Acting students head back to the stage for The Lady from Maxim’s
The theatre at The Northern School of Art‘s Hartlepool campus hosted its first production for two years when George Feydeau’s classic farce ‘The Lady from Maxim’s’ took to the stage at 7pm on Thursday February 10th and Friday February 11th.
The performance in the School’s Theatre at Church Square in Hartlepool was by first year students on the BA (Hons) Acting degree for Stage & Screen with collaboration from students on the BA (Hons) degree in Production Design for Stage and Screen, BA (Hons) Costume Interpretation with Design and BA (Hons) Film, Television & Theatre Production.
Georges Feydeau’s comedy follows the travails of London-based surgeon Dr Petypon as he wakes one morning thoroughly hungover. With no memory of the night before, his Kensington apartment a mess and…an exotic dancer in his bedroom, he needs to hide everything from his wife, his friends and his controlling uncle General Petypon.
This classic three-act farce is full of fun and frolics and a group of over-the-top characters meet for a wedding breakfast before everything descends into further farce.
Alex Wallace, pictured above, played Porter and The Duchess and said she loved every minute of the shows.
“We’ve been working on this play for about three months and it was a great feeling to finally perform it on stage. I think we all performed very well; the energy was high throughout the performance. We all worked together as an ensemble and even if there were mistakes, we all worked together to keep the show moving.”
The eighteen-year-old from Doncaster added that the challenge she had was to act constantly even while the attention wasn’t on her, in spite of playing a minor role, so the audience had something to look at when watching the play: “During rehearsals we were all taught that there are no small parts only small actors and I strongly agree with this as an actor should put 110% into any role, big or small.”
Alex said that she chose the School’s Acting for Stage & Screen degree course because of its focus on a variety of acting styles: “The support from the teachers so far has been amazing, I always feel like I can talk to them when I am worried about something, and this includes student services and my course teachers.
“I have learnt so much about acting, and I strongly believe that I have grown as a performer throughout my studies at The Northern School of Art.”
Luke Swainson, from Manchester, pictured above, who played the role of Edward Mangecourt, said: “I was tremendously happy with the success of our show, especially considering some of the setbacks we experienced throughout the rehearsal process. Whilst rehearsing for the show, I had to learn to take on a leadership role as Assistant Director for the play, and work to guide other performers and scenes.
The nineteen-year-old added: “When choosing where to study, I was very impressed with the close-knit community that had been created by the School, and how supportive the teaching staff were with the students. These aspects initially drew me to study here and safe to say that they have remained some of my favourite parts of the course.”
Faculty Leader for Acting, Jonny Bussell, said: “We’re all really excited to get back to performing in front of full audiences again. The students have worked incredibly hard on the play.”
