It was fantastic to receive such lovely feedback from Mel Houldershaw, founder of DIY Theatre Company, following a recent showcase at the Amey Theatre.
DIY Theatre Co’s performance of West Side Story, which ran at the Amey Theatre on 22 and 23 August, was nothing if not ambitious. This is always a challenging musical to stage, known so well by so many and involving such demanding music and dance. But DIY Theatre Co, a local youth group based in Sunningwell and Oxford, raised the level of difficulty to astronomical proportions by involving people from three of Oxford’s twin cities: musicians from Leiden in the Netherlands, dancers and choreographers from Grenoble in France, and actors from Bonn in Germany. Advance rehearsals had to take place over Zoom or via shared recordings, and much depended on the intense week of preparation leading up to the performances, when all were finally present.
All of these elements – together with similarly ambitious set design, lighting and sound – combined to produce performances that met, and even surpassed, expectations. One audience member, an Abingdon resident unconnected with the production who has attended the Amey Theatre regularly for many years, expressed the opinion that this was the best show she had ever seen there, bar none.
Mel Houldershaw (founder of DIY Theatre Company) says:
“One of the things I enjoy most in life is bringing people of all ages together to create magical theatrical concerts and productions. I particularly love being able to create these amazing projects at the Amey Theatre, which is such a wonderful space to be in. Among my favourite places in the world are the wings of the Amey Theatre stage – I get goose bumps every time I’m there!
When I asked Ryan (Phipps) and Danny (Owen) to create a set design for this production that would include a 36-piece band on stage, I never imagined how they might achieve it. When I first stepped onto the stage last Thursday I couldn’t believe how gorgeous the set was, with the orchestra literally inside the action.
The memories that are generated in a project like this last a lifetime, and the friendships that are made greatly enrich our lives!”
