Young talent shine with show created in a week
The task of putting on a play or musical is a daunting one for most of us, with the list making for each department taking up just the first week. Actors to audition, book, rehearse. Lights, staging, dancers, singers and even someone to run it all. Sounds like a long term goal. Well, what if you only had a week to do everything in...?
Rubber Chicken Theatre from Dunblane, now well known in Central Scotland for these incredible achievements, once again didn’t blink when they took on this mid term challenge for young people from S1 upwards.
Immediately the curtains opened and the spotlight highlighted our first cast member, the audience were enthralled. One by one we met the students waiting on their invitations to the School of Performing Arts.
It is not long before the full cast are on stage and the first number is in full swing, ending with rapturous applause.
The musical differs from the films and series in several ways, but the story of classical verses more modern music is told, the performer within is searched out and the dancer with or without the grades to continue is centre of the plot. There’s love, strain, argument, reconciliation and the darker issues - especially given the age of the cast - of sex, drugs and death.
I failed to see anything but smiles on the stage when presented by the very large full cast. The dances were well thought out to accommodate the numbers on the stage. The singing was a great full sound with clear harmonies. The soloists also did brilliantly given the difficulties with voices at this age. There were some very great demands on the voices and they really rose to the challenge.
For me, I would like to mention Kirsty Morrison (playing Serena Katz) and Cora Erskine (playing Carmen Diaz) for having given outstanding performances vocally, and from the young men James Whyte (playing Tyrone Jackson) and Adam Rodger (playing Joe Vegas) for the same. The entire list of priciples were stunning actors and dancers, as were the whole cast.
By the end every toe was tapping to the wonderful theme song, as a yellow cab was wheeled onto the stage. Enthusiasm never wavered, enjoyment never dipped. Tonight we were part of the school with them, watching, cheering and even half of the house (including me) on our feet at the end. This is something that all involved should be incredibly proud of.
Such evenings give me hope for musical theatre in the decades to come. A huge thank you to Rubber Chicken Theatre for their work with these young adults, and other groups of children, for keeping the theatre alive. Performing arts such as here; drama, music and dance, need as much encouragement as we can muster for our younger generations as cut after cut seems to mean each skill is taught less and less in schools.
Let’s keep our arts live, seeing tonight I know that many of this cast have very promising careers ahead of them. I cannot wait until their next production!