The World Needs More Sparkle

Suffolk Artlink’s Brave Art students sprinkled the world with sparkles at their end of term shows in Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich this December.

As the audience arrived at our show in Bury St Edmunds the tension and excitement were palpable. Students (and staff) had contracted a most extreme and severe case of ‘The Acting Bug’ after attending a performance of The Secret Garden at the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and no professional cast has ever approached a performance more seriously than our students in Bury St Edmunds.

During the autumn term students explored their reflections on The Secret Garden through a variety of creative activities to create a series of dramatic vignettes, performed against their beautiful stage set, to give an engaging and entertaining experience. The cast performed with an impressive sensitivity and awareness of each other and Suffolk Artlink’s Rachel Bennett, who was directing the performance.

Our students in Ipswich created a complete and utterly satisfying show inspired by attending a performance of Kinky Boots at The New Wolsey, Ipswich. A good king decrees that his subjects must all dress alike so that everyone will feel equal, but uniformity is boring, and conformity can make us sad. When a you man discovers colour, embraces diversity and brings happiness to the people he is richly rewarded by the good king.

We could not agree more with our Ipswich students’ message: celebrate diversity, include everyone and end with dancing.