carlie powell
6 March, 2025
Schools

South Tyneside students smashing musical theatre barriers

Extended Diploma students Emily Angus, Holly Dawson, Michael Pedley, Amelia Smith Madison Berry and Carlie Powell, enrolled at South Tyneside College on the Performing Arts Course, have raised revenue to create and put on a musical Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief. 

Tickets for Camp Half Blood can be obtained from South Tyneside College please show some support for community collage and have an evening full of mythical magic.

The musical is an inclusive social enterprise event. Low cost tickets enable the community of low income families to attend and experience the magic of live musical theatre.

We are also offering free tickets to secondary school and SEND learners so they may come see what can be achieved with the hope they too may enrol after leaving school to find their own creative talents to help shape and grow them independently.

After reaching out to local  businesses they kindly donated prizes and we did a raffle we raise £230 big thank you to Williams Carpet Clean, Sumptuous beauty, The Criterion, Dicksons, Barbour, Enchanted Delights, Paula’s Creations and JB Hair.

Students at Affinity Media produced an advert that is now live on the air
Students at Affinity Media produced an advert that is now live on the air Credit: Carlie powell
Performing Art student Carlie Powell head of Networking Funding and Marketing
Performing Art student Carlie Powell head of Networking Funding and Marketing Credit: Miss Powell
Extended diploma students teaching all level 3 and 1 on blocking for the upcoming musical
Extended diploma students teaching all level 3 and 1 on blocking for the upcoming musical Credit: Miss Powell

Our 1 community donated £1000 and we had go in front of a board and do a presentation for key project and this generated £300.

All of level threes held a show at the criterion in October, so we raised money from tickets sales as well as ticket sales from our December pantomime where all levels performed at Jarrow Focus.

Kyle Scott chief executive at Affinity Media invited Extended Diploma students time in the studio to produce an advert that they kindly contributed to promote our musical this advert went live on Affinity Radio please listen out.

We have successfully bought the rights to musical from Concord theatricals and are awaiting this to be processed so we can start rehearsals.

“Community collage has been life changing for myself I’m a the oldest on this course yet it has been such an incredible journey these past two years," says Carlie Powell.

"Performing arts is so much more than singing acting and dancing it has unlocked many talents creatively my personal journey has been well much more than I could have ever imagined.” 

It be lovely to reach others to show them what our wonderful college has to offer and the support and the links to further projects and career opportunities.

We are so excited to showcase Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief. This will be performed at Jarrow Focus, Cambrian St, Jarrow NE32 3QN on June 11. Tickets can be purchased at South Tyneside Collage St George's Ave, South Shields NE34 6ET or call 0191 427 3500 for more information.

All extended Dip students have worked extremely hard and overcome many barriers to pull together to get this musical and are super excited to share with our community the talents behind the scenes.