After the excitement of performing That’s Show Last Century for a sell-out audience last week, we’ve been tackling the post-show blues by throwing ourselves into not one, not two but three new projects!

Firstly, we’ve been working on singing techniques by starting weekly workshops with the wonderful Ria Keen. Ria is a singer, a singing teacher, a teacher of singing teachers, and performance coach with an impressive CV and massive amount of experience. You can read more about Ria and her work here She has worked with a great many West End performers, and we are exceptionally lucky to be able to have her work with us at Stagedoor. So far, we have had two intensive 3-hour sessions with Ria, during which we have focused on the essentials – posture, resonance and intention. Within our group, there is a wide range of singing experiences and one of Ria’s skills is taking students from their starting points and showing them how to make progress. She is also highly skilled at explaining exactly why the techniques she teaches make a difference. In our first workshop, we were all surprised at just how much of a difference it makes when a singer looks up, or stands correctly. Ria has shown us really effective but incredibly simple techniques which make an instant difference to the sound. In our second workshop, each student prepared a section of a song which they felt suited their voice and casting type, and was able to work intensively on it with Ria – a process which culminated in learning the art of Silent Singing,  and, again, instant improvement. As ever, I have been impressed with the students’ willingness to just get up and have a go – this week. every single student stood in front of the group and sang solo, a cappella – something which is really quite exposing. However, it is testament to them, and to Ria’s supportive approach, that everyone was willing to give it their best shot.

Ria’s workshop this week threw up the idea of casting types – it’s important for young performers to understand this – we will be thinking about auditions and drama school applications over the next twelve months, and so it’s essential that students know how to go about selecting songs and speeches. We therefore spent nearly two hours discussing each student on Thursday morning – one of the exciting things about the Stagedoor course is that we are not ruled by bells or timetables – being able to devote a couple of hours to this was great and will make a big difference to our students as they begin to prepare for the next stage in their training.

Finally, we’ve made a start on two more projects – Arts in the Community, and our National Theatre Connections play – The Changing Room by Chris Bush. Arts in the Community is one of our mandatory BTEC units, and one of the great things about working with the Everyman Theatre on this course is that we get the opportunity to work on real community projects, rather than theoretical projects. We are going to contribute to three community projects for this unit, starting with a commissioned piece for International Women’s Day, which will be performed in Pittville Pump Rooms on Saturday 10th March. We’re also going to take part in the Untold Stories project being run by the Touring Consortium Theatre Company. The company is bring their play Pressure by actor and playwright David Haig to the the Everyman this spring. Pressure tells the story of James Stagg, who was a weather forecaster, and was given the unenviable task of predicting the weather for D-Day. We think we know about D-Day, but how many of us know about James Stagg? Without his contribution, things may have been very different. Untold Stories aims to celebrate the hidden stories in the news. We will be working with community groups to uncover these stories and tell them, in short plays. Our third project is for Cheltenham Children’s Festival, in which we’ll be thinking about what the future holds for the children of today.

Our National Theatre Connections play – The Changing Room by Chris Bush is the final thing we’ve be exploring this week. The Changing Room is a play about growing up. It’s about knowing change is coming but not what that change will look like. Set in and around a swimming pool, it follows a group of teens full of excitement, impatience and uncertainty, each with their own secret worries and desires for what comes next.

Playwright Chris Bush said “In writing this piece I’m trying to capture something of the hormonal rush and sensory overload of adolescence in all its messy and magical glory. While no two teenagers are the same, ultimately I wanted to show that this is an experience no one goes through alone”

We’ll be working on The Changing Room between now and the end of February, with two performance in the Everyman Studio on 27th & 28th February, and one at the Theatre Royal, Bath on Thursday 15th March. We cannot wait!

We may have finished our first show, but we’re certainly not slowing down! Check back next week for more updates.