Theatre school franchise awards national scholarships to Medway youngsters
Supporting its hard working, dedicated and talented students achieve their professional dreams is a big part of the ethos of part-time theatre school Razzamataz. In order to assist them financially, the Future Fund charity was set up to help a Razzamataz student to go on to study performing arts at college.
Now in its second year, four talented Razzamataz students performed in front of an experienced panel of judges to win funding for their performing arts course. Tyler Martin from Razzamataz Medway, Amy Houston from Razzamataz Dumfries, Robson Broad from Razzamataz Medway and Rosalia Morales from Razzamataz Rayleigh West performed a song, dance and drama piece to demonstrate their versatility as performers.
The auditions were held at Pineapple Dance Studios in Covent Garden and were judged by a panel of independent performing arts specialists. Fi Silverthorn, street dancer from Urban Strides was the dance expert with a keen eye for spotting potential. Fi’s professional credits include dancing for FKA Twigs, Strictly Come Dancing, Ellie Goulding and at The MOBO Awards. She is also a member of the renowned Hip Hop company Birdgang. Lauryn Jamieson, last year’s Future Fund winner and teaching assistant at Razzamataz Carlisle, was also on the panel and was able to talk about her experiences having just completed a year’s foundation course at drama college Rose Bruford. The final judge was Max Reynolds, Associate Director on the UK tour of Avenue Q and the upcoming UK tour of Little Shop of Horrors.
The standard of this year’s entries was exceptionally high with very little to set them apart. After much deliberation, both Robson and Tyler from Razzamataz Medway were awarded £500 towards their own training.
Robson and Tyler have both been offered places at prestigious performing arts colleges where they will be fine tuning their skills to make them into a strong triple threat performer who is able to turn their hands to singing, dancing and acting.
The judges were impressed by both boys’ overall maturity and understanding of the roles they took on. “I was very impressed by Tyler’s choice of audition material and the fact that he had clearly thought carefully about each piece so that he could perform something he had a connection with,” says Max Reynolds.
Fi Silverthorn adds: “Great potential, really liked how ambitious Robson is and is very keen to learn everything in lots of different styles. I definitely saw a spark so he should work hard and I’m confident that he will do well in the industry.”
The Future Fund is just one of the many opportunities that Razzamataz students can take advantage of, including performing in the West End, alongside professional touring show bands, masterclasses with leading industry professionals and the opportunity to perform at Disneyland Paris!
