A British programme comes to train musical theatre hopefuls, and YP Young Reporters get a chance in the spotlight
From left: Bryan, Annette and Emily learn stepsBritain - the land of Shakespeare, Noel Coward and George Bernard Shaw - has to be heaven for theatre lovers. It also offers some of the best theatre education programmes. One of them, Beauville Arts, will run in Hong Kong from late July to mid-August.
Founded by Jonathan Mallalieu, who studied music at Oxford University, Beauville Arts offers musical summer camps. For details, go to www.beauvillearts.com.hk
Young Post's junior reporters were invited to a preview of their Fame musical workshop, and here are their thoughts …
Confident and enthusiastic
Students in the workshop are divided into small groups and have an intense learning experience. Within two hours, we learned three songs, two dance routines, and performed a scene from Fame - The Musical.
The highly educated and experienced team included the founder and artistic director, Jonathan Mallalieu, who has directed and produced more than 100 performances; choreographer Paul Allnutt, the assistant dance captain of West Side Story, Grease, and Fame in the West End in London; and voice teacher Joyce Wong, who has played the lead roles in such musicals as Beauty and the Beast, and such operas as Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
We also learned from Mallalieu and his wife, Claire, that you should always be confident and enthusiastic, because nothing great was ever achieved by being doubtful and disinterested!
Emily Lei
Every student a star
The preview workshop we attended was based on the 1980 musical Fame, which is one of the two themes available this summer, the other is Romeo and Juliet.
Beauville Arts' workshops allow all students to play a lead character, and I was delighted to play Carmen, the fame-obsessed dancer.
Being able to play the lead in a live performance is a signature of Beauville Arts. This opportunity to be larger than life builds confidence, which is crucial in performance arts. It also allows all students to experience being in the spotlight, which they hope will prepare them for a bright future.
Dristi Gurung
Learning from the best
Students aged 10 to 18 with a passion for performance arts have the opportunity to learn from the very best in the summer. Beauville Arts is an international performance training centre first set up in 2002 in Lot-et-Garonne in southwest France.
Its mission is to build students' self-confidence, self-discipline and creativity through training programmes in musicals, rock 'n' roll, dancing, and live performances. So far, Beauville Arts has staged more than 150 shows in France, Britain and on the mainland.
At the end of the intensive workshop, not only did we learn about acting, dancing and singing (known as the "triple threat"), and become more confident, disciplined and creative, but we also left with certificates as a token of recognition and proof of having an extra-curricular learning experience.
Bryan Chan Chun-yin