‘My Stage School’ is a highly ambitious, dedicated and driven performing arts academy striving to offer only the best for our students. We have over 300 students across our Thursday, Friday and Saturday schools (and hundreds in holiday time) and we operate from many different venues and theatres. See our ‘classes/timetable’ section. Our age groups are split into ‘STAGE STARTERS’ for ages 4-6, ‘UPPER SCHOOL’ for ages 6-14 and ‘THE ACADEMY’ for ages 14-18.
Our weekly classes in dance, drama and singing are exciting and varied and taught by experienced and caring industry professionals. We are unique because we are always working towards a musical, a show, a demo, movie production or workshop every single term so parents can always enjoy watching their child in something new. The fun never stops.
Our shows and productions set extremely high standards using large theatres, with sophisticated lighting and tech. We also have our costume store, so our students are always enjoying our new and fabulous costumes!
We are also unique because every child plays a substantial role in the shows, each with equal parts encompassing speaking lines and solo singing if they wish. We cater for all personalities. We often receive enquiries from parents about their shy child who has never done anything like this before. Those parents are often blown away when that child ends up singing solo in front of 400 people at the end of term performance. Also, we have students who may want to pursue a career in the performing arts. We can send these students for auditions in the West End for example. We have had many west end successes over the years with My Stage School students appearing in tours across the country, commercials and tv shows.
Principal Ellie Marsden has been running theatre schools for over 14 years, buying her first London franchise at the tender age of 23 before moving back to her home-town, Cheltenham, to focus on ‘My Stage School’. Ellie has acquired many special techniques and formulas over the years that help her students perform like confident and professional West End stars! Ellie and her team find this doesn’t just pay off at ‘Stage School’ but in everyday life. Children gain confidence in all areas of school and social life, in speech and physical ability. We see our students transform in many amazing ways and we know that the carefully structured classes and techniques developed over the years really work.
Alongside our weekly classes, we offer endless extra groups, troupes, privates and exams including Disney Troupe who perform on the Disney Stage in Paris. There is also the London troupe who perform in London theatres and another troupe who compete at local festivals such as Cheltenham and Gloucester. We have resident LAMDA coaches, private singing tutorials and speech and festival entry coaches who can cater for any need.
Our holiday workshops at Easter and Summer are also extremely popular and always sell out, so early booking is recommended. We produce large scale shows at local theatres in 4 or 5 days. Parents are amazed by the standard of what we achieve in such a short space of time and the amount of stage time each student enjoys in the show.
We are extremely proud of everything our students and team are achieving, instilling the belief that the sky really is the limit and the world is their oyster!