We are delighted to announce the launch of the Up-Stage Credit Scheme, which gives all full members of Up-Stage the chance to get some FREE Up-Stage merchandise.

Many of our members have been asking if they can get T-Shirts, Hoodies and various other merchandise.  As you may have seen in the Up-Stage Shop,  you can buy all these items.  We realise however, that in these difficult economic times, it is not always easy to afford such items.  So we are announcing a way for you to obtain these items without spending any money!

The Up-Stage credit scheme is a way to earn “Up-Stage credits”, which can be exchanged for all the items in the shop.  Each credit is worth £1.

How do you earn credits?

There are many ways to earn credits…they will be awarded by Up-Stage staff for special achievements, for being kind and supportive, for good behaviour that is out of the ordinary.

If you introduce a friend to Up-Stage, we will instantly award you 12 credits when they sign up!  This will buy you a T-Shirt or a Baseball cap straight away!*

Each month on your regular invoice, you will see a box with your current Up-Stage credit totals.  It is as simple as that!

*This applies to new introductions only from the date of this post onwards

Please note that the Up-Stage Credit scheme does not apply to After School Clubs

At last, we can add the Up-Stage “Onesie” to our range of merchandise!   These excellent items are available now from the Up-Stage Shop.  In all black with the exclusive Up-Stage Logo embroidered they are available in all sizes!  Order now

We have now added the Up-Stage Badge to the shop as well, at an affordable £1.00

We are proud to announce that we are one of the official registered partners for the very first National Shakespeare Week which takes place in March 2014,  National Shakespeare Week will celebrate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth..  We will give specific details of our participation nearer the time, however, if you are interested, please visit http://shakespeareweek.org.uk/ for details.

Up-Stage had a hand in several Bedfordshire Drama Festival entries last week. On the opening night, Keith directed Arnold Academy year sevens in their debut at the festival, and they received a really encouraging adjudication. On Thursday, we saw our Barton Thursday group perform the premiere of “Opening Doors”. Toby Sims received a nomination for best youth male actor, and Katie Coffey received a nomination for best youth female actor. We also saw some of our older members of CS21 appear in a new play called “Come as you were” on Thursday night, and they received two nominations as well for Mimi Monroe Greenfield as best Actress and David Podgorski as Best Actor. On Friday, we saw Stage Rite in their first ever show. They performed “Well Read”, another premiere, and we were delighted that they won the adjudicators award for the superb closing scene! Bethany Thompsett also received a nomination for best youth actress! Then CS21 performed “Rings Around the World”, and we were delighted to be awarded Best Male Youth performance for Mark Cummins and then win Best Youth production! It is the first time we have won these awards, and we are so proud of all of you, There was also a nomination for best direction for the production, as well as best setting. Three trophies and seven nominations in all, and some excellent audience reactions! Well done everyone!

Here are our winners pictured with our friends from Barton Players who also had a succesful night!

The happy Director/Playwright!

Wishing all of our casts and crews the very best wishes for their performances over the next few days at The Bedfordshire One Act Play Festival.  We are proud to have such an excellent group of people representing Up-Stage this year!

We have now launched the Up-Stage Shop, where you can now purchase T-Shirts, Hoodies etc etc….We are looking to expand the range over the next few months.  Click on the link in the menu above to see what is available!

There will be a meeting after school on Thursday this week for any year seven pupils wanting to join the new After School Club.  We are going to discuss what kind of production you would like to do and the various options open to us

We are delighted to announce that we are launching a new After School club.

This one will be at Pulloxhill Lower School on a Monday from 3.30 until 4.30.  Chloe will be the principal practitioner at these sessions.

We are delighted to announce that Up-Stage will be working with the Year 7’s at Arnold Academy on a production over the next few months.

We will be running an after School club on a Wednesday from next half term.  We will update with further details.

We are delighted to announce the cast for “I Come and Stand at Every Door”.  Written by Keith, this is a Ghost story based in Bedfordshire.  It will be performed at this year’s Up-Stage Festival at Randall’s Farm, in the wood, at night!  Not for the feint hearted.

Aggy Brooks – Rebecca Brown
Aggy Brooks 2 – Milly Badham
Albert Levitt – Stephen Bowie
Alfred Whitehouse – Alex Hamilton
Catherine of Aragon – Jade Franks
Cecil Higgins – William Greaves
Dorothy Issacs – Lucy Wolfe
Eliza Padfoot – Lucy Marriot
Fred Hipgrave – Sonny Foulkes
Hettie Brooks – Megan O’Rourke
Hettie Brooks 2 – Eve Wallace
Jenny Humberstone – Chloe Badham
John Humberstone – Mark Cummins
Mary Brooks – Paige Franks
Queen Mary Emily Wolfe
Rosata – Leanne Waterson
Sam Welland – Harry Foulkes
Scarecrow Jack Michael Batty
Silsoe Sarah – Olivia Blackley
Sophia Higgins Hayley Bloodworth
Sophia Mendham – Millie Anstee
Totty Parr – Sophie Bryant

Watch this space for further details, and previews!

For those of you in the Saturday group and now the Academy, you might want to watch the attached!  Jessica was 12 on 12/12/12 yesterday, and was interviewed on The One Show yesterday!  She is on from about 2 minutes 40 seconds!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01p8zxy/

A Big happy birthday from all of us Jessica