Maghull Arts College presents..........

By Sam on Jul 3, 08 05:15 PM

On Monday I went to watch Maghull Arts College in association with MADCOS (the group of schools in the area) put on 'Tales from the Melling Road' which was an amazing success.

It was written and directed by Alistair Hewitt and was based on the 1997 bomb scare on the day of the Grand National.

The performance was held at Southport Theatre which was pretty full.

It is by far and away the best school production I have ever seen and was even better than some of the performances I saw when at University. No easy feet when you have 150 children taking part.

The lead parts went to pupils from Maghull Arts College. They were all true professionals and a credit to their school and teachers.

I was shocked to learn they were all under 16 too. They had the audience eating out of the palm of their hands.

Part of the performance will be recreated on September when this project along with 20 other education partnerships will get together to put on a performance in St George's Hall. It starts on September 30. I really urge you to go. I certainly will be going again! I want to see what the other schools came up with. They all had to pick a tale to tell.

Anyway back to Maghull.

I spoke to Alistair Hewitt today and couldn't believe it when he told me Ryan Westhoff who played Elvis the King (a horse) was 14. He was brilliant and a great laugh!! He even did hand stands.

Dan Greenwood who played Saturday Night Fever Man was another who had me giggling.

However, for me the best performances came from James Matthews, Gemma Cutris and Michelle Harris who played Don, Stella and Melanie. They were just simply fantastic, so well suited to their roles. They were brilliantly complemented by their counter parts, Ryan Henry, Rachel Devine and James Doherty who played Don, Ella, and Joey.

The rest of the cast were stunning too and I wish them all the best in what will be bright careers in the entertainment industry.