Forth Childrens Theatre http://www.fct.org.uk en-us Nucleus CMS v3.31 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.fct.org.uk/nucleus/nucleus2.gif Forth Childrens Theatre http://www.fct.org.uk Annual General Meeting http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=66 7.30pm on Thursday 27th November 2008 at Bangholm. If you are a member and haven't recieved an email from our Secretary then please inform us by emailing us at agm@fct.org.uk.

We hope to see as many members as possible there.]]> News http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=66 Thu, 6 Nov 2008 09:28:05 +0000 Let's Celebrate 30 Years of FCT! http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=51 Forth Children’s Theatre is proud to announce the presentation of their 30th Birthday production Ya Beauty!!, a celebration of three decades of innovative, quality youth theatre in Edinburgh!

Adults who have passed through the company will join a youth cast from the current membership, to re-stage the best hits, from the past 56 shows. The production will be staged at the Churchill Theatre from the 9th to the 11th April 2009.

We’re keen to hear from people who have been involved with the theatre group in the past and would like to participate in these celebrations. This is a unique opportunity to help celebrate 30 years of Edinburgh’s longest running youth theatre company. There are opportunities to perform as well as helping out with other aspects of producing this show. Rehearsals will be flexible to accommodate as many past members who wish to participate as possible.

Auditions will take place on Saturday 1st November 2008, from 9.30am until 4.30pm at Leith Academy, with call backs for solos taking place at Trinity Rugby Club on Sunday 2nd November between 2pm and 5pm.

Interested people should contact the company via our dedicated email address 30thbirthday@fct.org.uk or call 07900801366 for more information. Please bring lunch with you as we can not guarentee that you will be able to go out to buy something.

Hope to see as many of you there as possible to help us celebrate this monumental event in FCT's history!]]> Forthcoming Production http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=51 Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:00:00 +0000 FCT wins an ENDA! http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=62 Evening News Drama Award for Best Musical at the awards ceremony held at Gilded Balloon. The awards recognise the talent of local companies performing during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each year.

Congratulations to every single member of the company on their hard work and dedication which made Fringe 2008 one to remember!

To read more on the awards click here to go to the article on the Evening News website.]]> News http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=62 Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:44:50 +0000 Fringe 2008 Jekyll & Hyde - A Monster Hit! http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=52 Jekyll & Hyde 8th - 16th August 2008


This year Forth Childrens Theatre presents Jekyll & Hyde, the musical based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story of good and evil. Jekyll & Hyde tells the story of a doctor whose experiments with human personality create an evil and murderous counterpart. Intent on revenge for his father’s death, he causes havoc in the streets of nineteenth century London. The result is a gripping drama alongside a powerful and memorable score.


Don't miss out on the hottest ticket of this year's Fringe!
Jekyll & Hyde
Inverleith Church Hall
Venue 120
Friday 8th - Saturday 16th August 2008
7.30pm (2.30pm matinees Saturdays 8th and 16th August)

Call our Ticket Hotline
0131 538 6077


Read our 5 Star Review from www.broadwaybaby.com here!

Or read our excellent audience reviews on the Official Edinburgh Fringe Website here!

Read Thom Dibdin's review in the Edinburgh Evening News.

Ex-Lord Provost and current Councillor Lesley Hinds gives her impression of the show on her blog here! Her advice - "Get tickets now!!!!!"

Mark Gorman, son of FCT's Founding Father FCT writes his views on the show. Click "read more" to see his blog.

More info - shows@fct.org.uk

FCT Founding Father Peter Gorman's son writes his views on this year's spectacular production of Jekyll & Hyde:

"It’s been a crazy day.

Golf, driving lessons (more later) and at the end of it the latest FCT festival Show. Their 29th and the first with no hand of my dad involved.

The Director, Claire Stewart, speculated in her programme notes that parts of it would have given him ‘the tingles’ and there can be no doubt that she called that one right.

This show is actually so impressive that it makes you step back and re-evaluate this theatre company. But please don’t expect what follows to be unchallenging.

FCT has staged 58 productions and it’s fair to say they’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly with a very strong leaning to the former. But, folks, The Lords of Creation? Everyone screws up sometime.

This show though? This was FCT on steroids.

A Cockerney setting.

FCT loves Cockerney - great excuse to do ‘accents’

However, it had a bleakness that was, unusually for FCT, not offset by a few gags and a singalonga happy chappy come on it’s not all that bad, number. (Doin’ the Lambeth Walk and all that.)

No, this was tragi-comedy without the laughs.

This was bleak.

But, hey, was Robbie LS looking for laughs?

No.

He wrote a very focussed morality tale about good v evil in which (of course) good wins - well, the Victorians were a bit predictable.

Technically this was the most accomplished show in FCT history (perhaps Oh, What a Lovely War had more technical innovation but the lighting, sound and set in this show were awesome.) I sat in the back row and heard every word.

The choreography, I don’t know if you’d call it that, movement might be a better word, (see previous reference to lack of Lambeth Walks) was so considered and impactful as to punch you.

Aggressive, in your face.

Magic.

Low, moody eyelines prevailed and worked fantastically . At one stage the chorus lined the auditorium, turning and looking pointedly and uneasing the audience. I loved that.

The costumes were probably the best I’d ever seen, so themed, by colour especially and such high quality. They contributed greatly to the sense of time.

The band? How insulting to call them a band. This was an orchestra. Their role in this performance was fundamental and flawless. At times I thought it must be a CD playing, it was so flawless. And boy, you guys owe a debt of gratitude to your sound man for mixing it all so brilliantly!

So, turning to the show itself. I’ll caveat the rest of my views with a question, a challenge I suppose, and one that I wasn’t alone in asking!

Was this show ‘on-brand’ for FCT?

At the interval I thought not. Even after it, and despite how good it was, I’m still asking myself that.

As Thom Dibdin said in his review in The Edinburgh Evening News the material causes problems for a Youth production, and I agree with him.

In the first act, at least, it seemed to me that it had been a little too unremitting in its gloom and too heavy on reliance upon the principals’ performances. The second act (nearly) changed my mind. Mainly because the highlight of the show ‘Murder Murder” opened the act, drew your breathe away and established the chorus as a vital part of the energy of the show. And the chorus is fundamentally what FCT has always been about. I’d be sad to see that go.

FCT need never consider a festival production of Waiting for Godot. (musical or otherwise.)

It was a small cast by FCT standards - only 33 - and I wondered, for a while, if less was really more, but the second act reassured me.

All of this sounds a bit negative, but the experience was far from negative. Because, cutting to the chase, this was singularly the most impressive FCT performance I have ever seen.

I’ll have to revert to superlatives now. Hannah Scott was awesome, just collosal in her performance as the hooker with a heart, Lucy, she very nearly stole the show.

But let’s be honest, how could she? She was supporting Matthew Smith who played both Jeckyll and Hyde with a maturity that has to defy his age. (I have little doubt that he will fulfill his ambition of singing on the West End because he is a major talent.) It so happens I also saw him in lighter mode at the Holy Cross Players Panto and he was a hoot.

Every single principal was on the nail, but ultimately it comes down to direction and I have to say Claire Stewart has once again performed a PB.

Whatever your views of the script/libretto (and in our group they were mixed) what Claire Stewart drew out of this group was simply brilliant. “Murder Murder” was one of the finest moments I have ever experienced in a theatre.

As a whole I feel the show is flawed. It’s a bit too bleak, and lacks light and shade during a lot of the, quite long, first half storytelling stage but every opportunity to squeeze a bit of interest out of it Claire Stewart took.

Overall verdict? Outstanding"]]> Fringe Shows http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=52 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:07:00 +0000 Easter 2008 - Talent! The Musical http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=36 Talent! The Musical 2nd - 5th April 2008

FCT's 2008 Easter production of
"Talent! The Musical" had a fantastic week with great houses every night. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who worked so hard on the production to make it such a success.


A brand new show making it's East Coast Debut this April, enjoy the funny and compelling story of Stacey, a rising star who has real talent and the jealousy of those who only think they have.


Don't miss
"Talent! The Musical"
performing at
St Bride's Centre,
10 Orwell Terrace,
Edinburgh,
Wednesday 2nd - Saturday 5th April 2008
7.30pm (2.30pm Matinee Saturday 5th April)


Adults £7.50
Concessions £5.50

]]> Easter Shows http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=36 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:47:04 +0000 Evening News Review http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=29 null

It's a wizard journey for Dorothy and her hip pals

Inverleith Church Hall

"Forth Children's Theatre offer more than creditable performance of the mid-Seventies musical version of the Wizard of Oz."

Full review can be found on the Evening news website or by clicking on Read More

Review by : THOM DIBDIN
EASING on down that Yellow Brick Road, Forth Children's Theatre offer more than creditable performance of the mid-Seventies musical version of the Wizard of Oz.

The original Tony-winning Broadway production was pitched into full-on soul territory.

In this Oz, L Frank Baum's original characters are given a hip-to-the-jive makeover that Judy Garland would not have recognised.

Without trying to parody what is, in itself, something of a parody, FCT succeed in getting right down into the meat of the songs. Without the facilities for high-tech production values, they have ensured a show in which the music carries the story - even if it doesn't always tell it.

This works for two solid reasons. Firstly, in a company made up exclusively of 11 to 18-year-olds there are a good handful of the soloists who have voices that far outreach their ages in both power and inflexion.

So, if the show gets off to something of a slow start with Catriona Hewitson as Aunt Em singing The Feeling We Once Had, she doesn't allow the pedestrian pace imposed by the band to hold her back a note. Her big, strong voice carries the tune impeccably.

Secondly, the chorus is made up of individuals who give the ensemble routines all the attention to detail you would expect of soloists - while being fully aware of the need for a group dynamic.

The result is a chorus that work so well together that they can, when called upon to do so in the scenes with the big Wiz himself, act so well in concert that they are essentially performing as one character.

It's a feature of the production that plot development and dialogue is basic at the most.

Which might free up the pace, but when combined with a bare open stage means that co-ordination between band and direction needs to be much tighter if the performers are not to be left dangling as the band moves into gear for the next number.

It also means that each song needs to be a journey.

So while Katie Renton has a strong and clear enough voice to sing the part of Dorothy, and enough presence to sustain the role, there are times when she needs to focus on the overall structure of the song, rather than just its individual notes.

There is no such problem for Cameron Dyer as Scarecrow.

His big number, I Was Born on the Day Before Yesterday, with Sarah Armes, Julia Carstairs and Niamh Smith as crow backing singers, is excellent and a standout moment of the show.

Moving on down the road, Mathew Smith as Tinman and Ronan Radin as Lion ensure that there is a strongly comic element to their performances, both vocally and in their characters.

Providing the forces of good and evil are Hannah Scott as hapless good witch Addaperle and Jill Pender as wicked witch Evillene.

And they go right into the heart of what makes this show so good, as they combine big songs with a great sense of fun
]]> Fringe Shows http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=29 Thu, 9 Aug 2007 19:37:15 +0000 2007 Fringe Production http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=26 The Wiz 3rd - 11th August 2007

FCT invites you to ease on down the road this August with our Fringe 2007 production of "The Wiz" at venue 120, Inverleith Church Hall, Ferry Road, Edinburgh from Friday 3rd - Saturday 11th August

Forth Children's Theatre proudly presents the funky, modern adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, the classic story of Dorothy and her adventures in the magical land of Oz. This show promises to have you tapping your feet and dancing in the aisles as you follow Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the cowardly Lion on their quest to find the Wizard of Oz.


Director - Andrew Dyer
Musical Director - Kerry-Anne Rae

Venue 120
Inverleith Church Hall
Inverleith Gardens, Ferry Road, Edinburgh
3rd - 11th August 2007
7:30 pm (2:30 pm 4th and 11th August)
Tickets: £7.50 (£5.50 concession)
Ticket Hotline: 0131 538 6077
]]> Fringe Shows http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=26 Sun, 20 May 2007 20:20:45 +0000 2006 Festival Fringe Production http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=3

2006 Festival Fringe Production

Howard Ashman's

"Little Shop of Horrors"

Director Claire Stewart
Musical Director Catriona Eunson
Choreography Lynne McPherson

Forth Children's Theatre once again proved they are Edinburgh's premier youth theatre group, performing a sell-out run of the fast moving classic production telling of young Seymour's love for Audrey and his struggle with Audrey II's voracious appetite.



]]> Fringe Shows http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=3 Tue, 1 Aug 2006 18:25:30 +0000 2006 Easter Production http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=4
St Brides Community Centre
Orwell Terrace, Edinburgh

Wednesday 5th - Saturday 8th April, 2006
7:30 pm (Saturday matinee at 2:30pm)

]]> Easter Shows http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=4 Wed, 5 Apr 2006 18:34:59 +0000 Romeo and Juliet http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=15

2004 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Production

Click here for the story of "Romeo and Juliet"

Click here for some information on the most famous bard of them all - William Shakespeare ]]> Fringe Shows http://www.fct.org.ukindex.php?itemid=15 Sun, 1 Aug 2004 01:00:00 +0000