Bristol Amateur Operatic Society presents Les Miserables: School Edition

The epic tale of a man who stole a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving son but ended up serving nineteen years in prison

Transcript

00:00Hello from the set of Les Misérables School Edition.

00:03We are at the Redgrave Theatre for Bristol Bayeuse Youth Les Misérables.

00:09I say it's wonderful, it's actually very, very, very emotionally drawn and sad for those that

00:14are in it and those that are watching it, but the young people have been just an absolute joy to

00:19work with. As I say, so many emotions and such young people to actually show those emotions to

00:25the audience, so they've had to pull on lots of different things, feelings, but they are fabulous.

00:32So I am here on the set of Les Misérables School Edition, presented by Bristol Amateur

00:37Operatic Society Youth, and this week they are putting on a full-scale musical at the

00:43Redgrave Theatre. Let's chat to their team to find out more.

00:47The team I work with, they're so lovely and it's a new experience, so I'm normally a performer

00:54doing that. I've done some stage management at uni and then suddenly I was shoved into this role

00:59and it's been an incredible experience. Yeah, it's been a good one.

01:04The show features iconic songs such as I Dreamed a Dream, On My Own and Castle on the Cloud, just to

01:10name a few. Let's find out more from this creative team about the process of putting on a full-scale

01:16musical.

01:17So we've got 41 young people on stage, so it's a lot of young people to be involved,

01:23to be moved, and I'm a great believer in an ensemble, so those that don't have words to say

01:31or songs to sing, they can make a difference in the end production as to a show being good

01:39and a show being great.

01:40It's so much fun. It was weird at first going into, like, I used to be one of them and now

01:46basically I'm directing, making sure they're in the right place.

01:49And each and every one of those 41 children, whether they've got a main character or, like I

01:55say, nothing on the page at all, are so important for me as a director and important for me to make

02:01sure that they feel that they're valued and that they're a part of the piece of theatre, because

02:06without every single one of them, this show wouldn't be what it is.

02:10It's been amazing. It's obviously been a bit tiring as well because we're long days in the

02:15theatre making sure we get everything perfect because we want to get it right for the kids.

02:18They work so hard on it and it's been a long one, but an enjoyable and also very rewarding

02:25since last night's opening night, standing ovation, and it just proves the hard work has paid off.

02:31They become a family, so they become a community, and like I say, each and every one,

02:36the oldest down to the youngest, are all part of this same community and family

02:44and the love and affection between them that you see grow throughout the process

02:50and the confidence. Some children come and they're quite shy and they're quite quiet

02:55and they want to be a part of it, but they just grow within themselves.