Footloose

Congratulations to the cast, crew and band of Footloose for their triumphant run at Northern Stage over the weekend. There were many excellent performances from pupils of both NSB and Westfield School. 
 
Jack and Vihaan (Year 7) showed much courage taking on principal roles in this, their first school musical. It was also the first time Christian (Year 8) has ever been in a musical, and to make his theatrical debut in the leading role was a huge undertaking. Christian showed much resilience in learning his lines, songs and dance routines over the three-month rehearsal period, and gave a brilliant performance as Ren.

Oliver (Year 9) gave a great comic performance as local redneck, Willard. Oliver was a bit nervous about doing the show initially but his friends in Year 9 pulled around him and committed to doing it too, showing a great sense of empathy and community spirit which they should all be proud of. For many of them it was out of their comfort zone and something completely new.

In fact, Year 9 really stepped up to the challenge with Harrison, Harry, William, Hugo, Nicolas and Tianyi in the chorus, as well as Harrison as the bad guy, Chuck, Sam in the role of Coach, and David as the quirky, Cowboy Bob. It was wonderful to see the progress Tim (Year 11) has made since his previous role in Addams Family (2023), giving a wonderful performance as Rev. Shaw.

It wasn’t just on stage where we saw some amazing performances, Ryan (Year 13) took on the huge challenge of playing drums in the band and Daniel (Year 11) kept everyone right backstage as part of the crew. Thomas (Year 9) was up in the tech gallery on sound, learning the ropes from the professionals at Northern Stage. 
 
It was, as ever, a pleasure to work with teachers and pupils from Westfield School, and to perform at Northern Stage, giving all pupils an incredible opportunity to perform in a professional theatre with a dedicated team supporting the production. Thank you to all who came along to enjoy the show and support the pupils involved.