Stagecoach

Nick Lofthouse of Yarm PM School and STARE sent these photos in of his family`s fantastic snowman building skills. Can anyone beat that??

Send us your snow pictures for the web site - snowmen, toboggans, digging out the drive, snow angels, snowball fights, pretty gardens, -arctic wolves! Anything snow related.

Here are George and Oliver laying down the gauntlet for the best snowman!

Sue Bunnett, our Singing teacher, got a surprise Christmas present from her husband of tickets to see “Billy Elliot” in the West End.  Consumed with excitement, Sue hit the capital and adored the show but still had time to pay Zoe a call backstage in her show “Priscilla Queen of the Desert”.  Sue got to see the costumes, wigs and props and even went up the gantry that Zoe has to climb to get into the harness that suspends her over the stage during shows. And here are some pics for you.

Elliot Allinson (formerly of Darlington Friday School and Boys Only Dance) and Annabelle Crosby (Darlington Saturday AM school)  were invited by Stagecoach Head Office to attend the launch of the “Stagecoach Children`s Awards” in the Houses of Parliament. Elliot and Annabelle were chosen because of their West End success in “Oliver” and “Billy Elliot”.  While they were there, they were introduced to Ed Vaisey the Shadow Arts Minister who was hosting the awards launch in the Terrace Pavilion of the House of Commons. They are pictured below with Linda Bellingham, a well known actress and her son, also an actor, Michael Peluso and another actress - Linda Barron - best known for her role as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel on “Open All Hours” and Ed Vaisey mentioned above.

Both students said that they had enjoyed their special day particularly because they were the only child guests there.

Click on this link below to be taken to the post that gives details about the awards and how YOU can nominate someone ;-

http://www.darlingtonandyarm.co.uk/stagecoach/2010/03/01/nominate-a-child-that-you-know-for-a-national-stagecoach-award

Jodie Taibi is teaching Drama to Further Stages in Yarm and Darlington. During a recent sort-out I found this photograph taken of Jodie when she starred as Fifi Lamarr in the first-ever murder mystery project that we ever ran with senior Stage 3 students at the time (Further Stages was not in existence). There were two public performances - one in Darlington Further Education College for friends and family and one in a Middlesbrough pub as a fund-raiser for a charity. Fifi was the one everyone loved to hate - giving plenty of suspects when she was murdered. Thomas Guest pictured in this photo went into further Performing Arts training and then also spent some time teaching Singing in a Stagecoach school in Highgate London but I believe that he is back up in the N.E. now. The third Ex-student is Laura Jones.  Happy Days!!

Aaron Chilton from the Saturday AM Stagecoach school has been experiencing some exciting times lately as his dad Sgt Major Gary Chilton has been the lead singer in “The Soldiers” singing group whose album went platinum before Christmas. Gary has played in some fantastic venues like The Royal Albert Hall and was seen recently as a guest on the National Lottery programme releasing the balls for the numbers of the winning lottery ticket to be selected. And then I spotted him again leading the national anthem at The Royal Variety Show in Blackpool. Within days of that being shown, Gary turned up at our fundraising concert at Teesside High to support us and brought another member of the group with him - Lance Corporal Ryan Idzi, pictured on the left of the photo. If he looks familiar it is because Ryan got to the boot camp phase of “The X Factor” the year before this one. He caught Danii Minogue`s eye on the programme. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a photo of the boys at our concert on the night,  so have “borrowed” this from their web site.

I`m sure that you would join with me in applauding what “The Soldiers” have done to promote appreciation for the job that the armed forces are doing out in Afghanistan and for raising cash to help those who are casualties of the war.

Their presence was the icing on the cake for us in what was  a very special night indeed for Stagecoach Darlington and Yarm. I believe that some of the very best work we have ever produced was on display there, in a show of co-operation and selflessness that was quite simply heart-warming.

Every school presented themselves in their best light, some coping with last minute changes because of absentees but still singing out and performing confidently. Getting seven schools staged for the whole school songs was a challenge but all the students behaved impeccably and my - what a spectacle it was to see everyone sing all at the same time - and what a beautiful sound they made. Those songs must have been a highlight of the show for many.

The idea for the concert was to honour Singing Sue`s successful battle with cancer this last year. It is to Sue`s credit that she chose her music carefully and well and had a vision of what could be created by them. It is also to the credit of all the music staff of all the schools that they brought the students up to a uniform high standard and worked together as a team -  not only on the day but throughout the term to bring about such successful performances.

I thought that the audience was never going to stop clapping at the end and the students` faces shone as they won a standing ovation.

My heartfelt thanks go out to the chaperones who were tireless in their care of the children back stage and in their various fund-raising roles as helpers on stalls and raffles etc at the interval. Without their selfless donation of their time we would not have had a show at all. Adults and children co-operated together so that the whole event went like clockwork.

My thanks also go to Stagecoach staff who turned out in their own time to support us in any way they could. They just got stuck in - no complaints and worked so hard - Troopers to a man!

We had able technical help from The Forum Music Centre who provided Ethan as sound man to run the concert. He always does a grand job. Dave Cooil brought his family Lesley and Daisy in support to film the concert and sell the dvds (giving a donation of £1 for every dvd sold to Cancer Research). It is not too late to order a dvd. Most of the students have not seen the concert they were in apart from the parts that they performed in so I think that they would enjoy doing so. You should contact Dave, via his web site, www.rightclickstudios.com , if you have lost your order form.

Special mention should go to Nathan Fooks from Friday school`s Stage 3 who passionately wanted to work on the technical side in support of our concert. He brought his friend along and they looked after the lighting side of things. Well done and thank you lads.

Yarm Further Stages took a leading role in proceedings because the concert was in their venue. They organised and manned all the refreshments in the interval, with very little help, and more importantly fell into learning extra work so that they could provide the comedy interludes that linked all the songs in the concert together.  I always say that our students are good at “winging it” because we have to achieve so much with them in so little time. This was a supreme example of “winging it”. The last sections of script arrived with them off my fevered pen on the morning of the concert and they learnt everything at the drop of a hat, rehearsed with their Drama teacher Jodie beyond the initial short amount of stage time that they were allocated and pulled off a performance that was funny, charming, sometimes poignant but always professional. Brilliant!  Thank you to the people who gave me stories of infant assemblies that they had experienced as inspiration for some of the story lines.

Thank you to the advertisers who paid to appear on the back of the concert programme. Their page appears at the end of this piece.

 Thank you also to the people who either manned their own stalls to sell craft items in aid of Cancer Research or who sent goods  or baking in. Where any items were left unsold, I have donated them to a Cancer Research charity shop.

And now as to what money was raised for Cancer Research? After all the bills have been paid - and thank you to Teesside High for reducing the venue cost and Dave Cox from the Forum for reducing the sound costs - I will be able to round it up to *£2200* to send as a cheque to Cancer Research UK, once the last dribbles of money come in at the start of term. That is such a very worthwhile amount that you have all helped us to be able to donate. Well done!

It was a strangely moving experience when it came to removing the tags that people had sent in for our Christmas tree in the entrance hall - in support of, or in remembrance of, family and friends who had suffered from Cancer. I have to say that I was moved to tears. It does not seem right to just throw those cards away so I am going to burn them and then spread the ashes in the lovely and tranquil grounds of Teesside High School. That seems somehow more fitting and respectful. I hope that you agree. If you do not and would like to reclaim your tag then please let me know before 15th  January and I will gladly return it.

In conclusion, the concert gave so much to many people on many levels and that made it very special. It raised a significant amount of money for a charity which benefits mankind. It celebrated the work and life of our Singing teacher Sue, who is gratefully looking forward to 2010, with her young family, because of the charity and what it has been able to achieve in its research so far in a cure for breast cancer. The concert also brought us all together - students, staff, parents and other organisations as one community, celebrating our talents and supporting one another.  AND it gave me one of those precious and rare memories that warm your heart when you look back on them - priceless!

The problem with having a unit full of costume is that it is there to torture my grand-daughter with - evidence below!

Bless!!

You can buy your copy of the Stagecoach Christmas Charity Concert DVD online from RightClickStudios here.

The Hands of Love Orphanage in Uganda is struggling to keep about 300 orphans alive and well in a very disadvantaged part of the country. See more by clicking on this link

 http://www.darlingtonandyarm.co.uk/stagecoach/charities-we-support/

This year they are suggesting that some people may like to remember them this Christmas. Please see the information below. You can consider being a regular patron and sponsoring one of the children or staff. EVERY PENNY of your donations go to the orphanage because they have corporate sponsors who cover the administration costs.  Please see what some have resorted to as shoes!!

Please right click over the image and click on print to print off the coupon if you want to send something

Zoe Birkett was still a student with us when she entered the live final stages of “Pop Idol” in 2001. This programme was the forerunner of X Factor. Zoe was the last female contestant in the competition and has gone on to have a rich and varied career in the Performance industry. She is now a member of the cast in the Number One best selling musical in the West End - “Priscilla Queen of the Desert”.

I spotted this article in The Evening Gazette this week in which an award winning  fashion designer says that Zoe was her first celebrity customer. We are not surprised because Zoe always had  her own unique sense of style.  We miss you Zoe.