Stagecoach

Well done to  Christopher Bayliss (Darlington Further Stages), Charlotte Churchman (Darlington Further Stages) Amy Lee (Darlington Friday School) and Hannah Greenwood (Sunday PM School) for all gaining merits and Distinctions in their LAMDA Musical Theatre Singing Exams that they sat very recently. They were entered for their exams by Caterina Rea (Singing teacher for Yarm PM School and both Further Stages groups) after taking private Singing lessons for several months. The members of the group sat the exams at Grade 4 and 5 level. Once the gradings move to Grade 6 and above they are worth UCAS points for university entrance.

Congratulations go to all the students and to Cat.  If you are a Further Stages student or are in Stage 3 in any of our main schools and would like to take private lessons with the aim of sitting these exams then you should ring me and I will put you in contact with Cat because she will have a couple of vacant slots soon.

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.

Caterina is currently working as a professional singer on the North East circuit and is teaching singing privately. She was trained at Middlesbrough College where she gained an NVQ in Popular Music and a Grade 8 in Singing. Cat has worked as a session singer with a NE radio DJ and has recently signed a contract to write and perform her own album. Caterina has singing in the genes because her uncle is the well-known singer from Middlesbrough - Chris Rea.