Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching my daughters in the Wizard of Oz at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield. Before I tell you how wonderful it was, & I will be, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Killamarsh Dreams.
Killamarsh Dreams is a community drama group that originally started in 2000 by the now head Libby Bateman. Libby restarted the group in 2015 & along with a growing team of volunteers, all of whom are amazing, the group has grown too.
My daughter was 8 years old when she first attended, as we’d been asked by her teacher if we could encourage her to attend groups outside of school. She cried. She didn’t want to go… fast forward to now, not only appearing as the Head of the Munchkins along with her sister & all her new friends, but she auditioned for a role in her Y6 school leavers play & landed the the role of Jasmin in Aladdin. Both of my daughters love every single week. Their confidence has grown no end & I really believe that even if a child is never to follow through with a career in literature or drama, it teaches them so much more regarding confidence, speaking in public, presenting, the list goes on. It’s not just a family production, but with a team of 8 volunteers & Libby’s parents, the original founders, they work hard each week to educate & teach mine & so many other children. It even got me out of my comfort zone & promising my blog audience I’d be there. I even did a little video, here it is!
Now back to the review, the Wizard of Oz, because it really was wonderful. Each & every character firstly looked incredible! The costumes were amazing, and with over 240 its unbelievable to believe that Libby’s mum, Kerry, designed & made each one. My daughters had 4 or 5 costume changes each & the detail in each one was incredible.
The difference in seeing our children on a theatre stage was amazing, they had their mic packs when needed & spoke so clearly & characteristically. I couldn’t fault a single one of them. They were each little superstars from the young dancer starting with rainbow ribbons aged 5+ to the main stars in the leading roles. I have to pick out a few shining moments for me, Raff, played by Archie Hill, was an absolute legend, at just 8 years old he clearly has funny bones & had the audience in the palm of his hand through the whole performance.
Also the wicked witch played by Eden Lunn was incredible, ending her performance with the most incredible solo of Rain on my Parade & held the whole theatre in silence. Dorothy & the whole gang were great too, the work going on behind the scenes must have been exhausting & the finale lived up to expectations with everyone singing & dancing on stage. It was funny, clever, genuinely witty with local & current jokes thrown in throughout the script. The children were confident & spoke clearly & loud enough. What an amazing achievement for each helper & each child.
If you think you’re child might be interested you can find them on Facebook.
email: killamarsh.dreams@outlook.com
contact: Libby – 07853110117
Its for ages 6+ and its £4 per week for 2 hours of fun, I simply cant recommend it more. It’s not just a community that engages its children & gives everyone a fantastic time, but genuinely an excellent drama school in its own right & when prices are looked at, I don’t really see how anything else can compare. Thank you to you all for what my children love to do each week!
Children are our future & this is yet another example of giving them a chance to express themselves, make additional friends & build up confidence & resilience. It’s something I fully support in the raising our young people today to improve their mental wellbeing too.
sarahsthinkingagain 