Imogen Calderwood
THERE’S nothing like treading the boards for boosting moral fibre. And at Stagecoach Theatre Arts School, your child can follow in the footsteps of some of Hollywood’s greats.
Actors Emma Watson and Jamie Bell, McFly’s Tom Fletcher and X-Factor sensation Cher Lloyd all trained at Stagecoach.
Here in Spain, your child can make friends and grow in confidence at the local performing arts school which has 16 years of history on the coast.
“Stagecoach started in the UK in 1988 and has grown exponentially since then,” says Principal Warren Webley, who has been in charge since it launched in Spain in 1999.
“We are in Marbella, Fuengirola and Gibraltar, but Stagecoach goes as far as Australia.”
More than 200 students – aged between four and 18 – now attend classes in Spain and Gibraltar, learning the three main dramatic disciplines: acting, singing and dancing.
“We have two key objectives at the school,” continued Warren. “We have lots of students who want to go into professional theatre and we provide the core skills and give them experience.
“The other is confidence-building. I have parents telling me all the time how much more confident their child has become.”
There are many performance opportunities during term time, and every school year ends with a massive showcase where all the students can show off their skills in front of a public audience.
There are professional opportunities too, with 10 children selected last year for a series of adverts being filmed in the area, and others picked for bit-parts in television and films.
But the main principle of the theatre school is that students have fun.
Warren added: “We have parents who say their child is shy, or wants to do something fun at the weekends, or wants to make new friends. We cater for everyone.”
