Author Archive KYDS

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Running a charity like ours is more expensive than you might imagine.  As well as the essential costs associated with running our activities, we also have to pay for less direct, but still important, things such as insurance and website hosting. We’re delighted that Kualo has kindly helped us out with the latter, by providing us with Free Web Hosting by Kualo.

A huge thank you to Kualo for generously supporting our work.

On Sunday 13th May, KYDS attended the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) East Region Awards Ceremony in St. Ives, Cambridge. We were delighted to come home with a total of FOUR awards!
Our 2017 Pantomime, Sleeping Beauty, was recognised with not one but two awards: Best Pantomime and Best Production overall in District 8 in the East Region. Even our programmes were recognised, with our Sleeping Beauty programme receiving the award for Best Standard Programme in the East Region.

Christine Davidson from NODA who presented the award said:

“When we saw this Society’s show we came out saying ‘wow’. They’re a very talented group, they make all of their own sets and costumes, and they’ve done so much for the youngsters in the community. Their show was superb!”

KYDS volunteers spent over 550 hours in total working on this production. Without their skills and commitment (on everything from choreography and set building & painting to chaperoning and front of house) this show simply wouldn’t have been able to happen.

KYDS Trustee James Stocker who directed Sleeping Beauty said:

“A huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes to produce our shows and I’d like to thank all of our amazing volunteers for their hard work. I really enjoyed working with our youth members on Sleeping Beauty – they continue to amaze us with their talent and dedication and really show the community what young people can achieve. Congratulations to all of you.” 

KYDS youth member Ben Collins was also recognised as Best Youth Performer for his excellent performance as Joseph in our Summer Musical last year. Ben is currently a student at Thurstable Sixth Form in Tiptree and first started acting when he joined KYDS in 2013. Congratulations Ben!

KYDS is delighted to have been awarded £2,500 for the Essex County Council Chairman’s Fund, along with an award recognising its valuable work with young people.

James Stocker, KYDS Chairman, and Alexandra Berriman, KYDS Artistic Director, attended an awards ceremony on Tuesday 17th April 2018 at Chelmsford City Racecourse to receive the award.

The ceremony was a fantastic opportunity for KYDS to meet local dignitaries, including the Chairman of Essex County Council and the Mayor of Colchester and to discuss the important work that KYDS is doing in the local community.

A number of other local organisations also attended to receive awards.

James said:

“We are delighted to have received this award from the Chairman’s Fund. This funding will help us continue our valuable work with young people which helps them to develop a range of skills including confidence, communication and teamwork.”

The funds will be put towards meeting the costs of KYDS’s next production, Oliver!

Alexandra and James receive the award from the Chairman of Essex County Council

As has become tradition, following our recent successful production of Sleeping Beauty, we held an after-show party to celebrate. Unfortunately due to the snow our December date was rescheduled to 7th January 2018.

The afternoon was great fun and also saw two members, Lola and Eva being presented with awards for their hard work throughgout the production.

Lola Emson – President’s Highest Achiever Award

During each KYDS production, our President Ray watches for the person who he considers to have achieved the highest standard of progress during the rehearsal run. Following Sleeping Beauty, Ray chose Lola. Lola was a key member of the ensemble for this show, taking on the role of a senior courtier. Throughout the rehearsal run Lola gave 100% and it was clearly noticeable that she took the role seriously on stage. Well done Lola! 

Eva Guerra – Robert Greed Award for Commitment

Congratulations to Eva who was presented with the Robert Greed Award for Commitment at our recent after-show party.

Robert Greed was a committed KYDS volunteer who spent many hours creating and building props for KYDS shows. Sadly, Robert passed away in 2016 and in his memory, the Greed Family decided to create the Robert Greed Award which is presented after each show to recognise the member who has shown the most commitment and dedication throughout the show.

Well done Eva for showing fantastic commitment to this show and congratulations on your award!

President of KYDS, Ray Banks, has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the community in Tiptree in the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours List. 

A BEM recognises ‘hands-on’ service to the local community. This could be a long-term charitable or voluntary activity, or innovative work of a relatively short duration (3 to 4 years) that has made a significant difference.

Ray has been actively involved in the Tiptree community for 30 years, after moving to Tiptree in 1987. He has been Church Warden and currently serves as Verger at St. Luke’s Church in Tiptree and until recently was involved in Heartwatch (Tiptree First Responders’ Group). Ray has also been involved in a whole host of other community events and activities, such as raising money for  Friends of Tiptree Heath.

Prior to its closure, Ray was an active member of Tiptree Amateur Dramatic Society (TADS), performing in many productions and serving as Chairman.

When KYDS was founded in 2009, Ray was asked to become President. Since then, Ray has championed youth theatre in the community, actively promoting the society and contributing to our activities.

Ray also introduced his own award to KYDS, ‘The President’s Highest Achiever Award’ which he awards to young people in the group twice a year to recognise members that have overcome challenges or demonstrated exceptional personal development. Ray continues to mentor, encourage, recognise and inspire young people as President.

We are absolutely delighted that Ray has been recognised with this honour. It is a huge achievement which deservedly recognises a huge contribution by Ray to the people of Tiptree.

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• East Anglian Daily Times Article
• Maldon and Burnham Standard Article

Photo: Sarah Lucy Brown (for East Anglian Daily Times)

Congratulations to Charlie Warner, who was recognised as an outstanding achiever with a Jack Petchey award in November.

The award was presented to Charlie between the shows of our recent pantomime, Sleeping Beauty. Following an open nomination process Charlie, who played Harry the Jester, was chosen by his fellow youth members as the deserving winner.

The award was presented to Charlie by Matthew and Ellie, who were previous winners of the award in July.

KYDS has been running the Jack Petchey awards since November 2015. It is a fantastic opporunity for youth members to recognise others who they consider to be role models.

Congratulations Charlie on your award! 

Some of the nominations received by youth members are shown below:

• He is so entertaining and always puts a smile on everyone’s faces.
• He always puts in 100% in every rehearsal and show, he is never in a bad mood and is easily able to bring people’s spirits up.
• He always has a smile on his face and puts 100% effort into everything! He’s always happy to help or give advice if asked!
• He always brings a smile to KYDS and is such a great performer.
• I think Charlie should win because he puts in so much effort into rehearsals. He’s a very hard working member and he always gives his all in his performance.
• Because he always is trying to improve and it makes being on stage with him easy in the way that he lightens the mood.

KYDS is hugely grateful to Tesco customers who voted for our project “Helping Our Young People Perform” during the vote between Saturday 1st July and Thursday 31st August in Tesco stores in Tiptree and Mersea.

We are delighted to have come 1st place in the competion, meaning that KYDS will now receive a grant of £4,000 from Tesco!

This funding will help KYDS to meet the rising costs of continuing its work, such as hiring venues to rehearse and perform, as well as a host of other running costs.

Without the generous support of the community and organisations like Tesco, KYDS would not be the successful charity it is today. The support we have received from the local community is inspiring and we are extremely grateful for it. 

Congratulations to Ben Collins who won the North Essex Theatre Guild’s Best Young Actor award at their recent awards ceremony on the 8th September.

Ben was nominated for the award following his performance as Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Ben was complimented on a very confidential portrayal with good body language and singing voice. Well done Ben!

KYDS was also delighted to 6 other nominations including Best Musical for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Best Young Actor for Charlie Warner and Best Young Actress for Ellie Russell. You can see the full list on our Awards page.

Twice a year, KYDS awards Jack Petchey Achievement Awards to deserving youth members. The awards are completely member led, chosen in an open nomination process by our youth members. Youth members nominate someone who they believe has demonstrated outstanding achievement. This could be someone that is a good role model, has overcome a personal challenge or helps others.

Following our recent production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, we awarded two Jack Petchey Achievement Awards, one to Ellie Macey and one to Matthew Greed. Ellie and Matthew both received certificates and will be invited to the Jack Petchey Awards Ceremony at the beginning of 2018. Ellie and Matthew also have a £250 allocation each to spend on something that will benefit all of the members at KYDS.

Congratulations Ellie and Matthew on your fantastic achievements, which you should be very proud of! Some of the nominations received are shown below:

Ellie Macey

• I think that Ellie should win a Jack Petchey award because of how much she helps people when they join and also she contributes really good ideas to the group.
• She always helps people with dance routines.
• She is always memorising the dances and helping people who are struggling.
• Because she tries very hard in everything that she does and will go out of her way to help anyone to learn anything they might have missed.
• Because she has really helped me learn dance routines.
• Always puts lots of effort into rehearsals and a real role model for the younger kids when helping them to dance.

Matthew Greed

• Matthew has been very committed to KYDS over the years and he is always very enthusiastic so I think that he really deserves this award.
• For always helping out on choreography and with lines.
• I have nominated this person because he takes everything on – no matter what it is – and then puts as much effort in as possible. He doesn’t care if something he does pushes him back as long as others can achieve something instead.
• Always put a lot of effort into rehearsals and is always happy and helps others!
• He has been very supportive to the younger and less experienced members.
• Because he is full of excitement for every show. He always give his best no matter what and can deal with almost any situation in a calm and collective manner.

Our 3 Jack Petchey Achievement Awards winners and Leader Award winner all attended the Jack Petchey Celebration Event on Monday 27th March 2017 at the Mercury Theatre.

The evening celebrated the achievements of young people from various organisations in the Colchester area. Outstanding leaders in those organisations were also recognsied.

Our own Achivement Award winners, Millie Sheldrick, Ellie Russell and Olly Smith, were each presented with a medallion. Our Leader Award for last year, Dannii Carr, was presented with a certificate and medallion.

We are hugely grateful to the Jack Petchey Foundation for their continued support of our work.

Congratulations to all of the winners!