It takes guts, determination and an awful lot of hard work to take to a stage and perform, never mind when you are just 5, 6 or 7 years old! This weekend saw over 40 Artz Infants perform in 4 performances of the sell-out productions of The Gruffalo and Winnie the Pooh; and audiences were absolutely mesmerised by the quality of work created by these young performers.
Both productions, directed by the brilliant Joseph Howard, have been in rehearsal for over 18 months; and whilst in one breath you may think “great, what a long time to rehearse and perfect a show!”, that’s simply not how youth theatre works. Thanks to a Worldwide Pandemic, these productions have been rescheduled no less than 4 times each; and a great number of our students have grown up, moved on, and understandably, experienced a whole host of changes to their young lives during this time. Whilst, the resilience shown by the eventual cast that took these productions to stage, is nothing short of inspirational. As Joseph commented himself during his closing speech on Saturday afternoon:
Many professional, working, adult actors have been unable to return to the stage after the Covid-19 pandemic for lack of motivation, changes in heart, struggles with confidence, and understandable mental health worries after such a long time away from the stage; so in a nutshell, the confidence, self-assurance and resilience shown by this young cast to do what they have just done, is awe-inspiring
The weekend’s performances were a huge celebration of our local young people, taking brave steps to do something they are passionate about; and what’s more, the short production of The Gruffalo, which was performed twice across Friday and Saturday, marked the debut production for our all new Up Holland Infant Musical Theatre Academy.
Throughout both the Winnie the Pooh production and The Gruffalo short, the students involved created memories that will be sure to last a life time; supported in their roles on stage by our incredible Peer Mentor student team; and off-stage, by our brilliant technical team of theatre-making wizards.
The productions also saw our students return to Our Lady Queen of Peace High School as a performance venue; which, with its 108 seats, is the biggest venue our Infant cohorts have ever performed in to-date. Our brilliant partnership photographers Beacon Photography Club, Bryan Fowler and Holly Boyd documented the event beautifully, ensuring the special memories made would go down on record.
Whilst it may be over-and-out from the Hundred Acre Wood and the Deep Dark Woods, our Junior and Senior Up Holland students are now busy preparing their performance of Seussical: The Musical.
A huge thank you to every single member of our community who helped in any way to stage these two exceptional productions over the weekend. We look forward to seeing you all next weekend (October 7th,8th,9th) in the Jungle of Nool!
Watch the Winnie the Pooh / Gruffalo Backstage Documentary below: