Limerick Post has four sets of family tickets [for four people] to give away – see Limerick Post facebook and CentreStage Friends facebook. You enter the competition question by snailmail. To win a family set of tickets, do you know who wrote Willy Wonka?
Write your answer on a postcard with your name and contact telephone number. Post to CentreStage Theatre School, CentreSPACE Studios, St Alphonsus Street to arrive by next Wednesday July 20. Winners will be notified by phone.
On to the shows. director Richie Ryan is more excited than any of the kids at the prospect of staging them.
“Expect the performances to showcase all that they have learnt over 12 full days of singing, acting, dancing, music and the children’s speciality choices such as juggling,” Richie advises. “Willy Wonka is by the 8 to 12-year-olds and is a full musical very close to the film we all know. Expect a cast of 60, a live band and all the standards such as ‘Oompa Lumpa’ and ‘The Chocoloate Song’. This is going to be a real family night out with face painting, high spirits, the lot”.
A larger cast of older children u18, about 80 of them, gather to stage ‘We Will Rock You’. Again the costumes are made by CentreStage summer campers and “they have had great fun with them, especially the glamrock opening sequences with hits like ‘Radio GaGa’.
Richie explains that the school’s score means that the Freddie Mercury’s high notes are scaled down a little and the songs adjusted to become suitable for chorus.
“This is all part of the learning curve in staging a production. Introducing the summer campers to the music of Queen has been a terrific experience and this show is all about breaking the mould and being an individual. I am looking forward to them singing Mercury’s hits in a performance that is fast moving and energetic”.
He also mentions the high percentage of male performers camps have for musical theatre, something he credits to the calibre of male tutors CentreStage employs. Conor J Ryan teaches Acting; Michael Young, signing; Eoin Scanlan MA, Singing; Richie himself teaching acting to the seniors.
Book your tickets at the UCH if you’re not an Arts page winning ticket for Sunday 24, 7.30pm.
