18 Dec Looking back over 2023
- Our Young Company performed our National Theatre Connections play ‘Old Times’ by Molly Taylor at the Bonington Theatre in March and at Nottingham Playhouse in April. We had great feedback from audience members and the company thoroughly enjoyed performing at both venues. We were selected as one of 10 companies out of 250 to perform our play at the National Theatre at the end of June but unfortunately, we had to decline the invitation due to 5 members of the company taking GCSE/A Level exams on or around the date set for us to perform. It was such a shame for us as it is a real honour to have been selected but another company had the chance in our place.
- We entered our Lamda students and groups for the Mansfield Drama Festival in March and they all received lovely feedback from the adjudicator and the organisers of the festival. One organiser suggested that the presence of our groups really lifted the whole festival with our choices of texts and performances.
- Our Youth Dance group was selected for Episodes, the County Youth Dance platform and as one of the youngest groups in the festival, was complemented on their choreography and performance.
- Our annual showcase In July at the Bonington Theatre was such a joy to see and all the young people had such a good time and performed their hearts out. We even had a performance from some of our adult group which was such a boost for them too.
- Lamda students took their exams in June achieving 100% pass rate again with 16 Distinctions The highest mark received – 96/100 was for one of our Grade 8 students.
- An annual highlight was our Young Company’s visit to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August to perform Peter Pan every day for 9 days to a total of 832 audience members, an increase of 32% from 2022. We had 18 performers who gave their absolute all to every performance and loved every minute of their time up there.
- Also in August, we had a fabulous 4 day Summer Camp ‘Back to the Future’ for 40 young people who acted, danced and sang songs culminating in a performance at Pondhills Lane Community Centre which lasted an hour! So much material was created over the four days and such high quality of performances too.
- September saw the start of a new academic year and again over 80% of our members returned for another year and new members joined.
- Just last week – Sunday 10th December, we had a fabulous Christmas Showcase at the Good Shepherd Church Hall with over 120 young people performing across the afternoon and double that in audience members. The Young Company raised just over £300 towards their Edinburgh trip!
- To finish the year with a bang we have Peter Pan at the Bonington Theatre on Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd December for 5 shows – three are sold out and the other two have only a few tickets left available.
What a great year!! Thank you to everyone who has made this possible. We are so proud of all we have achieved.
