Summer 2022 community performances!
This summer at Theatre Royal Winchester we’re hosting a number of community performances showcasing the best local and emerging talent in musical theatre, dance, theatre and music.
Back in June, Embley School in Romsey presented, as their debut performance, their production of Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone – the well-known gangster spoof set in Prohibition era New York where machine gun fire is substituted with whipped cream and mob boss Fat Sam asks penniless boxing promoter Bugsy Malone to help him defend his empire against up-and-coming rival mob boss Dandy Dan.
Over 250 children and young people from local schools and community groups will take to the stage to perform their greatest street dance moves for Winchester-based Integr8 Dance’s annual Dance Off. Each school or group will compete to win awards to take back with them. These are exciting nights of dance, fun and celebration.
Blue Apple Theatre Company, which supports performers with learning disabilities, will perform their version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth – a story about a Scottish nobleman who kills the king to take his throne. Proud to be the scourge of purists, Winchester’s Blue Apple throw out whatever isn’t needed to push the story forward. Expect Macbeth in the original language, but prepare for the unexpected including moments not in the original.
City-based Wessex Dance Academy – which runs 12-week programmes to help build confidence and self esteem in some of Hampshire’s most vulnerable young people – welcomes audiences to witness the next round of cohorts’ Graduation Performance. This is breath-taking choreography – devised by dance company, Company Wessex, which often collaborates with local creative partners – performed by truly inspirational young people.
Plus, Winnall Rock School presents Love is the Power! Summer Show 2022 – when the school’s young musicians (with tutor/MC Chris Richmond) will celebrate their 18th year of making music – with original songs. Winnall Rock School is known for providing free music tuition for young people including band workshops (with sessions leading to two annual events) and charged sessions that help support the school’s charitable services.
In August, the UK’s largest youth musical theatre company, Rare Productions bring their production of Hairspray – the popular award-winning musical set in racially-segregated 1960s Baltimore where Tracy Turnblad auditions to dance on The Corny Collins Show. The cast will be made up of local young people who auditioned to be a part of it, in May, at Theatre Royal Winchester and The Arc. Come and enjoy the amazing show tunes!
Next, British Youth Music Theatre – the leading music theatre company for young people aged 11 – 21 – will present Terra Nova about Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910 expedition to the mysterious shores of the Antarctic, exploring heroism, ferocity and human endurance. It will combine powerful narrative, complex vocal sounds and daring choreography and include a cast of young people who have been rehearsing in the region.
Rare Productions and British Youth Music Theatre are two youth theatre companies that go out to towns and cities across the UK to hold open auditions in them and work with their young people to then present professionally-led productions at professional venues.
Finally, youth dance company, ZoieLogic Dance Theatre bring FuzzyLogic’s The Doorman about ten hopeful strangers who arrive at a mysterious door, which leads to all the things they most desire. But the door will only open to those who prove worthy. FuzzyLogic is a nationally renowned youth dance company whose work pushes the boundaries of contemporary male dance. Artistic Director of ZoieLogic Dance Theatre, Zoie Golding from Southampton was recently awarded an MBE for her services to dance.
