Stagecoach

If you are a boy playing this part a leather jacket would be perfect - preferably bomber style. If not, denim jacket would be good. He might wear a baseball cap or nothing on his head. The Tony at the end would need work clothes and a hard hat because  he would be going back to the pit at the end of the song.

If you are playing Tony as a girl, you can play her in two ways - either as a fashionable teen in which case you need to google “1980`s fashion” and then click on “images” for inspiration. “Big” curly hair was in, as were shoulder pads. Royal blue was a popular colour. You would be trying to be fashion conscious despite having no money, maybe have a fashion magazine to be flicking through at the table in the breakfast scene or nail varnish. You can get inspiration by looking up “1980`s clothing” on E Bay. Stripes were in

The other way you can play Tony is as a tom-boy - jeans, possibly a denim jacket and a T shirt with a slogan on like these ones on these E bay links below  

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/retro-protest-slogan-political-t-shirt-miners-strike-/170345077206?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Men_s_Clothes&hash=item27a95b99d6

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/COLE-NOT-DOLE-80S-MINERS-STRIKE-TSHIRT-arthur-scargill-/220584952756?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Men_s_Clothes&var=&hash=item7912b49600

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PIT-CLOSURES-80S-MINERS-STRIKE-TSHIRT-arthur-scargill-/220584962343?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Men_s_Clothes&var=&hash=item7912b49b5c

We took some backstage photos at the Durham Gala Theatre, Billy Youth Theatre regional showcase. Here they are. Even if they look distorted they will save to your computer in  non-distorted proportions, if you rightclick over them and save.

THE GIRLS` CHANGING ROOM

BOYS CHANGING ROOMS

OUR HELPER FOR THE DAY ON THE GALA STAFF - Jonathan

And one more of the West End team together in rehearsals on Monday

It is with immense pleasure and pride that I can announce that we have been chosen to appear in the Billy Youth Theatre West End Showcase on Sunday July 18th, in the Victoria Palace Theatre (home of the real Billy Elliot show.

All the cast of the “Born to Boogie” number will be involved  - Stuart Thompson, Lizzie Heward, Jennie Henry, Emily Collins, Tori Mc Dougall, Annabelle Crosby, Emma Walton, Macy Stasiak, Hannah Lucy Jackson, Rachel Elphick, Eavie Proffitt and Ellie Manvell.

What a wonderful outcome and total honour to be included in this event, after all the hard work that has been carried out on this Billy Youth Theatre project by all the staff and students in our seven main schools.

Our children will be rehearsing with West End directors and choreographers within the stage set that “Billy Elliot” uses, and singing and dancing to the show`s live band. The show is already sold out. The news continues our long-term connection to “Billy Elliot” ever since Jamie Bell won the film role in 1998.

I found out the news last Monday but had to keep it secret until Friday when the news went public. I chose to continue to keep it to myself until after the regional showcase on the Sunday because I did not want to spoil the atmosphere amongst the other groups at the event, nor did I want to disappoint the rest of the 40 Billy of Billy cast members that we had with us on Sunday. I felt it would have left them with a feeling of disappointment after the euphoria of their  event instead of positive memories of the success that they had enjoyed there.

One other NE Youth Group is going to the West End - Shotton Hall Community School Youth Theatre, who also performed on Sunday at the Gala. That group is run by Katherine Ackley who taught Early Stages for me in Darlington, for some time, several years ago. Then went on to be the principal of Stagecoach Durham for several years. The musical director of the group is Pippa Anderson, who was another popular teacher with Stagecoach Darlington for several years and who has, until recently, trained the Joseph Choir with Sue. So strong Stagecoach connections all round from the NE.

The regional showcase on Sunday was a happy event, which ran efficiently up to a lively and winning performance from all 6 groups and a joint final song. The standard was uniformly high, back stage was calm and good humoured and all the audience members were buzzing when they came to collect their children.

Please leave us a comment after this post with your observations of the show, if you were there.

Here are some recent photos taken of the Billy of Billies cast in rehearsals.

NOTE IF YOU WANT COPIES AS SOUVENIRS that although some look distorted in proportion, if you right click over them and save them to your own computer, they save in the correct proportions

More to follow soon - watch for another set 

Here is the first of the set of photos of our Easter celebrations. On the Saturday my camera battery was low so I had to limit the photos I took to the prize winners of the hat competition. In Yarm I had remedied that. I will group them under titles so that you can hopefully find your child`s. Others will join this as I upload them (a time-consuming task). I will title them all “Easter Bonnet photos” so that you can look out for them.  

If you would like a copy of the photo of your child then rightclick over the photo and save it. Some of these photos look distorted on the web page but they save fine and in better proportions. If this method fails, then please e mail the request to me on darlington@stagecoach.co.uk and I`ll attach one to a return e mail.

Suzanne and Brooke must have left before I had chance to take their individual photos.