Hairspray “best KAA show to date”

by Vashti Turner  on July 22, 2019  in  Creativity Dance Drama Enrichment Music Performance and Creative Arts

This year’s summer production of Hairspray wowed audiences as the performing arts team put on the biggest and the best musical yet in KAA history.

Set in 1960s Baltimore (and with accompanying accents from the full cast), Hairspray follows teenager Tracy (played by Irene, 7 Gupta), whose dream is to dance on The Corny Collins Show. Her parents (Navid – 9 Hamilton and Finn – 7 Stoppard), with fantastic comic delivery, warn her against disappointment and tell her not to dream so big. Tracey doesn’t listen, and accompanied by her best friend Penny (Amira – 9 Murray), auditions for the show, falls in love with teenage heart throb Link Larkin (Gabriel – 7 Pinter) and is taught to dance by the ultra stylish Seaweed (Yonis – 8 Jones). When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight. But Tracey is shocked by the prejudice and racism shown by the show’s producer Velma Von Tussle (Olivia / Adea 10 Baker) and joins forces with Motormouth Maybelle (Eliana, 8 Yousafzai) and her friends to use The Corny Collins Show to campaign for social change.

Students from Year 7 to 12 spent the spring and summer term rehearsing for the show during enrichment across music, drama and dance disciplines. On Tuesday 9th and Wednesday 10th July the cast performed two matinee performances for students from Oxford Gardens, Avondale and Colville primary schools, followed by two evening shows for a full audience of students, staff and parents.

Our thanks to the director Miss Miller and the whole performing arts team, our talented student technicians Musa (10 Lennon) and Noah (10 Baker) for running the lighting and sound for all four shows, and the entire cast for their dedication and enthusiasm in creating our best summer production yet.