Stagecoach Theatre Arts plc is a professional theatre arts school, operating in thousands of locations around the world, with over 600 schools in the United Kingdom. Training is offered in singing, dancing and acting.
Stagecoach operates part-time theatre arts schools in Australia, Canada, Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Malta, Spain, Greece, the United Kingdom and the USA.[1]
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Stagecoach Theatre Arts plc is a national network of part-time theatre schools for children aged 4 to 18 years. Founded by Stephanie Manuel and David Sprigg in 1988 in Surrey, it currently has over 620 centres throughout the UK and a further 52 overseas.
Stagecoach offers young people a basic training in the performance skills of drama, dance and singing which helps build their confidence and develop their character and communication with others. The schools, which restrict class sizes to 15 students, run for three hours at weekends with shorter sessions for the younger children (formally known as the "Early Stages").
Although Stagecoach is open to all young people with an interest in the performing arts whatever their ability, it does provide opportunities to perform professionally and some students have found considerable success in film, television and on the West End stage.
Occasionally Stagecoach schools come together for large national events. These have included performances at The Royal Albert Hall, the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations, The Lord Mayor's Show and Her Majesty's and Drury Lane Theatres in London's West End.
'Young Performer' magazine is circulated to all members of Stagecoach, a magazine devoted to young actors, singers and dancers, and includes information on the entertainment industry, and interviews with young British actors.[2]
In November 1999, 4,568 Stagecoach Theatre Arts students in 56 different schools across the UK, Ireland, Germany, USA and Australia performed the children's musical "The Rainbow Juggler", setting the world record in Guinness World Records for "largest simultaneous performance of one show"[3], and raising £100,000 for charity.[4]
On Saturday 6 December 2008 at 4.15pm GmT, Stagecoach schools throughout the world helped break the record. These formed part of the 500+ performances of a modern myth “Glad Rags”, a piece specially written to celebrate Stagecoach's twentieth anniversary by Stagecoach’s Director of Education Veronica Bennetts, which took place at Stagecoach schools in the UK, Ireland, Germany,and the USA, 66 performances at the official record time.
Three quarters of the €50,000 raised will go towards InterAct, part of the Stagecoach Charitable Trust that provides performing arts education through dedicated schools and workshops for underprivileged and disadvantaged youngsters, the other quarter goes to the charity of choice for each individual school.
John Lucey, the English actor and principal of Stagecoach Galway, said at the time: "The Autumn will be an exciting time for both our schools. Glad Rags, The Musical, is a chance to break the world record but it's also the 20th birthday of Stagecoach and there will be huge celebrations across the network. We are also planning to perform with American singer/songwriter Tom Chapin and the four Dublin centres to give the Irish Stagecoach schools their own unique seal of approval."[4]
In early 2011, Stagecoach Theatre Arts teamed up with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) and designed the Vocational Training Preparation course.
This part-time course is specificially constructed to offer students aged 16-19 years the opportunity to train in the performing arts to a high standard of drama, dance and singing, while continuing with school studies or employment. The innovative part-time course allows students to still consider their future options; be it vocational training in the performing arts, university or even a career away from the arts.
Taking place over two academic years, the course consists of three-hour classes each weekend during term time. An additional six intensive one-week workshops will be taken during the holidays at RADA in central London. Sessions will include acting classes, musical theatre training, singing lessons, auditioning for drama school, teacher training, Shakespeare and auditioning for musical theatre.
Entry is by audition only and students will work under the guidance of specialist tutors at the top of their fields to enrich their skills. The first cohort starts in September 2011 and is based at the students choice of either RADA in central London and Stagecoach Head Office in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
The Stagecoach Agency UK & Ireland is the Europe's largest children’s performers’ agency and represents students, between 4 – 20 years, currently attending the Stagecoach Theatre Arts network of schools across the UK and wishing to be represented by an agent.
The Agency offers Stagecoach students, who choose to become embers of the Agency, opportunities to take part in exciting and worthwhile experiences from a wide range of entertainment platforms.
All members represented by the Agency are included each year in Stagecoach's Spotlight directory, the industry's 'casting bible'. In addition all members' CVs are displayed on the leading internet based casting website service 'Spotlight Interactive', which is only viewable by casting directors, not the general public.
Whenever casting professionals require children for their productions happening anywhere in the UK they call.
The Stagecoach Agency enjoy a high degree of success within the industry and in their 2010, managing director & head of casting Tarquin Shaw-Young reprted that in the directory year they enrolled over 2100 students and won over 5,500 auditions or bookings for their members. Successes have included winning parts, both major and supporting, in TV, Films, Commercials, Radio, Voice-overs, west End Shows, Corporates and Photoshoots.
On 13 May 2008 Stagecoach, along with 60 students and parents, went to Downing Street to present Gordon Brown with over 10,000 signatures. The petition called Gordon Brown for an immediate reform and overhaul of legislation relating to the Children's performance licence to ensure that children throughout the country are given equal opportunities in a safe and protected environment. Stagecoach publicly announced that they are currently waiting for a response from the government and will, furthermore, publish details as soon as they are received.
Tarquin Shaw-Young the Managing Director & Head of Casting who has lead this campaign says that from its own research and experience Stagecoach and its Agency believes that the current legislation is seriously flawed and that some local authorities are failing in their statutory duties to ensure adequate protection for minors working in the entertainment sector. Stagecoach believes that misunderstanding of the current legislation, results in differing standards across the country and a paperwork burden on local authorities preventing them from providing the protection that the current legislation intends.
Stagecoach calls on Government to amend existing legislation, or to implement new legislation in order to ensure that children throughout the country are given equal opportunities in a safe and protected environment. The undersigned agree and support Stagecoach in its call to Government to reform Children’s Performance Licences.
When a Stagecoach Student has attended for more than 3 years and are aged over 8, they are automatically offered the opportunity to audition to perform in "Easy Stages", an annual production where students from across the UK and the rest of the world rehearse for 3 weeks on the outskirts of London and perform a musical to a professional standard. Performances currently take place at The Leatherhead Theatre (Previous venues include the Waterman Theatre and Epsom Playhouse).
Past shows have included:
1998: Guys and Dolls
1999: Sing Your Story
2000: Fiddler On The Roof
2001: Jane Eyre
2002: Barnum
2003: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
2004: The Pirates of Penzance
2005: Gypsy Blood (based on Wuthering Heights)
2006: Annie
2007: Oliver
2008: Children of Eden
2009: Unsinkable (based on Titanic)
2010: My Fair Lady
Future Shows:
2011: Secret Garden
Chak Patel Survivors series I & II Miffy Englefield The Holiday Casualty
www.stagecoachagency.co.uk
Tarquin Shaw-Young Managing Director Head of Casting The Stagecoach Agency U.k & Ireland S.T.Arts Management