Lanarkshire students to be panto stars
A group of Lanarkshire students are to tread the boards in pantomime this year... oh yes they are!
Performing arts students from New College Lanarkshire will take part in Cinderella, a co-production with South Lanarkshire Leisure & Culture. That will see current HNC Musical Theatre students form the ensemble alongside a cast of principal actors made up of recent graduates from the college. It will be staged at the Town House in Hamilton today (December 7) before transferring to Rutherglen Town Hall from December 10 to 22. This is the fourth year of the partnership, following on from the success of Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and last year’s production of Sleeping Beauty.
The show’s writer and director Richard Gray said: “The students always come to us at an exceptional level – they’ve got a very good work ethic and they’re always working to an incredibly high standard.
“The great thing about panto is that the whole family makes a point of going to see it together, and you don’t often get that shared experience throughout the rest of the year.”
The 47 students from HNC Musical Theatre are split into three rotating casts, with three students from the course chosen to play the Fairy Godmother.
Rehearsals began in August on numbers that include Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake, Better When I’m Dancin’ by Meghan Trainor, Secret Love Song by Little Mix and Let Me Love You by Justin Bieber.
Musical director Alan Currie, who is a lecturer in Musical Theatre at New College Lanarkshire, said: “This really throws our students in at the deep end, because the energy that you need for panto stays high throughout the whole show.
“The jump from what they’ve been doing in school or youth theatre to this level is great for their training.
“It’s really good to be able to say to students on their first day in college that their first big project is being part of a professional production.”
The title character is being played by Rachel Campbell, a recent graduate of BA (Hons) Musical Theatre from Airdrie, while Steven Russell, who plays one of the Ugly Sisters, is from Uddingston.
There are a range of matinee and evening performances and family tickets are priced from £40.
Tickets are available from: https:// www.sllcboxoffice.co.uk/en-GB/ shows/cinderella/events