Here are Janie and Hannah posing against the backdrop at Kitty Bartlett`s `Young Performer`party last Saturday. This is the new style of party that we are trialling.
And here is poor unsuspecting Brian who got posed in front of the backdrop when he came to sort out all the furniture at the end of the party. We couldn`t waste that tie Brian!
Scarlett Fletcher, Megan Robson, Grace Hoyle and Jennie Henry, won through auditions to be part of the pantomime “Cinderella” at The Arc Theatre in Stockton. They join the chorus of the company and will be singing and dancing. Some little ones, Rosie Frank, Victoria Ward, Eavie Profitt, Tilly Johnson, Morgan Fairhurst, Olivia Mountain, Mia Sweeten, and Alice Harwood have become Cinderella`s mice.
Lucy Lavelle is playing one of the Wicked Stepsisters!
and her mum Janie (one of our teachers) is choreographing and now after production difficulties, is directing for the show - to save the day!! Well done to all.
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 forgot to post up these photos of some ex Further Stages students, who were involved in a Murder Mystery project that they devised for themselves in the Summer, before most of them went away to university or drama school. They were Rachael Deverell, Suzy Potter, Daniel Weatherill and Stan Hodgson (still living in Darlington). Kate and her husband, Janie and her daughter Lucy and I went to see it. It was very entertaining and professional. The photos are below:-
The Actors:-
RACHAEL DEVERELL
SUZY POTTER
DANIEL WEATHERILL (Left) and STAN HODGSON (right)
And the Audience…….
JANIE AND LUCY LAVELLE
KATE AND HUSBAND ALASTAIR
I managed to escape the camera - tee hee!
Now arn’t you impressed at how fast we can be!
Adam did a grand job on the megaphone
Janie and Vicky practicing their train pose
Vicky’s Mum comes prepared with the sun cream!
Lucy and James’ comes prepared with a cap for the sunshine
Vicky has a go on the megaphone
Vicky n Janie have a little run through
Caroline and Lucy join vicky for the event
Passers by get persuaded to join in
Dave Cooil from Rightclick was on official camera duty
Janie gets miked up
Darrien gets interviewed for the TV
Trudy using her charm to talk people into joining in!
Trudy’s daughter Katie is close at hand too
Vicky Darrien n Janie gather on stage
Kate’s daughter Sophie was also joining in the fun
The crowd do the choreography
Doing the locomotion with us!
The full YARM show of Blood Brother’s Trinity Exam is now on youtube. Click the link below to see all the scenes and songs seperately.CLICK to see Further’s BLOOD BROTHERS Show
It is with great delight and pride, that I am able to announce that all four groups within the two Further Stages classes in Yarm and Darlington achieved MERIT grades in their Trinity College London exams in “Musical Theatre in Production”, after their performances of extracts from “Blood Brothers”, on Sunday evening. The standard was fantastic, even at the higher grade levels of 6 and 7 that they were sitting and I think that they were unlucky not to get distinctions - but then I`m a bit biased!! Well done all of you. You made me very proud.
Thank you to the Stage Three visitors and Kate Ruddick who came to support Further Stages. A special mention must also go to Catherine Whitehall, the previous Singing teacher of the Further Stages groups who drove up for 2.5 hours from Southport to support the students and then at 10.00pm after the shows had finished, was driving alone for 2.5 hours back home again - and that after she has so recently had such a terrible crash in her car last January. I am sure that all Further Stages really appreciated Catherine`s support and it was really lovely to see her looking so well.
Thanks also to both the audiences for being supportive and receptive. It certainly helped the students. You also raised £130 for the Hands of Love Orphanage by your collections. A big thank you from the charity`s organisers. I sent the cheque today.
Trinity exams are accredited in these higher levels which mean that they are worth UCAS points for university entrance. At Grade 6 for our “white” groups, their merit has earned them 35 UCAS points and the equivalent of a `D` grade at AS Level. The red groups with their Merit at Grade 7 have earned 50 UCAS points and the equivalent of a `B` grade at AS Level or an `E` Grade at A Level. Well worth working for - I`m sure you`ll agree.
Unlike after the main school Trinities when I couldn’t be certain of the verification of the grades until the certificates arrived, this exam is a different format and has been verified by the examiner to me so I can therefore quote the final comment box for each group.
DARLINGTON
Well done all of you - you told the story with care and evident concern and pride in what you did. Many performances were touching and inventive and the group dynamics were very good. The actual staging didn’t help you, in as much as you were distanced from the audience, and the episodic short scene structure caused moments of predictability and allowed the flow to be interrupted. None the less this was very enjoyable with some of the group choreography stimulating and vivacious. There was much integrity evident in your collective work.
YARM
Whilst some of the staging hindered the narrators and affected the timing of scenes, this was in the main very well performed with excellent concentration and awareness of individual responsibility within a collaborative venture. Confident, secure work throughout with lively choreography, touching performances, with mainly tuneful singing, humour and pathos identified and mostly realised.
When Easter came around this year, Vicky had gleefully thought it had arrived so early that janie has forgotten her annual Easter festivities. However she was sadly mistaken….
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Catherine will be unable to continue as the Singing tutor in the Darlington Thursday School next term. Catherine`s other teaching commitments are unaffected. I am hoping that Catherine will be able to come to the Thursday school one evening, early in term, to say goodbye to the Thursday school students and be presented with a leaving gift.
Janie Lavelle will be taking over as the Singing teacher at the Thursday school - at least in the short term - so that we can get our students comfortably through their Trinity exams.
Whilst Janie has worked for us, principally as a Dance teacher, she has taught Singing for several years to Early Stages classes and was herself a professional Singer, headlining on cruise ships, before she had her family. Janie`s choreography skills, which are renowned with STARE and Further Stages, will make for some great settings for the songs. Janie has agreed to teach the Singing for this Spring term and will then review how she is coping with the increased work load caused by this new venture and her covering for Claire`s maternity leave. I know our Thursday students will make her welcome.