Since winning a Young People’s Musical Theatre grant in 2010, Zion Young Performers have taken on the challenge of bringing the Little Shop of Horrors to Hulme. The founder, Hannah Cotterill, tells us how their project has been developing.

“Zion Young Performers (ZYP) is a youth performance company founded at Zion Arts Centre in Hulme, Manchester. Emphasising its status as a ‘performance’ company rather than that of a standard ‘theatre’ company, ZYP seeks to educate young people between the ages of 12 and 18 in all aspects of performance as opposed to pledging allegiance solely to acting. Music and dance feature in equal measure and technical stage management opportunities are available for those with an interest in this area.

After an initial showcase event in December 2010, ZYP were awarded a grant of £4,500 in 2011 from the BBC Performing Arts Fund allowing us to continue our work. The decision was made to use the money to stage a full-scale musical theatre production, incorporating all the skills encompassed within the group, to be put on in November 2011.



We are now in the final stages of the rehearsal process for our chosen musical Little Shop of Horrors and all is going well. Act One is near completion and we are ready to move onto rehearsing our second (much shorter) act in time to put the whole show together for our performance dates! The cast are working away as enthusiastically as ever and growing even more confident by the day. When asked whether he was looking forward to the performance, principal actor Nathan replied “Yes, very much so! It has been a fantastic opportunity already and that's just the rehearsals! I cannot wait to get onto that stage and perform alongside a cast of wonderfully talented people”.



The cast have already had the opportunity to work with guest theatre director Oliver Bray, as well as the rest of our in-house artistic team. Attentions are now turning to the heavy production elements required for the show (namely the plant) which is most likely where a significant proportion of the funding money will be spent.



The inclusion of a non-human character onstage is certainly something which requires serious consideration from the beginning of a project. The cast have had to get used to acting alone in the absence of the plant so far and will once again need to adapt their acting when it finally arrives. Finding a production team capable of bringing together a show of this magnitude has also been a problem and we have had to draw expertise from various sources to inform the different decisions that we have made and are still making along the way. The experience so far has definitely been a challenging one – some roles have had to be recast due to prolonged absence of some young actors. However, it is simultaneously as exciting as ever and we look forward to the final performance dates!”

This August the BBC landed at the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a brand new venue bringing a mix of music and comedy to the site on Potterrow. We at the BBC Performing Arts Fund decided to mark the occasion with our very own Flash Choir with a TV comedy twist!

The idea behind the choir was to bring together lots of keen members of the general public to rehearse a new medley of iconic BBC TV theme tunes and then perform all that they have learnt live at the Potterrow site! West End Musical Director Mark Warman arranged a piece especially for the festival that combined theme tunes from…



Dr Who

The Archers

Dad's Army (Who Do You Think)

Black Adder

New Tricks (It's Alright, it's OK)

In With the Flynns

One Foot in the Grave

The Goodies (Goodie Goodie Yum Yum)

The Royle Family (Half the World Away)

Vicar of Dibley (The Lord Is My Shepherd)

Not Going Out

Eastenders

Blue Peter

Only Fools and Horses (Hooky Street)

Morecombe and Wise (Bring Me Sunshine)



… and the result was as audibly exciting as you can imagine!



At midday on Friday we were joined by 38 willing members of the public for a two hour workshop to learn and rehearse the piece. A huge amount of concentration, patience, and determination went into getting ready for the performance in that short space of time. But with encouragement from Mark, and piano accompaniment from past BBC Performing Arts Fund grant winner Tom Brady, two hours went a long way!



Meanwhile, unbeknown to us, the Edinburgh weather outside was taking a turn for the worst and we were presented with news that there was a full on thunder storm taking place at the Potterrow site. Unwavered, the newly formed TV Comedy Flash Choir rounded up their brollies and set off for the BBC tents.



When we arrived the site was filled with people waiting for the Ricky Gervais and Warwick Davis talk on the making of Life's Too Short to start, so it was quite a picture when our unannounced purple clad choir arrived!



We started with the nation’s favourite, the Dr Who theme tune, and received instant attention and curiosity. By the time we were into Dad’s Army the audience were joining in and having fun guessing the theme tunes. At the point where the choir goes from the Eastenders' drums into a Blue Peter whistle (it’s harder than you think) it sounds as though the piece is coming to a close but no! A quick blast of beat boxing then started off down Hooky Street along with an enjoyable attempt at a Cockney accent.



A seamless ending brought us to Bring me Sunshine and a lot of smiles. Although the sun hadn’t actually managed to peek through, the rain had stopped – a TV Comedy Flash Choir victory!



One participant described the afternoon as “fabulous fun”. We couldn’t agree more, so thank you to Mark Warman, Tom Brady, Robert Seatter, Annabelle Davies and all our choir stars!