In the past the Youth Theatre plays have been amazing and have enabled the younger members of Chipstead to shine. Past productions have included ’A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ’Robin Hood’, ’Divine & Deadly’, ’100’, ’Charlotte’s Web’, ’Blast from the Past’ (a revue), an updated version of ’Bully for You, ’Junior Revue and Film’, ’Chatroom’ & ’You, Me and Mrs. Jones’ (a double bill consisting of two short plays), ’Scary Play’, ’Annie’, ’Johnny Future’ (a short film), ’DNA’, ’Arabian Nights’, and ’Punk Rock’.
These plays have included people having to act as fairies, gangsters, punk cleaners, pirates or even plants! After the last night of every play everyone is slightly sad to not be able to spend every evening with each other (but also relieved!) and the juniors never seem to lack energy or endless enthusiasm and each one has come back to be involved again. There have also been numerous plays, workshops and other areas such as revues in which the juniors have been involved.
The current Youth Theatre Committee consists of Lewis Hayes, Molly Hopkins, Lewis Khan, Grace Mander and Abigail Marrow. Their role is to communicate news of upcoming shows, auditions and workshops, and to organise other events for the whole of the Youth Theatre.
If you’e over 12, and would like to be involved with the committee, or with reading and suggesting plays to be performed by the Youth Theatre in the future, do get in touch via the email address below. The new committee would welcome suggestions and ideas from all Youth Theatre members, so put your thinking caps on!
Contact the Youth Theatre Committee
The Helen O'Grady Drama Academy is a world-wide organisation whose original aim was to use drama to build confidence and communication skills in children and teenagers. Indeed many of the students come for those reasons, but many more come simply because they love drama and want to hone their skills in a fun environment. The Academy was launched in Perth, Australia in 1979 by Helen O’Grady, a drama teacher and television presenter. After a few years, her methods were franchised and it is now the largest organisation of its kind in the world.
Ian Brown, a member of Chipstead players has been running the Croydon based branch for 17 years now and for 13 years this has included classes at Chipstead. It was difficult to find anybody to run regular workshops for the Chipstead Juniors and the Academy provided a way of doing just that.
Classes take place on Friday evenings at the Courtyard from 7:30-8:30pm for 8-12 year olds and 8:30-9:30 for 12 year olds and upwards. During the autumn and spring terms, we provide a weekly workshop covering all aspects of drama and in the summer term, we work on a short production with each class.
Fees are currently £94.00 for a 13 week term giving a £10 discount on the standard fee.
Students also have the opportunity to join our casting agancey – Aardvark Casting.
For further information, please call Ian Brown on 020 8667 9812 or visit www.helenogrady-croydon.co.uk.
If you are not yet a member, and would like to know audition dates for a particular forthcoming production, please submit the enquiry form, stating which production you are interested in, and we will get back to you, with dates and audition notice when available.