St Mary's Calne
We were delighted to welcome a wonderful group of enthusiastic Year 5 and 6 girls from a range of Prep and Primary Schools to the Delscey Burns Theatre on Tuesday 15th November for a day of musical theatre fun with our annual ‘Musical Mega-Mix’ Workshop.
After an energetic warm-up, the girls worked on three songs from much-loved popular musicals – Somewhere Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz), We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Encanto) and When I Grow Up (Matilda) - with Bethan Dudley Fryar, St Mary’s Director of Vocal Studies, and learnt choreography to accompany each song with Dance and Drama Specialist, Robyn Caldwell.
The morning session was followed by a delicious lunch in the Dining Room hosted by current UIV students (Year 9) who shared their loved of musical theatre with the visiting girls and explained all the different opportunities they have to explore and develop their passion for Music, Dance and Drama at St Mary’s.
After further rehearsals in the afternoon, and a special visit to School House boarding house for afternoon tea with the LIV (Year 7) girls, it was time for the girls to showcase their performance to their parents.
Once parents had arrived and were seated, we were treated to four current St Mary’s girls - Willa, Grace M, Coco and Grace H – who opened the proceedings with a song each from their musical theatre repertoire. They each performed beautifully, and it was a wonderful experience for the visiting girls to enjoy their incredible vocal talent.
The stage was then set for the visiting girls to perform the three routines they had worked on throughout the day. Somewhere Over the Rainbow started with a swirl of rainbow ribbons as the girls found their first positions and commenced the song with a series of solo moments before the whole group joined in to finish the song in unison,with such warmth and emotion. The upbeat We Don’t Talk About Bruno incorporated lots of dramatic movement and facial expressions and saw the group break into two, trading the lines of Encanto characters, Pepa and Felix, against each other.
To finish, the girls moved to a new group formation and each girl told the audience what they wanted to be when they grew up… setting the scene for the final song, When I Grow Up, from Matilda, which was sang with great fun and attitude. All the girls did brilliantly, and the audience was clearly delighted with a large applause bringing the performance to a close. The girls, their families and St Mary’s staff then enjoyed refreshments together - featuring special music-inspired cupcakes!
‘It was a fabulous day of acting, singing, dancing - and even rapping!’ reported Mrs Dudley Fryar. ‘All the girls were fantastically committed and gave a spectacular performance. It was a day full of music and friendship which was wonderful to share.’