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I saw Miss Saigon at The Hammond, ( more than once as my son was in it!). There were plenty of BA students in lead roles, as well as BTEC drama students and diploma students. They were all fantastic!

Here is a review.Hope it is helpful!

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/ ... r_facebook

GillyM wrote:I saw Miss Saigon at The Hammond, ( more than once as my son was in it!). There were plenty of BA students in lead roles, as well as BTEC drama students and diploma students. They were all fantastic!

Here is a review.Hope it is helpful!

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/ ... r_facebook

Hi GillyM
Is your son on the BA musical theatre performance course? X

The BA course at The Hammond is only in its 2nd year so obviously they do not yet offer a graduate showcase for the BA students since they do not yet have anyone in the graduate year. Talking to a mum of a first year diploma student the other day, however, it would seem that it will happen next year for the first graduate year of the BA course. The uncertainty at the moment appears to be whether it is joint with the diploma students or a separate event. I believe a lot depends on numbers as they like to promote all students and the first year student was told they are considering which will be the best option. In any case I doubt it will be only one showcase performance as the graduates perform in Chester as well as in London (and often Manchester too) and agents tend to attend whichever is most convenient for them.

He is a BTEC student x

jasmine2 wrote: Have you looked at EDA in Hitchin?

It is a fabulous place and the majority of their students get offers at the top colleges/unis

Good luck

I had never heard of it but have since looked up online and wow it does look impressive!! I see they are also starting to offer 3 year courses.

martint wrote:Does anyone have a DC starting at Laine in September! My daughter starts then and looking at accommodation, wondering if anyone wished to share?

My dd has her funding audition next week for Laine , depends on the outcome of that as could not self fund unfortunately !
Congrats on your dd must be lovely knowing where she is going so early on in the year , I think we are going to be one of the late ones as my dd's top choice is bird and she is only on the reserve list for that !

Re the thread about showcases and agents. Apologies if this increases the pressure and worry a little but my take on this is that you cannot underestimate the importance of having an agent. If you look in The Stage you'll find very few open call auditions other than for cruise lines, Disneyland and holiday camps. These are great jobs but the numbers attending will be very large. Many many auditions for roles these days are agent sourced only and not open call. Good colleges are training students how to audition for roles and for agents. You don't just do one showcase and if an agent sees it and likes you then you're sorted. They will audition you privately and interview you. One showcase is not enough. Students needs to be rehearsing agent auditions and be exposed to them in Q&A sessions throughout their training.

2dancersmum wrote:The BA course at The Hammond is only in its 2nd year so obviously they do not yet offer a graduate showcase for the BA students since they do not yet have anyone in the graduate year. Talking to a mum of a first year diploma student the other day, however, it would seem that it will happen next year for the first graduate year of the BA course. The uncertainty at the moment appears to be whether it is joint with the diploma students or a separate event. I believe a lot depends on numbers as they like to promote all students and the first year student was told they are considering which will be the best option. In any case I doubt it will be only one showcase performance as the graduates perform in Chester as well as in London (and often Manchester too) and agents tend to attend whichever is most convenient for them.

Thanks for your reply if that's true it would certainly put my mind at rest. It also does make sense as the course is only in its second year and I thought they must do showcases being such a prestigious school. My dd did say at the audition that she thinks they did mention that they invite agents in in the final year but because she only thought I had to make sure! I just have the accomodation to sort out next and we could also do with going to an open day as she auditioned late on in the year so we didn't get chance to go to any open days which is quite sad we prob could have found out more information then x

Hi Everyone - thanks so much for all the interesting replies regarding whether Hammond is likely to offer a final year showcase for the BA students. Of course I had forgotten that as it is only about to go into its third year this September no-one has actually arrived at that point as yet. Once they do hopefully it will be publicised on their website as they do with the diploma student's showcase to put everyone's mind at rest. I couldn't agree more with the reply that without an agent it is very difficult to break into many of the closed auditions.

Well done to everyone involved in Miss Saigon and thank you for attaching the review which sounds very positive. Everyone says it was really amazing.

Just looking into finance now. I am a little confused as to whether it is possible to apply for a DaDA for the BA course at Hammond - I've combed the website but can't find anything absolutely referring to just that course. Am I correct in thinking that if a person is given a DaDA they cannot then apply for a student loan?? Does this mean that for low income families a DaDA might actually NOT be the best option as it might only cover 50% of the total fees and the other 50% can't be borrowed?? confused.com! I've probably left it too late now anyway.

Grateful for all your wonderful replies as usual!

DADA's are only available for diploma students and not everyone will receive one. It is means tested and if you earn over £90,0000 per annum you do not qualify. If you are on a low income under £30,00 per annum all the fees are covered and you will also receive maintenance. The BA students can access student finance which is not available to the diploma students. Hope this helps.

Hi fatladysings

You will need to apply for student finance for the BA course at the Hammond, it is made up of the student loan and student maintenance. the loan part covers the fees for the course (all should be covered) and the maintenance is for living expenses which is means tested, I think depending on what you earn you can get up to around £8400 per year. The DADA's are only for the Level 6 Diploma course.

Hi - thanks for your rapid replies. I now understand! The DaDAs are only potentially on offer for the diploma students at Hammond and not for the BA students. We'd better get cracking with the student loan form ASAP - just wanted to make sure we weren't missing out on anything!

fatladysings wrote:Hi - thanks for your rapid replies. I now understand! The DaDAs are only potentially on offer for the diploma students at Hammond and not for the BA students. We'd better get cracking with the student loan form ASAP - just wanted to make sure we weren't missing out on anything!

It takes around 30 mins to complete on line and send off. My daughter heard back within 4 days, she signed the paperwork and now just awaits for September.

I've been on holiday and am aware I have a couple of private messages to respond to but only got back last night.

The information about Dada's is correct. Dada awards are only available to students at any college who are studying for the Level 6 Trinity Diploma wheras Student Finance is only available for students on degree programmes.

I spoke to a member of staff whilst attending the Miss Saigon performance and pointed out that previously a few people had been put off by the 19 hours advertised on the website. This will be passed on but it was confirmed that the hours pretty much amount to 4 full days with the remaining time for private study/practice.

Miss Saigon was excellent. I'm afraid that I wasn't able to differentiate between diploma and degree students. On the day I watched I believe Gigi was a degree, Kim & The Engineer were a Btecs and I'm not sure about Chris & John, one of the John's was a degree student. The ensemble were excellent, I think most of the dancers in American Dream were diploma students as I recognised a few faces from having previously been in Lower School but I really couldn't tell you about the bar girls/GI's.

I saw an agent tweet on Social Media that he had enjoyed the performance.

Hi
Does anyone on here know what the GSA recall audition consists of? As my daughter needs to know for a business studies assignment for her BTEC.
Any answers gratefully received! She has been trawling the internet for hours!