical theatre at The Royal Albert Hall in the BBC Proms Series. Dylan was also offered a part in Fagin`s Gang in The West End version of “Oliver”. Unfortunately, he was not able to take up the offer.
Many of our children have performed in large-scale prestigious local projects eg a group of our youngest students dancing with Brutus Gold at Stockton’s Riverside Festival; over 100 of our students singing with West End singing stars at Middlesbrough’s Cellnet Stadium in front of a crowd of 10,000; a choir of over 50 singing at a stately home in North Yorkshire; and 170 of our Darlington students performing at a children’s Awards Night at The Civic Theatre Darlington.
Our students have performed on the Edinburgh Fringe, modelled at Bridal Fairs and in charity fashion shows. In August 2005 and 2006, Stagecoach marched in the parade at “Stockton Carnival”; our youngest students entertained at three Teddy Bear’s Picnics at Auckland Castle, Newton Aycliffe Show and `A Head Of Steam` museum in Darlington in August 2008.
Our specially selected Entertainment Troupe, STARE, has performed at “Concert in the Park” style events at Guisborough Priory, parties for Special Needs children at The Tall Trees Hotel and very many awards nights in prestigious venues in Darlington, Middlesbrough, Yarm, Redcar, Durham, Newcastle and Gateshead. They have made advertisements at the Metro Centre and entertained at Murder/Mystery evenings and Corporate events.
Many students have helped charities like The Children’s Society, The Disability Association, M.I.N.D, St Teresa’s Hospice, Memorial Hospital Pain Clinic and Homeless charities through performing for free at Fund Raising evenings. In December 2009 we raised £2200 for Cancer Research UK with a very special Christmas Concert in support of a teacher who had contracted breast cancer and beaten it.
In July 2006 the Butterwick Hospice held a “Strictly Come Dancing” type event.We trained four of their volunteers and one of them won the competition, with several of our children dancing alongside them. We have also performed for The Butterwick Ball twice. Several children of all ages have appeared in local charity pantomimes like the ones in February 2008 and 2009 in The Oakwood Centre, Eaglescliffe and The Arc, Stockton.
We have also helped the N.S.P.C.C and The British Heart Foundation and The Hands of Love orphanage, Uganda, at a variety of events. At Easter 2005, we held a Talent Show with open access to all our students which raised £300 for Thailand’s Tsunami stricken area. At the end of the Summer term 2006 and 2008 we held a “Parents Do Stagecoach Event” in aid of INTERACT which is Stagecoach’s own charity, providing Stagecoach activities for free to disabled and disadvantaged children.
Six students have joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in three separate productions - “Much Ado About Nothing”. Coriolanus and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Seven other students played in “Midsummer Nights Dream” and “Macbeth” with Shakespeare 4 Kidz at Middlesbrough Theatre for three years running.
A couple of years ago Stagecoach students nationally released a single called “Angel Looking Through” in aid of INTERACT. In addition we compiled our own CD to support our own children at National levels of training, when all the students in Yarm and Darlington were featured singing a track per class on our Christmas CD 2003. We are currently making a second CD of more general songs entitled “In Good Voice - After 10 years” to celebrate the best singing voices we have encountered over the twelve years that we have been in existence.
Our Yarm and Darlington Further Stages, both organised and staged, public performances of a Murder Mystery event in aid of charity. They are hoping in the future to make a DVD about the dangers of alcohol abuse in young people, to hopefully be released in schools.
The English Youth Ballet had a production of Giselle at Billingham Forum in Spring 2008. Several of our students won parts - Emilie Thelwell, Samantha Gamblin, Sophie Bryant and Bethany Atkinson. Four boys from our all boys dance class were also successful - Will Hargreaves, Stuart Thompson, Jamie Heward and Thomas Bailey.
Lucy (Julia) Moss of Darlington Stagecoach has been the voice of Emily Elephant in the TV cartoon of Peppa Pig (which won a BAFTA) for several years. She then won another voice-over role as a fairy in Little Kingdom which has also just won another BAFTA
Elliot Belshaw is the voice of Tommy Zoom in the TV cartoon of the same name. Elliot has also finished filming the lead role in a feature film made locally called “The Legend of The Golden Fishcake” which is due to be released next year.
Other successes have included Stan Hodgson appearing in a Channel 4 documentary, playing the young Nelson and Kaleb Harvey, aged 5, appearing twice in promotions and celebrations for the Disney Channel. Eavie Proffitt appeared in a Crimewatch reconstruction for the BBC in August 2008. James Lavelle acted in a short film in August 2008. Luke and Thomas Woollaston and Connor Knowles have appeared in a pop video for “Journey South”. The Woollaston twins and Liam Gamble have played in TV drama series filmed in the North-East
Two ex senior students Jade Johnson and Alycia McKenzie worked as Stagecoach workshop leaders for First Choice Package Holidays last summer.
Stagecoach now trains a Regional North East Choir in Newcastle. They performed alongside other choirs in Birmingham in June 2006 and The Royal Albert Hall in 2007 and back in Birmingham in 2008. They continue their engagements this year.
Holly Newton of Darlington Stagecoach played the lead role in a pilot production for a children’s film called “My Dad`s a Birdman”. Chloe-Jayne Wilkinson of Yarm Stagecoach has just finished filming a lead role in a film to appear on the BBC in 2010, called ONE IN TEN
Katie Coleman, of Darlington Stagecoach won a TFM Talent competition in a Middlesbrough shopping centre in Summer 2008, and won a £2000 holiday. She was also third in the national finals of another talent competition, UK Idol 2008.
A group of Further Stages students and Eavie Profitt performed at the Holocaust Memorial Day service at Darlington Arts Centre in January 2009. Matthew Thompson and Matthew Lewis, also of Further Stages helped to form their own young peoples` theatre company and staged “Arsenic and Old Lace” in January 2009 at Darlington Arts Centre and have continued with other productions since.
Hayley McKay got through to the final selection rounds (televised) for Andrew Lloyd Webber`s search for a new person to sing in last year`s Eurovision Song entry for Britain - “Your Country Needs You”
Amy Lee is the latest of our students to win membership of The National Youth Choir. Others have included Charlotte Broadbent and Eleanor Moore.
TV appearances have been key lately - Kieran Doshi has won through to be a contestant on a new flagship CBBC series due to air in 2009 - so new that it is SECRET! Grace Hoyle got her whole family involved in “Gimme a Break” which took them all on a holiday to Morocco. Parul Sinha appeared with Chris Tarrant in a show which put her in charge of a doctor`s reception - Parul is 4 years old!
Charlotte Pybus and James Emmerson were cast as road accident victims in a road safety film with a horror twist.
Two boys George Rogulja and Thomas Hunter played the son of the lead character in Darlington Operatic`s “The Full Monty” at Darlington Civic recently.
**ALL SEVEN MAIN SCHOOLS ARE INVOLVED IN EXCITING PRODUCTIONS OF “BILLY ELLIOT” AS PART OF A BILLY YOUTH THEATRE PROJECT DURING THE FIRST HALF OF 2010, HELD IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE “BILLY ELLIOT” WEST END STAGE SHOW**
Children photographed by the press after they were chosen to sing in “La Boheme”