Students at Derbyshire's new after-school drama club 'excited' about stage debut

Performers as young as seven years old will be on stage in Miniver Academy’s show at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School on February 10 and 11.

Their presentation, Away With The Fairies, has been written especially for the group by Megan Young who runs Miniver Academy with Julie Ballen. Megan is directing the production and Julie is responsible for stage duties.

Megan said: “We have been rehearsing the production since the start of November 2022. The students are extremely excited for the show. They’ve been busy learning lines and working on their characterisation.”

Away With The Fairies is about a group of fairy godmothers who are eager to get their wish request business back on track following a certain incident involving turning a prince into a slimy frog. Megan said: “The audience can expect to see familiar fairy tales but through the lens of the fairy godmothers as they try to fix disasters of their own making.”

The play includes a song especially written for the group by Alice Hope Wilson, a fellow graduate of Megan’s at Queen Mary University of London.

Four years ago after graduating from university with a BA in English and drama, Megan joined forces with fellow graduate Andrei Cotucu to launch Miniver Theatre. Megan said: “We knew we wanted to run a drama club for young people as part of Miniver Theatre and named the group Miniver Academy accordingly."

Miniver Academy launched in September 2022 and now has 30-plus students. Megan said: “We currently have four boys and would be excited to have more join us.

“Quite a few of our students do attend Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School – or will be attending the school in the future – so it’s exciting that our first show is being put on there. We also have students attending primary schools in Dronfield and the surrounding areas so it’s been a great opportunity for them to make friends outside their own schools.

"My main aim for the academy is to create the type of group that I myself would have loved to attend as a child. I want to create opportunities for the students to put on regular productions and share their talents with the community but ensuring they all have lots of fun through drama is the main focus.”

Megan, 25, who grew up in Dronfield remembers taking her first steps on stage when she was two years old.

Now living in Sheffield, she has been involved with the running of performing arts activity clubs since 2008. Megan wrote and directed At This Stage, which debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019, before going on tour. She also wrote Love You & Leave You (Dead) which was performed at the New Wimbledon Theatre Studio in London in 2022. Megan’s first full length pantomime, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, was performed at The Sheffield College in 2021.

Miniver Academy runs classes for young people from 7 to 18 years at the Peel Centre, Dronfield, on Tuesday nights. First week is free, followed by £5 per session. For further details, email: [email protected]

To book tickets for Away With The Fairies, which starts at 6.30pm, go to www.minivertheatre.com