Devizes Music Academy – devizine.com

So, I find myself chatting with Jemma Brown, who, if you live in Devizes but don’t know, you don’t get out much! With husband Anthony, they’re the brainchild of drama group The Invitation Theatre Company, and FullTone, our homegrown orchestra which has thrilled audiences from Marlborough College to Bath Abbey and beyond, yet annually return to town to stage the most breathtaking FullTone Festival….but there’s a new style of show heading our way this Saturday 6th April…..

Jemma has brought together a phenomenal team under the Devizes Music Academy banner, a school of performing arts she has run for the past two years, and their phenomenal cast of young people, to bring an historical masterpiece to the stage in the centre of Devizes this weekend. Six:Teen Edition is a full-length adaptation of Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’ Six, modified for performance by teen actors for family audiences.

Six was created and written by Marlow and Moss. What began as a one-off student production staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017 has gone on to be staged professionally, and is currently seen on stages in London’s West End, on Broadway and on tours across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, North America, and now…..(insert drum roll here) ….Devizes!!!

Twenty local 13-19 year olds will be smashing their way through the stories of the lives of Katherine of Aragon (Ruby Phipps), Anne Boleyn (Amelie Smith), Jane Seymour (Jess Self), Anne of Cleves (Kelsey Husband), Catherine Howard (Mia Jepson) and Kateryn (that’s how you spell it!) Parr (Lisa Grime), with 14 Ladies in Waiting in support – and promises to be quite something.

Think our young people can’t pull off a show of this magnitude? Think again! Jemma said “we’ve spent the week absolutely drilling this show in full scale all day rehearsals – the voices of the six queens are off the scale and the entire attitude towards the production from all the performers has blown us away. We have full on tech from the best team (Patch Productions) coming in and quite literally are bringing the West End to the West Country! The music, the story telling, the dancing, the total and pure emotion of the songs, both in hilarity and devastation, rivals adult productions – fact. I can’t quite believe we’re doing it and that the young performers themselves have pulled off such a fantastic end result. It’s very very exciting!”

It’s on at Devizes Corn Exchange for one day only – Saturday 6th April, but there’s two showtimes, 2:30pm and 7:30pm. The strapline asks, would “Henry VIII approve of this show?! When you see SIX, we’re pretty sure you’ll all be in agreement….who cares?!” Devzine wishes Jemma and all the youths performing, we know a few from previous performances, all the very best with this amazing sounding show, and I’m certain, no one will need their heads chopped off!

We fully agree with Jemma when she expressed, “supporting young talent is so important, because encouraging kids to put themselves out there is a fantastic thing and…..you might be surprised just how much you enjoy this gem of a show!”

Tickets are from Devizes Books priced £15/£20; or online HERE.