Musical Theatre students from Stratford-upon-Avon College went on tour recently to share the joy of their newly devised Jukebox musicals with residents of local care and residential homes.
Students on the first year of the College’s Musical Theatre course created new twenty-minute musicals inspired by musicians famous in the 1950’s including Elvis, Buddy Holly, Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross.
After creating the shows themselves by listening to albums and finding characters to tell stories using the songs from the famous artists to produce the Mamma Mia-esque Jukebox musicals, students were also given production roles to ensure the shows were fully rounded and organised.
The tours visited a range of local residential and care facilities including Scholars Mews, Lower Meadow, Hathaway Court, The Limes, Hylands House and Ambleside, plus an extra performance at the College.
Pictured above, students on tour
The students had a fantastic time. Cece Magana commented: “It was great to see the positive reactions from the audiences; they loved the songs and the way they reacted and interacted with them was so heartwarming.”
They also enjoyed the creative process. Phoebe Green detailed: “Devising is a new skill, it was really great to learn and experience creating your own work, as so far we have had more experience being directed.”
Charlie Evans added: “Developing creativity skills and independence by devising and taking full responsibility for the script and telling a story through music was so rewarding. It has given us skills to use later in life both at drama school and beyond.”
Musical Theatre lecturer, Katharine Bayley, explained why the project was so beneficial for the students: “It is really important for them to create their own work and experiencing the devising process which encourages more autonomy and creates employability skills. Also, developing their own material and participating in small scale touring gives them an alternative performing arts experience/career pathway that they maybe hadn’t considered before.”
The project received very warm feedback from establishments and audience members and the team are keen to repeat the exercise in future years.
