Darlington

THIRTEENTH ANNIVERSARY YEAR

Visit our own magazine-style web site to get a flavour of what we are all about -
www.DarlingtonAndYarm.co.uk

Click on "Testimonials" in the drop-down "Categories" box to see what our students and parents have to say and click on "performance successes" for the number and range of opportunities that we have been able to offer our students over the years.

We are immensely proud to say that we were chosen as one of only 14 groups to appear in the West End, out of the 115 that first started the Billy Youth Theatre project. We performed an extract of "Billy Elliot" there but then staged our own public performances of the full show in Darlington. The response was fantastic.

This coming term we will be training a choir to be part of the West End tour of "Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat" when it comes to Darlington Civic Theatre. All students will also be able to join and be a part of a `Voice in a Million` arena event in Liverpool.

Stagecoach Yarm and Darlington have now been in existence for thirteen years. Our highly experienced staff, educate in excess of 500 children every weekend. Jamie Bell of "Billy Elliot" fame was an original Stagecoach Yarm student. He will be directed by Spielberg in his next starring role and is filming "Jane Eyre" with Judi Dench at the moment. Jamie was sent to the Billy Elliot auditions by us. Zoe Birkett, the last female contestant to remain in "Pop Idol" in 2001 was a long-standing student of ours in Darlington, right up to being in the televised finals of the show. Zoe featured as a diva in "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" in the West End for a year and is now headlining in "Thriller" in the West End. We have had two young students performing in "Oliver" and "Billy Elliot" in the West End until very recently and others are appearing in featured parts in films and TV.

We are proud of the achievements of students like these, but are equally proud of the smaller triumphs that we see in all our students week by week, as they start to build in confidence, take risks and find out who they are and what they can be.

RECENT SUCCESSES

Some of our present students have been lucky enough to have been chosen to take part in the following professional projects during the recent past "Abbamania", "Annie", "Joseph"and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", whilst on national tours, and "Oliver", "Mary Poppins" and Billy Elliot" in the West End.

A boy has appeared in a TV documentary, as the young Horatio Nelson. Other students have appeared in TV adverts and light entertainment shows and two have done voice-over work on leading TV cartoons. One boy has just been selected for 3 weeks filming for a new flagship CBBC show. One girl is currently filming a leading role in a feature film contracted for BBC TV. Several older students have recently gained places at prestigious Drama schools, like RADA, Italia Conti, Guildhall, The Royal Academy of Music, LAMDA, LIPA, London Studios and Arts Educational. A member of staff had a regular role in a new ITV comedy series called "Monday Monday". For a thoroughly up-to-date picture of recent successes visit www.DarlingtonandYarm.co.uk and click on "performance successes" in the drop-down "Categories" box.

AWARDS

Stagecoach Yarm and Darlington have won five different prestigious awards at local, regional and then national level for "excellence", achievement in the realms of women's business, retention rates of students in our schools, for Social Entrepreneurship and finally as the runner-up in the national "Franchisee of the Year" awards. Last year we have again been successful, reaching final places in two of the most high profile awards in the N.E. region.

Our students too are winning awards. Jamie Bell won the BAFTA for "Best Actor" after his role in "Billy Elliot" and our students regularly receive local Arts awards for young people, such as Vibe awards in Darlington, SMART awards in Stockton and "Young Achiever" awards from The Tees Valley Learning and Skills Council.

EARLY STAGES & WORKSHOPS

We have ten classes for Early Stages students spread across seven Main Schools. This provides places for 150 four to seven year olds. Before becoming a principal of Stagecoach, I was a senior teacher in a large primary school and ended my days there as an infant classroom teacher. This gives me a great love of, and understanding for, this age group. At the other end of the spectrum, we now have two Further Stages classes in Darlington and Yarm . This is for our students, aged fifteen and older, to extend and challenge them. They were created because we have so many older students that want to remain with us. They are either motivated to remain just for fun, or as a means to achieve further training in the Performing Arts, with a view to pursuing it as a career. Every summer, in August, we run week-long workshops for 4-7 yrs and 8-16 yrs, where we build a show in a week. Children from outside Stagecoach are welcome to attend.