Discovering the Golden Age of Musical Theatre
Spend a week practically immersing yourself in the riches of musical theatre giants as you develop knowledge and performance skills in singing, text, lyric, character and song interpretation.
This course champions the innovative creative genius of the writers and composers of what are often referred to as ‘legit” musicals. With a director and musical director, you will discover and celebrate this vital, informative chapter in the long history of musical theatre and its many forms.
You will tackle genre defining works from the likes of Kern, Gershwin, Berlin, Loesser, Lerner and Lowe, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Meredith Wilson, Bernstein and all their respective librettists and book writers.
During the week you will:
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Work with a director and musical director in a rehearsal format on songs and scripts
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Explore, in-depth, the storytelling mechanisms found in an expansive selection of musical theatre repertoire
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Learn and employ multifaceted, fresh approaches to performing, understanding and realising classical material in a space
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Develop your confidence, creativity and technical ability as a performer
This course welcomes singers/actors who gravitate towards character driven storytelling, who love a performance challenge, who are comfortable with movement/staging and who enjoy working in a supportive and energetic rehearsal room.
Conor is an actor, director, multidisciplinary artist, facilitator and vocal coach, originally from County Derry in Northern Ireland. He trained for three years at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.
As an actor, he has worked extensively in theatre, musical theatre, TV and film locally and internationally. He was Off West End Award-nominated (Best Male in a Musical, 2017) for Miss Nightingale (The Vaults, London); played Fr Tom O’Gara and John Hume respectively in The White Handkerchief and Hume: Beyond Belief - the first two critically acclaimed instalments of the Derry Playhouse’s Peacebuilding Trilogy; starred alongside Siobhan McSweeney in The Freedom of the City (Arts Over Borders' FrielFest); originated the titular role of Chezzie in Oscar-nominee Dave Duggan’s Chezzie’s Chance; and featured in the first national tour and original cast recording of In The Midst of Plenty. He will reprise his role as Fr Tom O’Gara in the remount of The White Handkerchief in January 2026.
Film and TV credits include: Skintown (Cyprus Avenue Films - currently in post-production); Trespasses (Channel 4 / Wildgaze Films) The Talk (Winner of ‘Best In Show’ - Boston Wicked Queer Film Festival & Winner of ‘Audience Award’ - Clones International Film Festival) Death of The Primate (Winner of ‘Best Short’ - Nottingham International Film Festival);
He is a co-artistic director and co-founder of GOLEM!, a queer, neurodivergent and female led company specialising in repurposing and reimagining original texts. GOLEM!’s genesis began when Conor was programmed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones to create a production for Action To The Word’s site specific Shakespeare Festival, Catford-Upon-Avon in the Broadway Theatre Catford. He sourced the creative team to produce Macbeths, which transferred successfully to The Hope Theatre. GOLEM! has since produced several highly acclaimed plays including I Know You Of Old, (which played at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Dell in Stratford Upon Avon), Tomorrow Creeps (an immersive horror piece developed for London’s Vault Festival), and Is He Earnest? (A time-bending verbatim-based disco-infused story about Oscar Wilde. After initial workshops at the Clapham Omnibus Theatre, this latter piece was developed further at Coventry University, with Conor serving as movement director.)
In 2023 he succeeded Kieran Griffiths as co-director of The Playhouse Music Theatre Company - an incredibly successful initiative commissioned by The Playhouse in Derry to offer free local performance training and an introduction to the professional industry. This work involved the development of a year long programme of training oriented projects and productions through 2023 to 2024.
Other credits as a director/creative include: Playdates Season 4; Frankenstein/Goblin Market/Romeo & Mohammed (Sinew Productions) Anything Is Possible If You Think About It Hard Enough (Waterloo East Theatre); Little Shop of Horrors (The Playhouse); HOLE (Old Red Lion); The Human Voice (The White Bear); KIN (Lion & Unicorn)
Other developmental work includes: A Kept Man (a brand new queer musical by writer and director Matthew Bugg currently in development) and Faust and Maggy (workshopped at the RADA Studios in 2021 with opera director Jonathan Moore); Refuge (a co-production with Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds and Dance East, written by Danusia Iwaszko and women from BSE’s Women’s Refuge).
Sarah is a musical directing graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Much of her early career was spent in classical music. However, Sarah fell in love with the theatre and has since worked nationally and internationally as a musical director/pianist/composer and arranger.
Recent theatre credits include: Good Night, Mad Night, Strange Night A Cabaret (The Playhouse, Derry NI). Sweet Charity (The New Athenaeum Theatre, Glasgow). Kinky Boots (Storyhouse Theatre, Chester). Little Shop of Horrors (The Playhouse, Derry NI). A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Grosvenor Park Open Air). Beyond Belief, The Life and Mission of John Hume (The Guildhall, Derry NI). The Producers (The Playhouse, Derry, NI). Commercial credits include: CATS (Really Useful Group). Ultimate Broadway, Shanghai (GWB Entertainment). Strictly Ballroom (Global Creatures). Because of You (SimG Productions). Evita (Leeds Grand Theatre). Joseph (Bill Kenwright limited). Showboat (David Ian Productions). Night of a Thousand Voices (The Royal Albert Hall, London). Sunday Night at The Theatre Royal (Drury Lane Theatre, London). Other theatre credits include: Love of a Nightingale (Ciromedia). The Coup, Coup, Club, (Darren Clark, Slunglow, Leeds). Sweeney Todd, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Assassins, Into the Woods (RCS).
Sarah has conducted at The Bridgewater Hall, The Sage, Sheffield City Hall and at the SECC for BBC children in need. She has recorded for BBC Radio with The Orchestra of Opera North and for broadcasts for Australian and Asian Television. Sarah has also written several scores during theatre residencies both here and in America and has been a visiting musical director of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Arts Ed, London and Leeds Conservatoire and a mentor for The MA and PGDip musical direction programmes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Sarah is passionate about new writing and has been on the creative team for many workshops for new work in development. She is thrilled once again to be a tutor for the NODA summer school, which always promises to be an exciting and incredibly rewarding week for all involved.