Belfast School of Performing Arts
Northern Ireland's Leading Theatre School For 3-19 Year Olds
BSPA is proud of BSPA Belfast South pupils Isabella D’arco who has been starring in the new children’ s programme Nova Jones which is featuring on CBBC and RTE2
We are also thrilled that our Dance Teacher Kat Reagan had the privilege of Choreographing on the series.
During a summer when Covid regulations stopped most Performing Arts Companies from doing shows BSPA led the way to present the Irish Premiere of ” Matilda Jr’
Demand for places from young people who were missing the chance to perform was such that we had two casts, Team Trunchbull and Team Wormwood each performing three shows. With Theatres still closed to the general public BSPA though outside the box and decided to convert “The Lid” at Crawfordsburn Scout Centre into a socially distanced Theatre.
The BSPA team created a stage, brought in lighting, sound and applied for necessary Entertainment licences and risk assessments to transform this space into an outdoor theatre. With safetly to the fore all seats were socially distanced but this provided our children and our sold out audiences with an incredible experience. An achievement to be proud of during days when the Arts Industry were suffering. Theatre is back ( at least at BSPA)
The two casts of Matilda Jr were delighted to join the BSPA Artistic Director: Peter Corry at the ‘Back in Bangor” event on Saturday 21st August.
Both casts performed a few excerpts from the show to passers by before heading back up the road to Crawfordsburn for their final performance. What a busy but exciting end to a fantastic summer project.
What an exciting morning “Team Trunchbull” had at the start of rehearsals for Matilda Jr when they had a visit from Rita from UTV who dropped in to film for UTV Life.
This also gave our talented pupils Holly Mountstephens (Matilda), Keris Dodds (Miss Honey) and Michael Nevin (Miss Trunchbull) a chance to try on costumes for their interviews.
The cast who were in early rehearsals enjoyed showing Rita a sneak preview of the chorus ” Naughty “
The Irish Premiere of Matilda Jr will be performed with two casts at Crawfordsburn Scout Centre from 18th – 21st August.
https://www.itv.com/utvprogr…/articles/utv-life-episode-28
UTV Life Episode, please scroll to 7minutes 50
BSPA would like to thank presenter Pamela Ballantine for the opportunity to tell her audience about our production
What a fantastic way to end the BSPA year but with three Hamilton workshops taken by our BSPA Patron Kelly Downing and held over a sunny weekend at Crawfordsburn Scout Camp.
Kelly was delighted to work with our pupils teaching them the Choreography from the Iconic show before returning to rehearsals for the re opening of Hamilton in the West End.
Kelly told them all about her experiences and ensured that when they decide to audition for the musical they will know whats required and will know some of the routines. Such a fun weekend and the sun came out to celebrate with our pupils.
We are so incredibly proud of our last group of Midweek drama pupils who received their results and gained an incredible 15 distinctions and 6 merits in their LAMDA exams.
What incredible results for these young people who have spent this year working mostly on zoom.
Congratulations also to their hard working teacher Julie Alderdice who is rightly so proud of them.
If you would like to join our midweek classes and work towards your LAMDA exams starting in September please just message us at info@thebspa.co.uk