Students from The Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts in
Wolverhampton will be performing with the singer of the music used as the
theme of Downton Abbey and winner of the Chinese equivalent of X factor
Mary-Jess in July..
In a joint event with the academy Mary-Jess will perform songs from
Broadway and the West End with a choir of students from the academy.
The academy has performed with Mary-Jess before both on her own tours
and accompanying G4 on theirs.
Julian Elcock, Principal at Wolverhampton said “It is a fantastic opportunity
for the students to perform in a professional arena in a style that is very
different from that they are used to from Musical Theatre lessons and
performances. Many of the students performing have recently performed in
the West End themselves in our specially written show at Her Majesty’s
Theatre (Home to Phantom of the Opera) but this is a different skill”.
The students will rehearse in the coming weeks with their in house teacher
Emily Davies, a local performer herself, before joining Mary-Jess on the day
to bring the whole show together.
Emily said, “We will take a number of weeks to prepare the students
alongside the early stages of rehearsals for a performance of Alice In
Wonderland in October. PQA always has something major coming up and
often 2 or 3 things so fitting it all in can be a challenge”.
PQA, which was started by actress Pauline Quirke and her producer
husband Steve Sheen in 2007, is a weekend performing arts Academy
providing tuition for children and young people from 4-18 years.
Student spend three hours rotating through hour-long sessions in Comedy & Drama,
Musical Theatre and Film & TV. There are more than 170 Academies
nationwide.
For more information about PQA Wolverhampton contact Julian
07838115152.
