Stagecoach

All Early Stages students are taking turns to carry home a teddy to stay with them for the week. Teddy has to be given a name by the child and has to come back the week afterwards and tell us where he has been.

Some children choose to keep a bear diary and when they do we will post them to this site. We also hope that parents will take some digital photographs of the bear and child together and e mail them to us for this section.

Firstly we have Emelia Boyle with her teddy`s adventures:-

Thomas Hunter (photo) started the Thursday Darlington Stagecoach when we used to be in the old Haughton School premises. He soon showed what tremendous potential he had, particularly in Drama. Tom always worked very hard, loved everything he did and supported all the other members of his group at all times. We were thrilled for him when he won the lead part of Jeremy in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as the West End show toured to Sunderland for a lengthy stay.

Not long after that show finished, he auditioned for the lead part of Michael Banks in “Mary Poppins” in the West End and won it. He became my first student to appear in the West End, so I had to go and see him last Christmas.

Thomas was asked to renew his contract for a further six months of “Mary Poppins” after the original contract finished. He is now about to audition for a second chance as Jeremy, when “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” tours to Singapore. If that does not come off then his loss will be our gain when he returns to the Thursday school.

Your last chance to see Thomas in “Mary Poppins” occurs across the next 2 weeks. His final days are Wednesday 4^th (evening) and Thursday 5^th July (matinee) and Monday 9^th and Tuesday 10^th July (evenings). Catch him if you can.

(Click to see a Slideshow of Thomas Hunter Photos)

If you have lots of memories and media uploads that you want to share with us, then we will give you your own page in this section with a slide show facility. If you only have an occasional offering, then we are more likely to include your pieces in the Scrapbook section.

PublishStuff@Gmail.com

For the first time anywhere in the Stagecoach international network, some new ALL BOY dance classes were launched here in Darlington in October 2006 for boys aged 8 and over. Our Head Office did not even have a class - but they do now, since I have told them what the boys have achieved. This may now be a forerunner for other groups around the country.

The object of the classes was to attract more North-East boys into Dance. By choosing Street Dance, which is the style with the most street `cred`at the moment, and by training the boys all together, we hoped to remove many of the obstacles which stand in the way of boys wanting to learn to Dance. The class has been a huge success and I have been astonished by the achievements of the boys in terms of focus, commitment, team work and progress - and all that from 7.30pm until 9.00pm on Fridays at the end of a long week at school!

Jamie Bell, the star of the film “Billy Elliot”, won a BAFTA for Best Actor for his role in the film. Jamie trained at Stagecoach Yarm for a year we sent him to the film`s audition. Now the casting personnel from the West End stage show of “Billy Elliot” are very interested in our new classes. They are very keen to find the first North-East boy to play the role of “Billy” in London. They have offered us the advice of their choreography team and promised us regular visits from their casting team.

If you are one of the boys from the class then tell us

Why you enjoy being in an ALL BOY class
What type of Dance you like
How you think the class has helped you
What you would say to other boys who might like to try Dancing
If you are a boy who is interested in the classes, ask us any questions that you may have

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The Parkmore group started the Murder mystery ball rolling in style.  There were universally strong drama performances and lively, entertaining cabaret pieces that kept the audience amused all evening. It was a great team effort on behalf of the students and their staff after a stressful week of wondering whether tickets would sell. Here are some photos taken by the staff on the day of the show. IN UPLOADING TO THE SITE THE PHOTOS MAY HAVE EXPERIENCED SOME DISTORTION - IF YOU RIGHTCLICK OVER THE PHOTO AND SAVE TO YOUR COMPUTER IT WILL SAVE WITHOUT THE DISTORTION

NO STARE (DANCE AND SINGING) UNTIL SUNDAY 19th FEB WHEN SINGING STARE WILL START AGAIN FOLLOWED BY DANCE STARE THE WEEK AFTER (FOR A CONTINUOUS 3 WEEKS). SINGING STARE WILL BE ALTERNATE WEEKS AS USUAL.

Because the Parkmore people will be off-premises this weekend, there will be staffing changes to your rehearsal sessions. Please see below:-

NO STARE (DANCE AND SINGING) UNTIL SUNDAY 12th FEB WHEN SINGING STARE WILL START AGAIN FOLLOWED BY DANCE STARE THE WEEK AFTER (FOR A CONTINUOUS 3 WEEKS). SINGING STARE WILL BE ALTERNATE WEEKS AS USUAL

THIS WEEKEND (29th JAN)

11.00 til 11.50   SINGING WITH CLAIRE IN HER ROOM

11.50 to 12.10  BREAK

12.10 to 12.30 REHEARSAL IN THE CRUSH (UPSTAIRS SPACE) OF THE DETECTIVE SECTION OF THE EVENT WITH TRUDY

12.30 to 1.00pm   DANCE IN SPORTS HALL WITH CLAIRE

1.00 to 2.30         REHEARSAL OF SCRIPTED DRAMA WITH TRUDY IN EARLY STAGES CLASSROOM AND OF DEVISED DRAMA WITH HANNAH IN ENTRANCE HALL

William Hart of Darlington 9.00am Early Stages Group won a Stagecoach national award recently and I went down to see William presented with his award at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and to collect another award on behalf of Lucie Russell.

Here are the photos I took of Will and then below is a link to Stagecoach.tv to see the video of the award ceremony.

Now see video footage of the awards by clicking on this link:-

http://www.stagecoach.tv/video/the-stagecoach-theatre-arts-awards-2011/

James Waine of the 9.15am Darlington Early stages class is the first student to win the platinum award for hard work. He has acumulated enough cards full of stickers to earn his £5 reward. Here he is looking justly proud.