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EXCLUSIVE FULL-DAY WORKSHOP WITH
KERRY ELLIS
WEST END ICON
Date: Saturday 14th August 2021
Time: 11am - 4pm (5 hour Workshop)
Doors open 10:45am
Location: The Arts Depot (Creation Space),
5 Nether St, London N12 0GA
Closest tube stations: Between West Finchley, Finchley Central and Woodside Park stations on the Northern Line (High Barnet branch).
How to get there: https://www.artsdepot.co.uk/getting-here
What to bring: Bottle of water & a pen or pencil. You will need to print & bring Lyric sheets or Sheet Music to the Workshop
How to book: Purchase your ticket at the bottom of the webpage
CLIPS FROM OUR FIRST WORKSHOP WITH KERRY in 2019
We were thrilled at our first opportunity to work with Kerry back in 2019. Kerry is the queen of the West End but is so down to earth as she shares all of her wealth of musical theatre experience. This is a snippet of Kerry working on 'At the End of the Day' from Les Miserables, in which she starred in, in the West End production. We explored character, how to approach the music, how to work as an ensemble as well as enjoying some inside information that she learned from her West End Directors.
Towards the end of the Workshop, Kerry performed a few numbers for us, almost like our own private concert! One of which is 'This is Me' from The Greatest Showman. As Kerry was so impressed with how worked with her throughout the day, she asked if we could be her backing singers as she sang.
It was an amazing experience & the perfect way to spend our weekend...
We are extremely excited to announce that we are working with the amazingly talented
West End icon Kerry Ellis
to run a unique full-day Workshop exclusively with West End Musical Choir,
set in The Arts Depot!
Kerry originated the role of Meat, in Queen’s We Will Rock You and was the first British Elphaba in the West End smash, Wicked, for which Kerry won the 2008 Whatsonstage.com Award for ‘Best Takeover in a Role’. She then immediately transferred to Broadway and played Elphaba at the Gershwin Theater for 6 months, where she won the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favourite Female Breakthrough Performance, before returning to London for 6 months in 2009.
Her many other leading role credits include Nancy in Oliver! at Drury lane, Eliza Doolittle My Fair Lady, Ellen in Miss Saigon, Fantine in Les Miserables & Grizabella in Cat’s at the London Palladium.
Kerry’s first major CD release was the amazing Wicked in Rock, a collaboration with long time friend and
Queen guitarist, Brian May. This led to her being signed to Universal as a solo recording artist and her debut album Anthems was released in 2010 on Decca Records.
We're thrilled to be working with her in our own exclusive full-day Workshop here in London!
Date: Saturday 14th August 2021
Time: 11am - 4pm
Venue:
The Arts Depot (Creation Space), 5 Nether St, London N12 0GA
*venue subject to change*
EXCLUSIVE TO WEMC / LIMITED PLACES
Format of the Workshop:
Vocal Technique for these genres of musical theatre
Storytelling and engagement
Performance style
Phrasing
Emotional intention and text working together
Tone
Working on two Vocal Scores
Kerry would like to work on two different types of songs with us.
One which is brand new to us and one which she's selected from our Choir repertoire.
Finished by a special intimate sing a long with Kerry and photo opportunity with Kerry on our red carpet.
Vocal Score 1 - 'Somebody to Love' from We Will Rock You the musical
Kerry originated the role of Meat in We Will Rock You the musical where she then began collaborating with now long time friend and Queen guitarist, Brian May. This led to her being signed to Universal as a solo recording artist and her debut album Anthems was released in 2010 on Decca Records.
We Will Rock You (often abbreviated as WWRY) is a jukebox musical based on the songs of British rock band Queen with a book by Ben Elton. The musical tells the story of a group of Bohemians who struggle to restore the free exchange of thought and fashion, and live music in a distant future where everyone dresses, thinks and acts the same. Musical instruments and composers are forbidden, and rock music is all but unknown.
WEMC will provide a Lyric Sheet & rough sheet music.
We will teach the selected material at this the Workshop.
Vocal Score 2 - 'From Now On' from The Greatest Showman
Kerry has selected 'From Now On' from our Choir repertoire to take to the next level for upcoming performances.
As it's in our Choir repertoire, we will provide sheet music, the lyric sheet and harmony tracks for you to become really familiar with ahead of this Workshop. It's really important to know this song before arriving for the day (feel free to be 'off book'), as it means Kerry can work in real depth with us!
As a leading lady of the West End, Kerry knows how important is it to not only sing to your best ability, but also PERFORM every song to it's fullest potential. In the world of musical theatre, acting & presenting a song is just as important as how it sounds to the audience!
What role do songs play in a musical?
Songs have a dramatic function that are an integral part of the storytelling: They help to develop character and/or move the action of the plot forward. In musicals, it is a general rule that characters break into song when the emotional stakes have become so high that ordinary speech fails them. Through their songs, the characters can reveal their innermost thoughts, fears, hopes & dreams, grapple with difficult decisions & come to important realisations about themselves. Musical theatre lyrics use many poetic devises, including rhythm, rhyme, repetition, figurative language, symbolism & metaphor.
Potentially Vocal Score 3 - 'Hello Dolly' from Hello Dolly
Kerry has selected 'From Now On' from our Choir repertoire to take to the next level for upcoming performances.
As it's in our Choir repertoire, we will provide sheet music, the lyric sheet and harmony tracks for you to become really familiar with ahead of this Workshop. It's really important to know this song before arriving for the day (feel free to be 'off book'), as it means Kerry can work in real depth with us!
As a leading lady of the West End, Kerry knows how important is it to not only sing to your best ability, but also PERFORM every song to it's fullest potential. In the world of musical theatre, acting & presenting a song is just as important as how it sounds to the audience!
ABOUT KERRY ELLIS
Kerry originated the role of Meat, in Queen’s We Will Rock You and was the first British Elphaba in the West End smash, Wicked, for which Kerry won the 2008 Whatsonstage.com Award for ‘Best Takeover in a Role’. She then immediately transferred to Broadway and played Elphaba at the Gershwin Theater for 6 months, where she won the Broadway.com Audience Award for Favourite Female Breakthrough Performance, before returning to London for 6 months in 2009.
Her many other leading role credits include Nancy in Oliver! at Drury lane, Eliza Doolittle My Fair Lady, Ellen in Miss Saigon, Fantine in Les Miserables & Grizabella in Cat’s in 2015 at the London Palladium.
Kerry’s first major CD release was the amazing Wicked in Rock, a collaboration with long time friend and Queen guitarist, Brian May. This led to her being signed to Universal as a solo recording artist and her debut album Anthems was released in 2010 on Decca Records.
The success of the album, which reached No.15 in the UK album chart, and No.10 in the UK pop club charts (for Defying Gravity), led to a major tour Anthems: The Concert throughout 2011, which kicked off at the Royal Albert Hall. She has performed internationally promoting the album, including performances at the Royal Variety Performance, at the Laurence Olivier Awards, duetting with Barry Manilow on BBC Television and Radio, at G.A.Y., on Loose Women, Alan Titchmarsh Show, BBC Breakfast, at the Henley Festival alongside John Barrowman, the Queen’s Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, continuing to a run of An Audience With Kerry Ellis at the Shaw Theatre.
Other performances include singing the National Anthem for the FA Cup match at Wembley Stadium/live on Sky Sports, a sold out tour of Champions of Rock in Sweden, and playing Svetlana to critical acclaim in Chess at the Royal Albert Hall opposite Idina Menzel and Josh Groban, which was released on DVD and CD and screened on US network television, Thank You For The Music the BBC Radio 2 ABBA concert in Hyde Park, Night of 1000 Voices, The Festival of Remembrance (both Royal Albert Hall) and she headlined the BBC Proms in the Park 2010.
She has recorded Somebody to Love which features on the new best selling Only Men Aloud album Band of Brothers, Come What May with Alfie Boe on his first album Bring Him Home and Wind Beneath My Wings with the Central Band of the RAF on their top ten album Reach for the Skies.
Workshops include Way Beyond Blue, written by Imogen Stubbs and directed by Trevor Nunn, was special guest star at the recent charity gala performance of Children of Eden at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
In 2012 Kerry joined forces with Brian May again and performed a new arrangement of ‘I Who Have Nothing’ at the Sanremo Festival in Italy, which was screened, live across Europe, The pair recently recorded a new version of the well known song ‘Born Free’ and shot a documentary in South Africa to accompany the track highlighting the charity work of the Born Free foundation.
Kerry headlined at the 2012 ‘Night of a 1000 voices’ and performed & recorded her own Friday Night is Music special for BBC Radio 2, she has also performed a one woman show for a weeks residency at the new Hippodrome venue in Leicester Square.
Also Kerry has been involved in the Les Miserables feature film alongside headlining various festivals across the country. At the end of 2012 she starred in the Arena tour of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds alongside
Jason Donavan & Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs.
Brain and Kerry embarked on their second leg of the Born Free Tour round the UK & Europe during the summer of 2013 accompanied with the release of their single “The Kissing me song” which Kerry co-wrote
plus a live album recording of Born Free.
Kerry went on tour for two weeks with the 20th Anniversary Tour of Rent playing the role of Mimi as well as also performing her own show at the London Palladium in May, which was a huge success.
Kerry has completed her second album which is a collection of musical theatre tracks and some more contemporary ones to tie in with her first headline UK tour. This has been in association with Pledge music allowing loyal her fans to be part of the process. Despite being busy completing her album Kerry was thrilled to be asked to return to the Apollo Theatre to reprise her role of Elphaba in Wicked for a limited run.
Kerry’s dream of performing her first solo concert at the London Palladium materialised in May 2013. The concert was such a huge success that it sparked a desire for her to reach out to all her fans by taking it up and down the country. Kerry did thirteen dates across the UK finishing at The Cadogan Hall. The concert celebrated her theatre career to date, singing songs from all the roles she has created and played.
Kerry took over from Nicole Scherzinger as the role of Grizabella in Cat’s in 2015 at the London Palladium.
In June last year continuing her long term working relationship with Brian May she performed to a 12,000 seat Arena in Verona which was televised across Italy.
After many more concerts Kerry started her own radio show on “Encore Radio’ which is now a big success & loved by people everywhere.
Kerry & Brian completed an extended tour of Italy and Eastern Europe called “one Voice’ and went on to record and release a new album with Sony records called ‘Golden Days’
More shows, Murder Ballard at the Arts theatre London and touring with the show Wonderland, and Kerry has just completed her first role in a straight play ‘The Importance of being Earnest” playing Gwendolen Fairfax.
20th anniversary solo tour with a new band & new music from Brian & also new friend Frank Wildhorn & working on new music for next album.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
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