What a fantastic weekend at our new home!

Stage Starters, Debut, |Two, Three and Seniors all worked together on an amazing show and we learned how fantastic the new Stage Studios will be for performances in the future!

Here are a few highlights.

We are thrilled that 30 of our young performers appeared alongside this top professional cast at Christmas in SLEEPING BEAUTY at the Exeter Corn Exchange!

Amazing! We've just been wowed by Fletcher Dobinson in MUOLIN ROUGE in the West End!  Seems like only yesterday he was playing Judas in our production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and a Lion-dancer in 'The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe'!

Don't miss his incredible dancing if you can catch this spectacular show!

PS Also congratulations to Chris Jones- also in the picture above- who currently appears in the international tour of SUMMER- THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL!

It was colossal, stunning and enormous fun!  At long last, we took on the challenge of one of the most difficult shows to stage: CATS at the Northcott Theatre!

Audiences roared their approval for a show with a cast of 66, aged 7 to 18 years of age.  Andrew Lloyd Webber insists that each new production of CATS is different, and we are immensely proud of the new vision of a show which will live in the memory for many years!

With a cast of 60, directed by Chris Jones and Will Trafford, the musical favourite is proving to be a lovely Easter treat- especially for audiences who have been waiting for one of our shows since 2019- Annie had to be cancelled at the last minute due to the pandemic and we've been waiting ever since.  Well, now we're back, LIVE ON STAGE, where we belong!

The Junior Academy scored a massive success with THE HOBBIT at Orchard Open Air Theatre this weekend.

With dragons, spiders, dwarves and wizards, the story was as magical as the glorious garden setting!

It's been a long time coming, but we've done it!

GRIMM TALES as we learn at the charming open-air Orchard Theatre in the Teign Valley.

The shows were socially distanced, and were totally sold out!

SPLURGE-TASTIC FUN!!!

Audiences at the Corn Exchange were delighted by outrageously messy pie-fights and great songs and dances in our Junior Production of BUGSY MALONE!

A cast of over 80 filled the show with crazy energy and great comic timing and entertained the full houses who thrilled the the climactic huge splurge fight!

The next Junior Production will be JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT!

AWARDS GALA DELIGHT

Another year passes and once again we celebrated twelve months of performances and learning at the Exeter Corn Exchange on Sun 29 September.

We enjoyed a whole range of performances from 'The Wizard of Oz' to 'Headless Horseman' plus a host of prizes were awarded by our special guest, Christopher Edward, who starred in 'Aladdin' last Christmas.

Winners of trophies included:

BEST SENIOR PERFORMANCE

Mia Davies

BEST JUNIOR PERFORMANCE

Jim Sheen

BEST BREAK-OUT SENIOR PERFORMANCE

Tom Currie

BEST BREAK-OUT JUNIOR PERFORMANCE

BRIANNA ZEPEDA

BEST JUNIOR IMPROVEMENT

Emma Jinks

BEST SENIOR IMPROVEMENT

SAM MARRIOTT

BEST COMEDY

Darcy Hedden

GOLDEN VOICE

Jena Bentley

DANCE AWARD

Archie Benham

TEAM PLAYER

Cerys Wiliams & Grace Broderick

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTORS

So many thank you's after the epic CHILDREN OF EDEN 25th anniversary. Firstly, thank you to everyone who came to the show: a show without an audience is just a rehearsal. Secondly thank you to the magnificent chaperone team: so well-organized and so kind, especially with a huge age range to deal with. Also many many thanks to a production team who are at the very top of their game, including Dominic Jeffery who lit the show, Mike Reddaway who production managed, Jon Matanle who mixed sound, Riannon Cheffers-Heard who designed and painted the set including the rainbow floor for the fifth time! And of course, huge congratulations to the entire cast, all working at a phenomenal, no, a truly exceptional level. CHILDREN OF EDEN is an ensemble musical about the fact we have to live and work together in harmony to truly prosper: all the members of Stage by Stage brilliantly demonstrated this truth live on stage. We feel very proud of you all!

All the Production Team

AWARD WINNERS

Our production of 'Liar Liar' won three awards at the All England One Act Play Festival in Dawlish! 

We scooped trophies for:

BEST ACTOR

BEST SOUNG & LIGHTING

BEST DIRECTOR

- gave our cast and creative team an unequalled success!

That was the training- live on stage!!!

Wow!

What an amazing run in '42nd Street' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane!

Kirsty Fuller has just finished a year as cover 'Anytime Annie' in the fabulous tap show that is playing to huge acclaim in London's West End.

We wish Kirsty huge success with her next projects- she is such an amazing performer we know she will be a hit!!!

Huge congratulations to the senior students who formed the retinue in the Exeter Rep production of 'Twelfth Night', starring Dani Harmer (Tracy Beaker), Derek Frood ('Poldark') and Graham Seed ('The Archers')  What an experience to work alongside such expert professionals!

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CINDERELLA has now completed a record-breaking run at the Exeter Corn Exchange, featuring a youth chorus from Stage by Stage.

The show starred top West End performers from such shows as 42nd Street, Billy Elliot, The Color Purple and The Lion KIng- offering a great opportunity for our students to learn from the best!

FUN AT THE FRINGE! 

For the 20th year we return to the Edinburgh Festival with a brand new production of THE COMEDY OF ERRORS! 

Shakespearean comedy meets Madness... and other Ska and Two-Tone bands in a high energy show that has the audience clapping along at the finale!

We can't express how proud we feel of the entire cast, crew, backstage helpers, chaperones and front of house volunteers who made this show a highlight- even with our incredible history of shows.  

Sixty-five Stage by Stage members were involved in the show, working as one brilliant team to create a very special production.  A new legend is born! 

STARLIGHT EXPRESS has arrived at the Exeter Corn Exchange!  Tickets are still available via :

www.exetercornexchange.co.uk!!!

Once again we produced one of the biggest shows Exeter has ever seen with the UK youth theatre premiere of 'SPAMALOT'.  The audience were on their feet cheering for all six performances and the whole show was a fantastic testament to the company spirit, teamwork and superb professional approach of every member of the cast and crew!

We are proud to say that no other youth group in the South West stages shows with such elaborate physical productions, which enable our students to really learn how to perform at a professional level and with full professional technical teams; no franchise school would ever dream of budgeting their so-called "showcases" on the scale of our full stage shows!  

One of our junior members, Archie Benham, has just had an amazing experience- he was selected to play Benji in the national tour of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT opposite Duncan James!

According to all the reviews, he was sensational!  Well done Archie!

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Exeter-schoolboy-sings-Blue-singer-Duncan-James/story-29110570-detail/story.html

Stage by Stage does not run an agency, charging fees to our members- and yet top national theatre and TV companies come to us for great young performers!

Congratulations to former SbS member Will Trafford who has just completed a Christmas season at the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton playing King Arthur in 'Merlin's Apprentice'.  

He earned fantastic reviews, too, from the Mid Devon Gazette, Somerset County Gazette and Western Morning News!

Amazing!  We wish former student Fletcher Dobinson the best of luck and a wonderful time as he achieves his dream, playing Coricopat in 'CATS'!

Fletcher is on the far left in this picture.

Congratulations to the cast of CANDIDE, winners of

Best Youth Production at the Exmouth Drama Festival and

Audience Choice at the Teignmouth Drama Festival!

Our annual trip to the Edinburgh Festival created two hit shows: 'She Loves Me' and 'Candide'!  Broadwaybaby praised our 4-star musical with 'the young actors handling the show with such warmth and grace' * * * *, whilst Edinburgh Spotlight hailed 'Candide', with 'no weak links in this talented cast of young people'!  * * * *  

STOP PRESS: STAGE BY STAGE also won the Performance Award- the overall top prize for the whole Festival- usually given to an individual, but now awarded to our group for the second time!!! 

'Les Miserables (School Edition)' ran at Exeter’s Northcott Theatre for a week in June!

What can we say?  Seven shows and seven huge standing ovations!!!

Don't miss next year's show: 'GREASE'!

Stage Debut performed their charming and hilarious production of ‘Winnie the Pooh’ to packed houses at the start of February.  Lots of singing, lots of dancing… and lots of honey!