Styles for Smiles

One last reminder that one of our Upstagers family, Bethany Hare is organising a fantastic 'Styles for Smiles' charity fashion show tomorrow (Friday 28th) at 7pm at Headingley Stadium. Tickets cost £15 and the show is looking to be incredible!

An amazing evening of fantastic models wearing designer wear from Yorkshire designers and retailers. Vocal performances include Upstagers peeps, Vicki Holmes, Bradley Johnson and Bethany Hare, plus fantastic dance spectaculars. The evening is organised in conjunction with Leeds Fashion Show. Host for the evening is Capital Radio FM Breakfast Show Presenter JoJo.

Tickets are available from Accent Clothing, Queens Arcade, Leeds 1 or Cutting Room Creative, Albion Street, Leeds 1 or by emailing bethanyssmile@virginmedia.com. If you are free on Friday evening then please come and support this fantastic cause!

Sister Act tickets on sale and date announced for our next auditions!

Sister Act tickets are now on sale! Now no-one shoot me if this isn't true, but I've been told that Upstagers is the first youth theatre group in the UK to perform this fantastic show!


Sister Act will take place at the beautiful Alhambra Theatre, Bradford from 17th to 19th July.


Also, Gill, Phil & I can now announce that auditions for Sister Act will be on 30th March (the Sunday a week after Les Mis) - more info will follow in due course.




Check out the 'Sister Act' page of the site for more details.

Les Mis rehearsal update

OK peeps - a rehearsal update for Les Mis...

On Tuesday rehearsals will start at 6:30 for The Wedding.
Then from 7:30 to 10:15 we'll do scenes with all those of you who sing solos in the 'minor scenes' (not that those aren't important of course).
NO rehearsal this Thursday.
On Friday we'll run Act 1.
On Sunday we'll run Act 1 then do the barricade scenes.

Gill will be at The Barn on Saturday from 10 until 4 for cast to come and try on costumes. Please try to make it sometime that day if humanly possible! You're not needed the whole day, just long enough to sort your costume(s).

Oh, and don't forget to keep selling those tickets!

If in doubt whether you're needed then please contact Gill.

Andrew x

Better get line learning!

Only four weeks to go, Meg (Madame Thenardier) and Bradley (Marius) better get learning their lines!

Fantastic Fashion Show - 28th February

One of our Upstagers gang, Bethany Hare does the most amazing work for charity. On 28th February, her charity Bethany's Smile is putting on an amazing fashion show to raise money to support the care of children with terminal, chronic and life threatening/life limiting illnesses.

The Smiles for Styles Fashion Show will be held at Headingley Stadium and hosted by JoJo from Capital FM. It'll feature some amazing designers and retailers and include performances from two other uber-talented Upstagers, Bradley Johnson and Vicki Holmes.

Tickets cost £15 and are available from bethanyssmile@virginmedia.com or at Cutting Room Creative, Albion Street Leeds or Accent Clothing, Queens Arcade, Leeds.

Please come and support this outstanding cause.

More info can be found at http://allevents.in/leeds/styles-for-smiles-fashion-show/703599156327295 and you can stay up-to-date by following Bethany's Smile on Facebook and/or on Twitter at @WalkOfSmiles.

Les Mis is looking great!

Rehearsals for Les Miserables are looking brilliant! We have such a great cast (but don't tell them that... yet) - and tickets are selling well so we encourage you book early to avoid disappointment. All the details can be found on our web site.

Half term for Dramovox

In case you haven't heard, Dramovox half term is the week beginning 17th February. Classes will be as normal the following week.

Was 'The Force' with us during Snow White?

Greetings Upstagers family & friends!

Now, it may not be general knowledge amongst members of the general public, but I am a HUGE fan of Star Wars. Some might say worryingly so. The cast and crew are generally aware of this, but I generally try to sneak a Star Wars reference into all Upstagers shows. In fact this year's panto also got a few other references from my childhood too!

OK, first Star Wars reference. If you look very carefully on page 5 of the Snow White programme you'll find something that looks like a certain Imperial battle station floating amongst the stars.

Also, Moaney the Dwarf - played brilliantly by my buddy Landon, had two classic lines which are lifted straight from Star Wars - "I have a bad feeling about this" and "We're doomed".

Finally people of my generation may recognise the two kingdoms mentioned in the show. The story takes place in the Kingdom of Eternia, and Prince Valentine is from the Kingdom of Etheria. Sounds familiar? Eternia is the planet that's home to He-Man and Skeletor, whilst Etheria is home to He-Man's twin sister She-Ra, Princess of Power. I'd like to claim credit that the name of the wicked queen, Evillene is a direct homage to Skeletor's side-kick Evilyn, but it's the same name that Gill used the last time we performed Snow White, many years ago.

Over the last few years I've always tried to sneak Star Wars references into Upstagers' shows, if you have the programmes for 2013 shows 'Children of Eden' and the Dramovox show 'A Christmas Carol' you'll be able to find more. Sometimes they'll be on-stage like our Spring 2013 show, 'Little Shop of Horrors', one poster on set featured the Rancor monster that featured in 'Return of The Jedi'.

So Upstagers audiences, your challenge is to keep spotting my hidden (or not so hidden) Star Wars references in future Upstagers shows. Sometimes they'll be subtle and sometimes they'll be pretty obvious. But they will ALWAYS be there as long as I can sneak them in. I haven't decided how to work one in to Les Mis yet, but there will be at least one... trust me. Just don't tell Gill.

Thank you to everyone for your support of my Upstagers family and may The Force be with you... always.

Andrew
x

Les Mis rehearsal schedule

Greetings cast of Les Mis!

The rehearsal schedule is online, along with a guide outlining which people are scheduled for which musical numbers. You can download these two PDFs from... you guessed it... the DOWNLOADS page of the Upstagers web site.

If you have any issues or questions regarding the rehearsal schedule then please let Gill know as soon as possible.

Thanks.