News and Events
Early Stages - It's never too young to start!
Stagecoach Ipswich has three Early Stages schools which run on Fridays and Saturdays for children aged 4-6. These ninety-minute sessions are perfect for younger students because they are less formal than our main school and because our teachers and assistant teachers are trained particularly to work with young children. Some of these children join us because they are shy or wary of dealing with new or different situations and it's wonderful to see their self-belief develop from such a young age. Others are already showing signs of a love of singing, dance and/or drama and are keen to have a chance to perform.
Early Stages students have two informal presentations for family and friends per year, held in their normal teaching room. These show the nuts and bolts of what we do and help them to prepare for their big performance each year in April at the Regent Theatre in Ipswich. To book a trial place in Early Stages, please give us a call on 01728 688627 or email us at ipswich@stagecoach.co.uk.
AD79 - The Story of Pompeii
We are pleased to announce that several students from Stagecoach Ipswich will be joining the Oskar Foxtrot Productions tour of this musical in 2011. AD79 has been performed in Britain and in the US but this is the first time it goes on tour. The students who have successfully auditioned for the show are Joe Brown and Melissa Coleman from our Friday session, Sophie Galloway from Saturday mornings, Megan Vaughan, Sean Taylor, Lucy Rhind and Megan Howell from Saturday afternoons and Olivia Edwards from Sundays. Several of these will be soloists for the tour.
Filming for the Disney Channel's Hannah Montana special
Two students and one ex-student have just returned from London where they spent a day filming material to be shown on the Disney Channel on the bank holiday weekend during their Hannah Montana special. Emma O'Galligan who attends Friday Stagecoach and Abbie Blackburn who attends on Saturdays joined ex-student Heloise Carpenter for the filming in which they were all interviewed and had to perform a dance routine. The students were selected after doing a phone interview recently in which they had to display their knowledge of Hannah Montana. The producers said that they clearly knew their stuff and they expect to see their faces on the small screen several times over the bank holiday weekend.
The Stagecoach Ipswich Oscars!
There's a buzz going on in the school as nominations are out for this year's Stagecoach Ipswich Oscars. This is the first time we have staged such an event as our mid-term project and students are rehearsing performances for the ceremony. All have been nominated for awards too, so there are plenty of them practising their acceptance speeches in front of the mirror.
The Oscars takes place in a couple of weeks time and students are planning their outfits as we speak. The ceremony is designed to help the children see their strengths and have confidence in themselves as they have all received nominations in diverse categories.
Star for a Night
We are pleased to announce that four of our groups have made it through auditions to participate in this Suffolk-Wide talent search, the final performance of which takes place at the Regent Theatre on May 14th. Tickets are on sale now. Friday night groups will be performing You Can't Stop the Beat. Sunday morning Stage 3 are singing with a talented local vocalist. The Stagecoach Ipswich Parent choir also made it through the audition and will be performing their rendition of Dizzy arranged by Principal Sarah Corbett. All proceeds from this performance go to East Anglian Children's Hospice.
Here is a picture of the parents choir which has been running for less than a year.
Dancing with the Stars
15 of our students have just performed with stars of BBC's Strictly at the Felixstowe Spa Pavilion. The students from our Friday stage 3 group had to learn two seven-minute routines and had a wonderful time on stage. They also got to spend time with the stars before and after the show and said they were lovely people. The event is part of a nationwide tour involving the Strictly stars.
Here is the group performing Thriller at the Ipswich Regent on April 3rd.
Shakespeare 4 Kidz
Well done to Will Draper who has been selected to play the son of Macduff in the forthcoming Macbeth performance at the Spa in Felixstowe. It's never too early to get into Shakespeare though the rather gruesome fate which befalls him might put him off a bit. Still, we are all used to a bit of fake blood so hopefully he will enjoy the experience. This is Will's second theatre role this year - he played the part of Toby in Chitty Bang Bang when it came to Norwich on tour in the summer.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Well done to all our Chitty children. They performed with the touring company at Norwich Theatre Royal during the summer holidays. Some of the children were soloists and others had dramatic roles to remember. MD David Bell says the kids were well prepared and very professional.
