I am in the process of developing a new Saturday morning Theatre training school for children between the ages of 8 and 18. And I want to know what you would like me to provide for your children.
Let me explain a little of where this idea has come from.
I run an Opera Company which helps emerging artists at the beginning of their careers by offering training and performance opportunities and we want to extend what we do to the wider community to help engender a love of opera not just for future audiences but also to find the opera stars of the future.
I am an opera singer myself and I became interested in Opera at the age of 14 when I sang with my county youth choir in performances of Aida. Opera was always something - until then - that I had thought of as stuffy and boring BUT being on stage surrounded by amazing music and working with professional singers was a complete eye opener. Without that experience I would not have had such an amazing career and life in opera.
I want to give today's generation the same opportunity.
Children nowadays don't get such amazing opportunities as I had and the consequences are numerous:-
Those who can sing arrive at Conservatoires with little or no stage experience - meaning that they have no foundation for the demands of the career.
Many children who could have a career in opera are not recognised as having the required talent.
Opera audiences are diminishing because it is deemed as elitist.
And basically Opera is not seen as "cool" by young people.
Without exposure to the genre from the performance aspect, young people are being denied the joy and thrill that opera could give them.
So what we are proposing is 30 Saturday morning sessions across the school year working on every aspect of performance with a two week summer school culminating with performances in a major theatre.
I would really appreciate your ideas on what you would like us to provide during those weekly sessions.
Thank you.
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What would you like a Theatre training school to provide?
16 replies
birdsong1 · 16/06/2013 14:51
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