Perins creative arts festival showcases singing, dancing and more

Taking place on the evening of Thursday, April 20, the festival featured a range of performances from pupils across multiple year groups. The performances varied from covers of songs to short scenes from plays to original skits and dances to even a performance of karate kata.

Children from nearby Sun Hill Junior School also made a guest appearance during the night, performing songs from the musical Annie in tribute to TV presenter Paul O’Grady.

The performances were judged by a panel featuring several Perins alumni, who voted for their favourite performers, with prizes going to the best key stage 3 and key stage 4 performers, as well as the best overall performer and audience favourite.

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Head of creative arts Marilitsa Alexiou told the Chronicle that she was very proud of how the evening went: “The Perins students never fail to deliver, they understand the level of expectations – we set the bar really high, and they always smash the ceiling every single time.

“So, that’s what makes them really special, they’re just so talented. But it gets to a point where I think this evening goes to show, yes there are a few showcase pieces, but actually this is all their own work, not led by us. We give them all the tools and rehearsals and then they can go off, and it’s wonderful to see what they can do.”

The evening was then capped off with performances of songs from Perins’ upcoming musical production of Little Shop of Horrors, which will be playing at the school from July 12 to July 15. This included an exclusive premiere of a video trailer for the show, filmed both on the school grounds and at Long Barn café.

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Perins pupil Rory Scotts, who is playing the role of Seymour in the production, said: “Perins productions are amazing, I’ve been in one before – I was in Hunchback of Notre Dame which was last year’s production – and obviously I couldn’t wait to do another one.”

Miss Alexiou said: “With Perins productions they’ve grown each year and many students choose to come to Perins because they realise how much we value the creative arts and because we try to give them the best experience possible.”

She continued: “The promo films are as big as the production themselves, a lot of work goes into putting those together and I think the children just absolutely love it. We would love some more sponsors on board – we don’t make any profit on this production, we don’t start with a budget we start at zero and just the ticket sales fund and give access to the children to this little slice of the West End.”