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Stagecoach students perform at the Shaftesbury Theatre, not once but twice in November.

November 22, 2021
Stagecoach students perform at the Shaftesbury Theatre, not once but twice in November.
Stagecoach students have once again returned to performing for a live audience back at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Over the course of two Sundays in November, a total of thirty-three schools will be taking the stage. The schools are from all over the UK, from as far north as Washington in Tyne and Wear.

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Our students love the experience of performing on a professional stage in the West End and at Stagecoach, we are pleased to be able to offer these opportunities.
Many of our schools taking part were due to perform in 2020 but were forced to cancel their well-prepared pieces as a result of the pandemic. Some have created new performances for this showcase. Stagecoach Haywards Heath for example, were weeks away from performing at Her Majesty's when lockdown happened. Jane Shakespeare-Kearns Principal of the school commented “Our tickets were booked and the costumes had been fitted, we were ready to go!” 

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For Stagecoach Camberley, this is the first time they have performed in the West End Sarah Chitty took over as Principal during the November 2020 lockdown. 
Sarah commented, “For some of our students this was their first term at Stagecoach, and they have worked so hard to put this performance together!” 

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The performances were all incredibly diverse ranging from an original piece created especially for the event by the schools’ teachers and Principals to musical numbers from
well-known shows.
 
Stagecoach Trowbridge’s original piece was inspired by the events of Chernobyl, the nuclear power plant disaster in the ‘80s.
Principal Freddie Underwood said “We use dialogue from real eyewitness accounts within the piece as well as combining with song (Runaway by Aurora) and dance (Radioactive by Imagine Dragons). We like our students to learn something tangible during the process - learning about Chernobyl has been as much a history lesson as it has been a Stagecoach lesson.”

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Another original performance was by Stagecoach Ascot. Their teacher Megan Hughes devised Revolution which was inspired by the powerful and inspirational women who we meet every day in our lives. 
Stagecoach Ascot Principal Emily King said “Feminism and equality are extremely important to all our students and our performance troupe made it noticeably clear that the troupe was made up of all females, they wanted female empowerment to be at the core of their performance.”

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On the two nights there were of course musical based performances. Stagecoach Sidcup chose Hamilton because “It's a show that our senior troupe are enthusiastic about and have wanted to do for some time. One of our dance teachers was also in the original West End cast!” Principal of the school Lisa Maddocks commented. 

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Stagecoach Loughton performed a Hairspray Medley highlighting a theme of positive outcomes and overcoming adversity! Principal Zach Mobley said, “It’s been a really tough couple of years for everyone, and we wanted to come back with something high energy & showing how we can all have a positive outlook on life!” 

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Well, done to all the schools on your amazing performance. We are always enormously proud to see your hard work pay off. 


The schools that performed on the 14th November - 
Stagecoach Loughton       
 
Schools that performed on the 21st November - 
Stagecoach Richmond