Legally Blonde: Outreach Workshop

One of the big highlights of the school production of Legally Blonde was the community outreach that was an essential part of our production week. We welcomed over 0 students fro ears and fro Scissett Middle School in Kirklees, who joined us on Tuesday for an afternoon of singing, acting and choreography workshops, tea, and then the show. Members of the cast, from Third Form to Upper Sixth, worked with the Scissett students in the workshops, run by Oliver McCarthy-Bell, Georgina Crowther and Ali Boucher, and had a fantastic time. The Scissett students were a joy to work with: responsible, energetic and committed. What meant so much to our cast was the impact this outreach had on the Scissett students: it made it clear what power theatre has to transform experiences, aspirations and lives. For so many of our cast to do this in the hours leading up to the first night really does show the level of co it ent they brought to the musical, and all of the students involved should be hugely proud of their contributions to what was an unforgettable experience for so many.

be back in touch about that. But I hope the rest of the shows go well and again - we are all so grateful for the opportunity you’ve given us.

Best wishes,

Michael, Strategic Leader for Performance, The Mast Academy Trust

“Hi Alistar,

I’m writing to say an enormous thank you to you, your colleagues and your students for the wonderful experience you gave us on Tuesday. Our students have come away with a real buzz from both the workshops and from the show and we’re immensely grateful for all the time and energy you put into organising it all for us. A particular thank you to your fantastic high school students who were excellent role models. As you know we try our best to immerse students in the Performing Arts at Scissett but for our students to spend time in the company of students four to six years older than the , who are passionate and confident perfor ers is invaluable.

I’ve got a huge number of messages to pass on to you but for now just a few -

“Thank you for having us. I had an amazing time and the workshops were really fun too.”

“Thank you so much for having us yesterday. I really enjoyed coming to watch. You all were absolutely amazing and I aspire to be like you guys. Your school is amazing and once again thank you for inviting us.”

“The singing was so good and the actors are amazing! So were the backstage people and everyone who made it happen!”

“Their singing and choreography was brilliant. All their acting was amazing and they were all very beautiful.”

“Thank you so much, I am really inspired to do more acting and to get more involved.”

Like I said on Tuesday we’d be thrilled if we could arrange an exchange visit to watch Mary Poppins - will

“Such a massive thank you again for arranging this opportunity for our kids. All I’ve heard all day are countless children saying to me how amazing the show was and how much they loved the whole experience. They’re now begging e to do egally londe ne t year t is such a huge feat to put on a full length production for the cast. I really don’t know how you pulled it all together. Well done again and thank you to you, Ackworth School and your cast and crew for a wonderful trip. I know some of our children were looking up to the older cast members thinking “that will be me one day” which is just lovely.” (Rachel, Head of Drama, Scissett Middle School)

Noah

The workshops with the middle school kids were so fun to help run Their enthusias and love for dra a really shone through and I’m so glad they enjoyed it. We sang “Omigod You Guys” with them and to see them go from a bit shy to reaching a point where they were comfortable with expressing themselves and were singing louder than us was so fun to witness They probably could’ve sang it for us in the show given the opportunity And we also did choreo to O igod a lesson not only for the , but for e too (yes… I didn’t know the dance, I never had to do it…) But the noise by then and the enthusiasm was incredible, and the feedback we’ve had from some of them saying that they want to do drama for the rest of their life, and the knowledge that we helped play a part in that, has made my year and we’re two onths in Hopefully we get to see them ace their show of Mary Poppins in a few weeks ti e

The workshop was really fun and enjoyable as I got to help out with teaching people the songs and the acting, we did lots of fun stuff like teaching the the lyrics to songs and screa ing OH OD at the top of our lungs

What an eye opening experience it was to have 100+ kids fall in love and connect with our show. It was a pleasure to see their smiles after we taught them to dance, act and to sing. They loved it. And the fact we could have some of those kids fall in love with drama was incredible, i know we helped shape a life. And we loved how much they loved all of it as well

It was a real pleasure to work with the kids and share our wonderful play t was a really refreshing experience as it’s amazing to see the impact that drama and theatre had on the kids and how much they enjoyed it. My appreciation and passion for drama further grew as it was a new experience from which I learnt from so much :)