Belfast School of Performing Arts
Northern Ireland's Leading Theatre School For 3-19 Year Olds
Huge Congratulations to BSPA Belfast AM pupil India who excelled as a finalist in this years BBC Young Musican of the year last night in Campbell College Belfast.
You looked and sounded fantastic and we are all so proud of you, especially as its rare for their to be a singer in the finals. We hope you had an amazing evening and created wonderful memories that will always stay with you
BSPA Juniors is delighted to introduce their Summer Project 2024 “Down in the Jungle”. for 3-7year olds from Monday 15th – Friday 19th July 2024
This is open to everyone, and we’d love to hear from you if you’re interested!
Come and travel on a journey with us down into the jungle where nobody goes, where you will enjoy a range of activities including singing, dancing, acting, story-telling and arts and crafts!
Including hits from The Jungle Book, Tarzan, Madagascar and The Lion King!
Our aim is to build confidence, have fun and make new friends! Our week will culminate with a relaxed family showcase on Friday 19th July.
So get your safari outfit on and your binoculars out as we go in search of some jungle animals!
This project will be headed by our Lisburn Juniors teacher Jordan Rainey
Dates: Monday 15th – Friday 19th July 2024
Venue: Belfast Operatic Company studios, 22 Heron Road, BT3 9AE
Times
Session 1: 10am – 11.30pm Age 3-4 years
Session 2: 10am – 12.30pm Age 5 -7 years
To register and for more information, click here!
Places will be limited and payment will confirm your place on a first come basis.
BSPA is delighted to announce our Junior Summer Youth Project 2024 will be Disney’s. “The Little Mermaid Jr” and tickets are now on sale!!
Journey “Under the sea” with Ariel and her aquatic friends in Disney’s The Little Mermaid JR., adapted from Disney’s Broadway production and the motion picture (featuring the enormously popular Academy Award-winning music and delightfully charming book and lyrics). Based on one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved stories, Disney’s The Little Mermaid JR.is an enchanting look at the sacrifices we all make for love and acceptance.
In a magical underwater kingdom, the beautiful young mermaid, Ariel, longs to leave her ocean home – and her fins – behind and live in the world above. But first, she’ll have to defy her father, King Triton, make a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, and convince the handsome Prince Eric that she’s the girl whose enchanting voice he’s been seeking.
It is the perfect show for our Junior Project with 4 shows in Stranmillis College Theatre
We are delighted that our Artistic Director: Peter Corry will be directing this magical show and he is very much looking forward to working with our younger pupils, the start of a very busy but exciting summer for him
Director: Peter Corry
Musical Director : TBC
Choreographer: Sean O’Neill
Age range: 8 – 16 years ( open to all, not just BSPA Pupils)
Rehearsals
Venue: Lisnasharragh Primary School, Tudor Drive, Belfast, BT6 9LS
Dates: Monday 8th – Friday 12th July 2024 ( 10am – 4.30pm )
Monday 15th– Friday 19th July 2024
Monday 22nd – Wednesday 24th July 2024
Show Week
Venue: Stranmillis College theatre
Thursday 25th July. Tech rehearsal. Evening. Times TBC
Friday 26th July: Dress Rehearsal – Afternoon and evening show
Saturday 27th July Matinee and . Evening show
Sunday 28th – Matinee show. tbc
**Please note there may be some weekend rehearsals for principals**
It is essential that your child attends all rehearsals but if that is not possible, please ensure we know what dates not available and reason, so the team are aware when planning schedule
Unlike our Senior Project we believe that any child should be able to experience the joy of musical theatre and therefore completing the form and payment of fee will confirm your child’s place.
Auditions for principal and featured roles will be held on 2nd June, details will be sent nearer the time.
Fees: £325 (£300 for BSPA Pupils)
For anyone paying in instalments a non refundable deposit of £50 will secure your Child’s place
All fees must be paid before rehearsals start.
Following the success of last year’s Senior Summer Project “Les Miserables “, Belfast School of Performing Arts is pleased to announce that they are delighted to produce the Northern Ireland Premier of the magical musical “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”
Welcome to the world of pure imagination with this tasty Broadway and West End musical based on the famous novel and hit movie complete with a live Band. We are beyond excited about it.
“Based on the famous novel by Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory features an original score composed by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray) and a book by David Greig. The score also pays homage to the Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley score from the 1971 film with songs from the motion picture including “Candy Man,” “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket,” “Oompa Loompa Song,” and “Pure Imagination.”
The world-famous Willy Wonka is opening the gates to his mysterious factory…but only to a lucky few. Young Charlie Bucket and four other golden ticket winners will embark on a life-changing journey through Wonka’s world of pure imagination including chocolate waterfalls, nutty squirrels and the great glass elevator, all to be revealed by Wonka’s army of curious Oompa-Loompas.”
The show will be directed by our very own Artistic Director Peter Corry who is already formulating exciting plans to make this a magical production with 6 performances in The MAC Theatre, Belfast .
Director
With over 25yrs experience in musical theatre both on stage and behind the scenes, he is the perfect person to bring our show to life.
Peter has performed on the West End stage and Internationally over the last 30 years and as a director, he has staged shows which have toured the UK, USA and Europe.
Peter also runs his own company, Peter Corry Productions which is one of the leading entertainment producers in NI.
Peter and his team can’t wait to get started on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
Musical Director
Ashley has worked in Musical Theatre and singing for over 20 years as an award-winning vocal coach, musical director, performer and producer.
He is the most successful vocal coach in Northern Ireland. To date, he has had 80 students go onto study at Drama School. This record is unprecedented and the highest number of students to go onto professional training by any individual teacher in the UK.
Ashley is the director of BSPA Voices and was musical director for 4 of BSPA’s former summer productions.
Due to the Phenomenal interest this project has had we will initially be auditioning everyone.
Main cast – 12 -22 years old
The Part of “Charlie Bucket”: 10-14 years old. Please note this part is open to both Girls and Boys and will likely be a shared role.
Auditions will be held on Sunday 21st April
Please note: as usual, our BSPA Senior Summer Youth Project is open to everyone
(not just BSPA)
It is that time of year when you look back on the past year and what has been achieved and look forward to a further year with hope and exciting plans.
For BSPA 2023 has proved to be one of our busiest and most exciting years so far.
It started with the fabulous news that we had been granted “Body of Persons” approval by the EANI and as someone who has the responsibility of sorting Performance Licences for all our schools show, Corporate events etc this was an amazing start to the year.
We featured in the Radio Ulster show “Roar of the Greasepaint” produced by John Anderson and it was humbling to listen to our pupils, teachers and parents explaining what BSPA meant to them and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their kind words.
In February we took our amazing Disney Dazzle team under their production team of Peter, Adam and Oprah, to perform at Disneyland Paris and they performed at the Videopolis with enthusiasm, professionalism and wowed the gathered crowds. We were so proud of them and loved also watching them have fun in the park with their families and friends.
BSPA was thrilled to hear the exciting news that our Drama teacher has won a BAFTA for his short film “An Irish Goodbye”. This was an amazing achievement for this young Director along with his partner Tom Berkley. It was just the start as they then went on to win the Oscar and we were delighted when Ross visited his two schools bringing the two famous trophies to show his pupils. What a role model and inspiration to our pupils and we cant wait to see what comes next for Ross.
IN 2023 BSPA produced 8 amazing school shows and for the first time our BSPA Juniors all produced their own shows at Stranmillis. BSPA Voices were privileged to be invited to to preform in Stormont Buildings at the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in front of a distinguished invited audience. They were also invited back to perform recently to a delegation of important American visitors along with the amazing performers of Peter Corry Productions.
Our Midweek classes continued to grow and we were delighted at the Amazing results they all achieved in their LAMDA and LCM exams with thanks for the incredible support of their teachers Julie Alderdice and Kat Regan
At the end of term we were all thrilled to hear that our Artistic Director: Peter Corry had been award the MBE in the Kings Birthday Honours list for services to Music and the Arts in N Ireland, such amazing news as we broke up for the summer.
Plans for the summer of 23 had been to simply do one large Summer Project but when a show we had always dreamed of producing suddenly came available things changed. This summer we produced two shows with Shrek Jr for the younger students and for our Senior Project we were delighted. to return to the MAC Theatre with Les Miserables School Edition. With the addition of two shorter projects for our younger pupils it proved an incredible summer with rave reviews from our audiences. A summer of creating magical memories for lots of young people and high expectation of summer productions for the following year.
The demand for places in both our main schools and BSPA Juniors meant we decided to open a new school at Belfast South followed in November by a new School in Bangor and an extra BSPA Juniors class at Lisburn and Ballymena. This also meant new teachers and we were delighted to welcome, Johanna, Nik, Abbie, Chris, Sinead and Anna to join the growing BSPA Teaching Team and a need to advertise for new staff for our Cover lists.
In September we were also delighted to be approved as a Trinity Exam Centre and we launched a Level 4 diploma for our Performance Academy under the guidance of Nik Parkes.
We also formed a partnership with Burns Skills School and look forward to providing Musical Theatre After school classes to many pupils throughout N Ireland in 2024.
December saw BSPA Voices performing at Christmas At the Cathedral along side Peter and his special guest Rachel Tucker and under the Musical Direction of Ashley Fulton. We were delighted to hear the news yesterday that he has been awarded an MBE for his services to Music in N Ireland.
We are so proud of our pupils, several of whom this year appeared in short films, TV programmes or starred in shows with other Companies. We are also so proud that so many of our past pupils are now following their dreams at stage school or doing Drama or Music at University. It has been a great year for BSPA with news of Oscars BAFTA’s, MBE’s and our pupils starring on the West End, Professional tours, Pantomimes and working professionally doing what they love and we wish them all continued success.
I will end 2023 by thanking every single person who has helped ensure our pupils have an amazing time whether in class or during performances. There are far too many to mention individually but I look forward to thanking you all in the New Year at our staff night out.
To Peter I add a special thanks, it has been a busy year especially for you as you mark 30 years in the business. Your support, patience, advice and gentle encouragement when making hard decisions has been very much appreciated. Having been in awe of the performances you inspired from our pupils in Les Miserables in the summer I can’t wait to see what you do with “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” next Summer.
To our parents, huge thanks for your continued support both to ourselves and to your children and we are excited to re our plans for 2024 and to watch rehearsals for 10 main school shows and 5 BSPA Junior shows.
Happy New year to all at BSPA and I hope you enjoy looking back at a small selection of the memories for 2023!
What a huge Privilege and Honour it was for BSPA Voices to be invited to perform at a special event in the stunning Great Hall of Stormont Buildings to welcome the Senior US Business Delegation to Northern Ireland.
The underlying musical theme for the event was the History and Culture of Northern Ireland and Peter Corry Productions and their amazing artists, dancers and musicians delivered a stunning spectacle, including Traditional music and dance as well as ‘Game of Thrones” and “Titanic’ inspired performances.
We are so proud of our pupils who wowed the distinguished guests and sang so beautifully under their Musical Director for the event, Seanna Hutchinson.
We would like to thank The Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly for inviting us to take part in this very special event and to Emma, Sarah and the team for looking after us so well.
A memorable event showcasing the talent of N Ireland, which our young people will talk about for many years to come.