Stagecoach students look forward to purrfect performance in Birmingham

SEVEN Stagecoach students from Clare will perform at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham on Sunday, March 24 in the largest ever performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s show, Cats.
The part-time theatre school network Stagecoach Theatre Arts celebrates 25 years and to mark the occasion, 3,000 young performers aged from six to18 years from Stagecoach schools will participate in the show.
The main cast will comprise 50 specially selected dancers and 500 singers in a grand choir from 13 Stagecoach schools. An additional 2,500 young performers from a further 47 schools throughout the UK, Malta, Germany and Ireland have been allocated a selection of the Cats score to bring their own individual creative dances to life within the vast arena.
The seven Clare students will form part of the choir and they will sing Jellicle Songs For Jellicle Cats at the opening, Journey to the Heavyside Layer at the finale and The Addressing of Cats.
Participating students are Anthony Severin (6) from Ennis; Josephine Taylor (9) from Lissycasey; Jake O’Loughlin (9) from Ennis; Saibh McDermott (10) from Clarecastle; Aoife O’Sullivan (10) from Feakle; Laoise Carey (10) and Caelyn Donlon (10) both from Tulla.
Meanwhile, Saibh McDermott, aged 10 from Clarecastle will sing live in the choir and is also part of a Virtual Worlwide Choir, which is prerecorded and will be beamed around the arena in the middle of the show. Siofra Ní Éilí Duggan, aged 14 from Ennis, has also prerecorded some singing and will appear on the big screen. The virtual choir involves Stagecoach children from 10 countries including Ireland Germany, Malta, USA, Australia, Spain and South Africa.
Exclusive permission has been given by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group for the extensive arena production.
“This is the 25th anniversary, so although the schools have had many major events including the successful Guinness world record in 2008, (most simultaneous performance of a musical with Glad Rags,) they really wanted to make a big splash hence the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham and a chance to work with Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Really Useful Group,” John Lucey principal Stagecoach Clare said.