The drama students from Kidbrooke School are currently appearing at the Greenwich Theatre in Hotel World written by booker prize nominee Ali Smith. But they're also set to take the play to the Edinburgh Festival. Hotel World explores the death of a hotel chambermaid and its effect on everyone from the girl's family to the homeless woman outside the hotel doors. It's certainly not just any old school play.
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Director and drama teacher Lucy Cuthbertson says her mission is to get the arts and theatre world to take youth theatre more seriously. “The school play has a bad reputation but good professional theatre need not just been done by adults," she told BBC London. Cast member Holly Cook agrees: "We've all worked really hard to get this done. It's something I never thought I could do just being in school- it's amazing." Kidbrooke School is a specialist arts college and the drama group first came under the radar of Ali Smith when it won a National Theatre competition performing her play “Just”.
So impressed with what they did with it she talked to the school and Lucy Cuthbertson about further collaboration. In publicity for the play, writer Ali Smith simply says: “Kidbrooke Drama Department is my premiering company of choice.
"I've never seen anything they've done that’s been short of brilliant" Hotel World is running at the Greenwich Theatre till Saturday 31st March. It will also be at the Brighton Festival and the Edinburgh Festival during the summer. The full cast is; Amy Russell, Jacob Beswick, Leoni Sheridan, Elena Brookes-Shorland, Emma Cunningham, Holly Cook and Pebbles Brown.
Click on the video icon to watch highlights of the performance and interviews with the cast.
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