Lights Music Action! Summer Schools



9-18 YRS	ADULTS	9-18 YRS	ADULTS

9-18 Yr Olds International Summer School
Sunday 10th - Saturday 16th August 2008

Students aged 9 - 18 years will be meeting for a week in August to experience the many aspects of life on, off, and behind the stage: from training to play in a jazz band, or treading the boards in Music Theatre, Dance, and Drama, or working backstage in costume, make-up and scenery design - not forgetting the technical side of sound, lighting and visuals (2001 saw the introduction of Video workshops).

The course culminates in a showcase event, with many performances being directed, stage-managed, conducted and produced by senior students.

So which course is for you? There are five main areas covered by the course, allowing for specialisation in your favourite areas. But don't panic - workshops covering dance, drama, music theatre, band, improvisation, stage design, costume, make-up and props, lighting, technology and more, allow everyone to try a bit of everything!

Band & Instrumental
The LMA Band is re-structured each year in order to accommodate the varying standards and musical inclination of its ever-changing membership. Players tackle a tremendous variety of styles, from swing & big-band styles through Santana, Average White Band, Blues Brothers, Latin-American to Bernstein.
Musicianship skills such as improvisation, ensemble tone-quality & intonation are approached through fun & innovative workshop sessions in which players receive more individual attention. Members are encouraged to form smaller bands, if they wish, which can be provided with music, coaching, or simply an informal concert platform.

The band also provides the backbone of the accompaniment to the Music Theatre Course, thereby gaining the opportunity to play some great show-tunes and to work with vocalists. Playing time is spread evenly over the week in order to avoid taxing less experienced instrumentalists, while giving the more ambitious players more practice/rehearsal time: band members are also given the option to experience some of the workshops held in drama/music theatre - eg. sound/lighting technology, make-up, drama improvisation, singing, and percussion - thereby broadening their horizons and allowing them to mingle with other course members.

Dance
The Dance Course is unfailingly imaginative & artistically inspiring, giving dancers a chance to try styles in a modern idiom which may be unfamiliar to them, while enabling them to home in & improve on more familiar styles if they wish. Their own creative input is strongly encouraged, & there is opportunity for own choreography with smaller or larger groups. There are fitness & limbering workshops, and tap/jazz/ballet/acro are incorporated according to the requirements of each year's intake. Dancers are sometimes worked into the Music Theatre production, if they wish, and may take part in workshops in singing & make-up/hair/costume/lighting design.

Acting
The Acting Course is a lively and energetic one. Sketches & extracts are worked on, ranging from Shakespeare, through Oscar Wilde & George Bernard Shaw to Classic comedies such as Monty Python & Fawlty Towers (with a strong bias towards comedy!!).
Students are required to cover all aspects of the pieces which are selected to appear in the Showcase on the final night. They are therefore trained in a whirlwind array of workshops to be able to deal with costumes, props, make-up, hair, lighting, scenery and backstage work.
Specialist workshops are variously provided in improvisation, comedy, mime & stage-fighting, & opportunity sometimes arises for budding directors or script-writers to home in on these talents. The Acting students have a reputation on the course for their extrovert, spontaneous & hilarious extra-curricular creativity.

Musical Theatre
Musical Theatre is a spectacularly busy Course, for while it is strongly singing-orientated, its students are able to take part in many of the aspects offered in workshops of the other Departments. All members take part in voice-training classes, which also cover breathing, body-awareness, improvisation, "harmonising", microphone technique, and over-coming nerves in public performing.
A workshop-style presentation is featured in the Final Concert (in previous years students have studied famous West-End Musicals, or have been given the opportunity to create their own Show). In addition to this, students get the opportunity to sing with the band, or to form vocal "bands", and to explore a variety of styles of singing, ranging from jazz & swing, thru R&B & gospel to rock. If they feel so inclined, students may overlap into the Dance Course - although specialised Music Theatre dance classes also run in conjunction with the current year's Musical, so that previously there has been the opportunity to take part in Lindy-Hop, Hip-hop, Rock 'n' Roll & Latin-American dance.
All members have the chance to study sound technology, lighting design, hair & make-up, & prop/costume/set-design.

Technical / Audio Visual
This course was developed in response to an increasing demand in the Arts World for people with an interest in video and audio-recording, and for sound and lighting engineers. This course will have a dual purpose:-

1) as an individual unit, studying techniques in digital recording, with the use of sound desks, microphones, computers & audio manipulation; digital video, with pre-& post-editing, story boarding & video skills, culminating in the "burning" of own CDs &/or the production of an own video.

2) as a hands-on experience for budding sound/lighting technicians to work directly in conjunction with all other strands of the Course in order to experience in the world of live performing. Students will be trained & monitored to be able to provide sound & lighting for the Final Concert.