Stagecoach

The Main School Workshop rolled to a halt yesterday with its show “Yee-Ha”.  42 students (about 1/3 or more of whom were new to us) produced a lively and incredibly polished performance given that they had only had 32 hours in total to get ready. We had one or two last minute hitches when the costumes that we had ordered did not arrive. Poor Janie volunteered to save the day and went down town to find some fantastic T shirts that she then shredded at the edges to make Indian squaw outfits.

The music was fantastic in this show and helped to keep us singing along all week - Robin and Jodie were to be seen still performing them in the headlights of our car in the carpark as we made our way home. Special thanks to Jodie and Robin for an enthusiastic input to the week as new guest-in staff members and special thanks too to Janie, for being there even though she is still recovering from her operation.

All the cast gave of their very best but particular mention must go to Toby Chapman, Ben Hunt and Emma Preston who carried most of the line learning and did so impeccably!

We made a collection for The Hands of Love Orphanage in Uganda, which  is still to be counted - total on a later posting. We also made “Wanted” posters of all our cast members. Cameron Carnegie-Brown from Darlington PM school`s came out fantastically - hence his appearance on the front page of the site but others were equally good. I am happy to post any photos to the web site to add to this posting from workshop students who would like theirs included but I will only put them up if I have your permission to do so. Here`s Mine, Robin`s, Janie`s, Jodie`s, Miriam`s AND the cow`s to start you off.  I have mounted ours onto the “Wanted” frame. Yours will come separately on two attachments to your e mail for you to put together yourselves.  Your photos will also appear on the web site site unmounted.

If you would like your photo e mailed to you, together with the “Wanted” frame then e mail me on darlington@stagecoach.co.uk .

Well done partners! See you next year!

As one onlooker in the foyer said “What did the cow do wrong?!”

They don`t come meaner than her! Red eyes to match the hat!

Miriam even co-ordinated her jewellery for the photo shoot

Janie - after shooting the company manager who did not deliver the costumes in time

Jodie hiding from the papparazzi after her ITV series “Monday Monday” hit the air!

I think there were times this week when Robin wished he was in the saloon! The feathers arn`t much of a disguise! 

Cameron Carnegie-Brown

Ben Hunt

Dominic Muns

Alex Wylie

Erin Dobson

Sophie Elliott

Oliver Allinson

I received this e mail from the mum of a shy little newcomer to our Main Summer Workshop. After day one she had stage fright about the final show and decided that she would not come again. I had a little chat to her on the phone and again in person the day after and she went from strength to strength throughout the week.  

Thank you once again for the wonderful help and encouragement you (and all the teachers/helpers/children) gave Lucy for the July Summer School. She is now keen to attend other workshops. The special mention you gave her at the end of the show thrilled her and certainly has given her the confidence to come again.
I was so moved by this spontaneous special thanks and the reaction of the audience will stay with Lucy (and me)forever.  I look forward to seeing you again.

Thank you.

Jackie Jones

I received this e mail from the parent of someone who normally does not come to Stagecoach but who has been to our summer workshops several times. I could not upload the workshop photos last time I put up a post about the workshops but I am adding them to Mrs Baines kind e mail here, now.

Dear Trudy,
 
We thoroughly enjoyed Olivia, performed after a week’s workshop.
Everyone did really well, and the costumes looked fabulous.
Our son Robert - who played ‘Fagin’ - seemed  worried, at the beginning of the week,  that he wouldn’t remember everything, but his confidence grew day by day, and though exhausted on the last day (he fell asleep on a 10 minute journey home!) , he said that he had thoroughly enjoyed himself.
 
Thank you.
 
Regards
 
Brenda E Baines

Hi Trudy,

Sorry we haven’t got any photos but didn’t think we would be able to take any. However, I would like to say how much we enjoyed the ‘Dracula Rock’ show. Once again the youngsters were a credit to you,the staff & all your hard work. It was our first experience of a summer workshop & we were extremely impressed with the brilliant show that was produced in a week.

Christian had a fantastic week, he said it was the best week of the holidays. We were initially worried when we saw how many lines he had to learn in a week but he was determined to learn them & enjoyed every minute of the workshop. We just need to find a way to make him as enthusiastic when learning spellings & times tables!

I have a feeling we are going to be in big trouble next year as I think we will be on holiday for the workshop. Think it will be the last time we will be allowed to do that!

Christian is really excited about the new term.

See you soon.

Lynn Brown.

Golly! Ten years of Stagecoach! Who’d have thunk it!? Seven years worth of Sunday mornings for me! And what glorious Sunday mornings they were! In hindsight 10am was an early start on a weekend, especially taking into account the thirty minute drive - as a university student ‘lie-ins’ have since become an all too important feature of, well, every day! But, of course, it was absolutely worth missing errrr.. Sunday School!?

So much did I relish the Stagecoach experience, that I immersed myself in it at every opportunity - the fun-filled Derbyshire trips, and of course the spectacularly impromptu Summer workshops, whereat the performance preparation was squeezed into just five days - phew! It was these ‘workshops’ I think, that I enjoyed most of all, though that is not to belittle the impact of the main school. To see a performance grow from Trudy’s (known as Mrs. Hindmarsh for the first few years) spark of inspiration, to an actual performance in so short a time was little short of miraculous. Even now, just the names of the shows conjour a feeling of anticipation, and a certain mourning for the end of such happy times. ‘There’ll be Bluebirds’ I think was the first, in which I was thrilled to play a ‘posh’, somewhat ‘nerdy’ kid with a liking for sociology, if memory serve - alas, the first instance of many in which I was patently type-cast! (By mutual agreement, I hasten to add!). Spattered throughout were innumerable acts with my contemporary Daniel, who I believe, is still embroiled in the throws of Stagecoach, and I daresay, preparation for the much anticipated 10th anniversary performance! Examples include the all time favourite - ‘The Galloping Major’, ‘Don’t bring LuLu’, our infamous ‘March of the Toreador’ and many more to boot!

Arguably somewhat removed from the theatrical world, I currently study History and Classics in Durham. But my acting days are far from behind me, and my RSC ambitions by no means diminished. I’ll be playing Buckingham and Richmond in ‘Richard III’ at Arc in Stockton from the 17th-21st of July and Raleigh in ‘Journey’s End’ in September, with the local Arden Theatre Company (Not that I’m using this contribution as a plug - heaven forbid! - just though somebody might be interested!?)

I must congratulate Trudy on an extraordinary achievement in bringing such pleasure to thousands of people over the past decade, one of whom I am thrilled to be! My thanks and congratulations go also to those who have aided her in this feat - all of the teachers - Rob, Sue, Deborah, Phil, Kate, Miriam - to name but a few (specifically those who at one time or another taught me), and of course Jeff who we all liked a great deal!

With love, thanks and all the best for another ten years,

Josh Mason

p.s. I enclose a picture of yours truly, on the unlikely off-chance that you may have forgotten who I am, and for those who never had the pleasure of meeting me! (Yes, I’m still the same modest chap I always was!)