海角直播

The world鈥檚 a stage for Stephen

The bright lights of London鈥檚 West End beckon for University of 海角直播 BA (Hons) English Studies graduate Stephen Uppal.

For Stephen, 23, from Middlesbrough, has beaten off strong competition to gain a place on a three-year course at the prestigious Arts Educational Institute in Chiswick, London. The Diploma in Musical Theatre course started in September, and combines theatre acting, dance and singing. Stephen will spend his final year performing on stage in London鈥檚 theatre land. He is following in the prestigious footsteps of Pop Idol winner Will Young, one of the Institute鈥檚 former students. The course audition was a strenuous experience, with hopefuls competing for 40 places, allocated to 20 boys and 20 girls. There were 400 applications for the 40 places. Stephen鈥檚 audition process started at 12 noon and finished at 7pm. The audition started with ballet and jazz dancing, followed by two acting pieces, one from Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥楬amlet鈥� and the other from Willy Russell鈥檚 musical 鈥楤lood Brothers鈥�, in front of a former West End Director. For the singing section Stephen performed a piece from 鈥楳iss Saigon鈥� and Ronan Keating鈥檚 2000 chart-topper 鈥楲ife is a Roller Coaster鈥�. At the end of the day a panel of three interviewed Stephen.

Away from performing, Stephen has enjoyed his University course. He added: 鈥淭he degree gives me a back up to fall back on if I don鈥檛 work in the Arts, I might go into teaching or journalism. I鈥檝e really enjoyed studying Shakespeare, Romantic poets, Victorian Literature and a module on Second World War writing, where we looked at Agatha Christie and Graham Greene. The Lecturers are very enthusiastic and organised and the University鈥檚 Learning Resource Centre is really good, it鈥檚 been my second home. For now, I鈥檓 really looking forward to performing, something I absolutely love. My mother H.Kaur is very happy for me, she鈥檚 always been behind me 110 per cent.鈥�

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