The Up-Stage Theatre Company

We have had a very busy summer and have held 3 very successful summer schools/workshops. Our first workshop was held at the Hat Factory in Luton lasting 2 days. In that time we managed to devise a half an hour production involving many aspects of performing arts including: Choreography, singing and various acting methods and devices. We worked with a small group of 11 very talented young actors and performed a play all about time and growth from a birth to death. We were very impressed with the dedication and talent we observed from day 1. Some young actors even learning Shakespeare monologues over night to a very high performance standard.

We then moved onto the Barton Players summer school which this year was an original written by Keith Badham – The Terror of St Trinians. We had 56 children so therefore Keith had written 56 parts, being the first summer school in which every young actor had a named part with lines. The children arrived on the Sunday and were given their parts at the end of the day. They then had 6 days to learn lines, dance routines – Choreographed by Milly Badham and Rachael Bowie, as well as making all their props and scenery under the guidance of Kirsty Badham before putting on two very successful productions at the end of the week. We worked with some very talented children and were impressed with the high standard we observed throughout the summer school and on the stage at the end of the week.

Our final summer workshop was held at Putteridge High School over the course of 4 days. We had a small, but very talented group of 7 children who were a pleasure to work with. They devised a half an hour production based around the theme of school. We wanted it to be as much of their own work as possible so all of them had the opportunity to become writers and directors, each writing their own poem on the subject of bullying and then directing the others on their own poem. We also taught them stage combat and how to fall correctly which they used in their production along with many other devices and acting techniques. On top of all that they also learnt some choreography which they included in their show. We spent the last few days with Tem, a headmaster from a school in Tanzania, who came over to see what schools in England are like. He has been able to swap notes with us on teaching methods and the children had the opportunity to ask him questions on what school is like in Tanzania, which was a fantastic experience for them. Many of them were amazed at the fact that children in Tanzania actually looked forward to going to school!
As we come to the end of the Summer Holidays just a quick reminder as to when our weekly sessions start back.

Thursday group: 6/09/2012
Cs21 (Friday): 7/09/2012
Saturday group: 8/09/2012
Monday group: 10/09/2012

Just a quick reminder, we are starting Up-Stage Academy, which will be a separate group from Up-Stage for more serious Actors – Our First Production will Be Oliver!
If anyone is interested in joining this group please get in touch with us via email and we shall let you know details when Venues are confirmed!

We look forward to seeing you all back in September!

Last weekend was the first year of the Up-Stage summer Festival and it was a great success, we shall definitely be doing a summer Festival Again next year!!
On Saturday 6th July we invited Local amateur dramatic group Barton Players to The Grove Theatre in Dunstable, to perform “What Does Peace Mean?” A heartfelt one act play which they entered into the Bedfordshire one Act play festival this year. They put on a fantastic performance which pulled at the heart strings of the audience. We also invited Arnold Academy to perform another one act play called “Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations” which they recently performed at their school, in order to give the children the chance to perform on a huge stage using proper lighting, sound and projection. The Talent we saw on the stage was fantastic and the audience really enjoyed this funny play by Alan Ayckbourn. We also got the opportunity to work alongside one of the students on the techical side and we were blown away by his maturity, enthusiasm and knowledge of the technical side of a production. He is definitely going to go somewhere in the future and it was a pleasure for our technical team to work alongside this young boy.

Onto Sunday 7th July, and our main Performance of PETER PAN THE SUMMER PANTO in the Up-stage Festival – Up-stage put on a truly Fantastic show with our 3 evening groups. Our Monday group worked especially hard on Act One of Peter Pan and opened the show with enthusiasm and set a high bench mark. Our Saturday group then continued the High level of performance in Act Two – entertaining the auidence and putting on a fantastic second Act. Our Thursday then had the hard job of closing the show, but they suceeded in keeping the standard just as high as the first 2 Acts and closed the Show with energy and pace. The audience interaction was fantastic throughout from the characters, we couldn’t of asked for a better audience! Overal Peter Pan was a fantastic show, and we are proud of every single one of the children and Crew involved in the show! The Dance Routines were especially effective and we owe a huge thanks to Choreographer Milly Badham who at 12 years old managed to choreograph some truly fantastic routines with 70 children! All the cast picked up the routines very quickly and this was noticed on Stage – audience members commenting on how fantastic they looked and how much the cast looked as though they were having fun – which altimately is our main goal.

Also a big thank you once again to all our sponsors! We really appreciate all the support you give us during our Production and with your Support it allows us to give 70 children the experience to perform on such a large Stage infront of a huge audience.

We are now Planning for next Year as we come to the end of this year and we are very excited as to what is to come next – we have some very interesting projects planned and new groups Starting up. So watch this space for Details on those!

We shall also be putting up Term dates on the website and our facebook page as to when groups are starting back.

We are also starting Up-Stage Academy, which will be a separate group from Up-Stage for more serious Actors – Our First Production will Be Oliver!
If anyone is interested in joining this group please get in touch with us via email and we shall let you know details when Venues are confirmed!

Tickets for Peter Pan our Summer Panto are now on sale from the grove theatre website.

Book now from The Grove theatre website to see a fantastic show. Our Monday, Thursday and Saturday groups have worked especially hard on this one, lets give them the audience they deserve and sell out The Grove theatre on the 15th July.

http://www.grovetheatre.co.uk/events/upstage-festival-peter-pan-the-panto/

We look forward to next Tuesday (22nd) May for the launch of the Ark Youth Theatre group in Borehamwood. Please phone us for details of this exciting new group in North London.

We are delighted to have entered into partnership once more with Priory Lower School in Bedford on their latest project. We will be working with years three and four over the next five weeks to create a production on the theme of War….we can’t wait to get started next week.

We started back today at Templefield lower School, and it was great to see everyone after their break. We are back at Flitwick Lower School tomorrow and our evening session on Thursday starts again in Barton. Happy New Year to everyone connected with Up-Stage…it’s going to be the best year yet!