Centre Stage is coming of age this year. 2017 brings our 18th birthday, and with it a whole new stage of development:

·      Firstly, we have solidified some exciting collaborations with important organisations within the Performing Arts industry in both Singapore and overseas.
·      Secondly, we are further developing our programme of visiting artists.
·      We are also now offering a broader range of exam-based classes in association with Trinity College London

All of this is in keeping with our aim to provide your children with the very best in Creative Arts education, whilst keeping you strongly linked with up to date and relevant industry standards. In order to achieve this, we need our students and parents to view us as a one-stop centre that provides all your Creative and Performing Arts needs. We have therefore streamlined some of our processes. We have done our best to ensure these changes cause minimum disruption to the lives of our parents and students. There’s a lot of information to digest in the following email so please make sure to take it all in.

First, let’s take a look at why you have already chosen Centre Stage?

1.     Great teachers – mostly from the UK or other cultures with rich Performing Arts pedigrees. They not only have a strong educational background but practical performance experience that ensures on-going links with theatre, film and TV industry professionals
2.     Tried and tested courses, developed over almost 20 years and with around 20,000 kids in Singapore
3.     All of our courses have been endorsed by Drama UK (in 2014) – the body charged with approving UK Drama Schools – making us the first Drama school outside of the UK to have this honour bestowed upon us
4.     We cater for of all types of children – not only those who wish to be performing, but also those who need Drama, Dance and Music in their lives to help them develop as human beings!
5.     We not only cater for all children, but all areas of the Creative and Performing Artsfrom early years Creative Play classes; all the way up to serious training for the stage.
6.     We offer amazing performance opportunities at all levels of experience, giving fair and well considered chances to all of our students, whether in our own Black Box theatre, or on the global stage.
7.     and perhaps most importantly, Centre Stage have a genuine love and interest in the development of your childrens’ lives.

Exciting Collaborations to come 

·      Our ongoing collaboration with Base Entertainment Asia allows fantastic performance opportunities for our students. November 2016 saw 100 of them take to the huge stage at Marina Bay Sands, MasterCard Theatres – to packed out audiences of over 2000, for an energetic and very well-received Christmas Pantomime.
·      We will continue to build on this success going forward; Base is committed to providing quality theatre for, and/or featuring children.
·      We are thrilled to announce, that 12 of the 18 children recently picked to play the Von Trapp family in the internationally touring production of a Sound of Music, are either current or past students of Centre Stage. [We also hasten to add that whilst we were involved in audition logistics, casting was decided upon by Children’s Director – Johnny Bowles – with absolutely no involvement or bias from us] A HUGE congratulations to those students – as well as ALL Centre Stage students who took part in the auditions. You should all be very proud of the professional way in which you handled yourselves.

·      We are now working in association with Tring Park School in the UK. Tring Park is one of a tiny handful of schools in the UK that stand at the forefront of specialist artistic education; allowing talented young people the opportunity to specialise in Dance, Drama, Musical Theatre or Commercial Music, all whilst gaining excellent academic qualifications too. Our newly forged connection with Tring allows us to leverage their expertise and longevity in the business. Tring Principal, Stefan Anderson along with their Head of Theatre Arts will be coming out to Singapore this October to give talks and run workshops for our students

·      In 2018 we are aiming to take students on a trip to Cape Town to work with Musical Theatre pros, Anton Luitingh and Duane Alexander

How does this actually affect you? 
In order to do all these exciting things, we need a stronger commitment from all our students. We are therefore updating our terms and conditions to include the following key points:

·      Once you sign up for a term, you are committed to that full term.
·      Our performance courses must be viewed as a year long commitment.
·      All these exciting new things cost money – so we are raising our fees a little bit. Don’t panic – not by very much, and some have actually gone down! See full fees.
·      You must respect our official withdrawal deadline. If you miss it, there will be no refund of your deposit, and you will be invoiced for the subsequent term.

In order to allow you to get the most of our centre without breaking the bank, we are also now offering some exciting new discounts and benefits:

Discounts & Benefits
·      Any On Stage (Musical Theatre OR Acting) Students taking up a new Dance class, will get 50% off their first terms fees for that class
·      Any Musical Theatre Junior Students taking up a new Dance class, will get 50% off their first terms fees for that class
·      Very soon we will be introducing a Trinity Bolt-on package: allowing you to stay for an hour after your On Stage or Creative Drama class to do Trinity Exam Based Classes, gaining an official qualification at a very reasonable price.

Make-up Classes
It has always been our policy not to offer make up classes – as it is simply not always logistically possible. However, this academic year we are introducing a brand new option to combat this; whereby if you miss more than 2 classes, you can attend a Creative Arts Workshop to make up for it. These workshops will take place as and when required. 

Serious Fun
We don’t strongly advocate the Creative and Performing Arts simply because it’s fun to play with your friends; but because they instil immensely valuable social, emotional and general life skills. We are educating our children today for a world that doesn’t yet exist, and the best way to do that is through Creativity. 

In committing to Centre Stage for all your Creative Arts endeavours, you allow us the time to truly mentor your children, and provide them with ongoing feedback and advice as to their next steps.

We really look forward to having you back all back for a very exciting year ahead!

Best Wishes,
Pete, Ali & the Centre Stage Team