A Junior Showcase

STADOS Stars is a brand-new youth concept by Golborne (STADOS) and this is their first ever production.  STADOS Stars is a fully inclusive group for children in and around the village of Golborne.  A concept that only started as an idea just twelve weeks ago is the brain child of tonight’s director/producer Anne-Marie Glavin.  This production consisted of dancing, acting scenes and singing along to tracks.  This enabled to show off the varying talent that the children had to offer.  For me, the positives were fantastic group numbers which helped show off the great vocal talent from the whole cast.  If this is what they can produce in such a short period of time, then the future looks bright for STADOS.  Every youth member was engaged and performed very well. 

The highlights for me were Revolting Children and Naughty (Matilda) along with How Far I’ll Go, and We Are the Champions (Moana and We Will Rock You).  The audience roared with laughter during I Wanna Be Like You and We Are the Champions, in which the two male performers performed with great confidence.  I also quite liked the Magic Carpet acting scene which the two young actors performed very well.   

I felt that there were some areas for development too.  Using backing tracks means that the children have to stick rigidly to the rhythms, by introducing live music such as a piano etc it would give the children a chance to play around with the emotions of the songs and play around with the rhythms etc.  I also felt that there were opportunities to introduce more harmonies into most of the songs – the talent was certainly there.  Saying that, to produce a show in twelve weeks that consists of three acting scenes and fifteen songs, including dance routines is a feat within itself.  It was clear that a lot of love and attention has gone into this production and the audience certainly enjoyed the performance.

A particular mention has to go to the sound and lighting team.  For me, the lighting was excellent.  Having a small venue such as this and being restricted for space, you would forgive the lighting being limited but I was very impressed at the use of colours and gobos used.  Sound was also very good.  The staging was limited due to the size of the space, but it didn’t need it for this production.  I liked the added touch of the balloons which added to the staging. 

Overall, this production was a great starting point for the first ever youth showcase in which STADOS Stars can now build upon.  I thank STADOS for their very kind hospitality and wish them all the very best for their upcoming panto production of Mother Goose in February 2019. 

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