Work experience student, Beth, recently visited our HQ office and spent a week with us! She spent time with the Marketing, Operations, Stage & Screen and Production departments and got insight into what each team gets up to. We asked her to share some of her best moments and projects she has worked on since her time at PQA, here is what she had to say.
‘’I joined PQA High Wycombe in 2021 and have been attending for three years. I have taken part in a few projects such as the west end show Across the Line and the short film Monstrous. When I joined, my favourite part was film and TV. However, I grew to like musical theatre just as much.
Since I’ve been at PQA we have performed a total of 3 shows. The first one, High School Musical, was performed when I was in blue group and near the end of covid so there were still a few restrictions in place. Instead of performing to a live audience our performance was filmed and edited together to watch at home. I played a cheerleader and mainly only took part in ensemble dances. Our second show was We Will Rock You and we performed that at the old theatre church in High Wycombe. I played a Bohemian and mostly sung and danced as ensemble. When we did Across the Line my confidence had grown and it was the first time I had auditioned for a show. I had got the part of Mason who had a few lines and a couple of solos. My favourite out of our shows was Across the Line partly because I had a bigger role but also because the audience was drastically larger than the past two shows. This created a more exciting atmosphere for me and my castmates and after the show had finished, we were all sad for it to end. We have now started rehearsals for our performance of Matilda the Musical Jr. I auditioned for the role of Miss Honey but got the role of her understudy which ultimately, I was happy with as I enjoyed the choreography for the dances and enjoyed doing them. Our performance is in June, and I think this show is the one we are most prepared for as we have taken a lot more time outside of PQA to go through our dances and lines than we have done with other shows.
At PQA, we have put on several film projects but only two have made it onto the YouTube. One of them was filmed whilst I was in blue group, and it was about a group of friends who reunite after a while at the place they last saw each other. There is a secret kept about the storyline of why the friends have reunited and why they haven’t seen each other for so long. Near the end it is revealed that there was some sort of tragedy as ghosts appear behind them. The film took quite a few weeks of planning and a couple of weeks to film. More recently, we made a film that was going to be entered into the film festival and it was titled ‘Monstrous’. It was about a disaster being covered up by the government and a group of teenagers set out to expose them. It took us much longer to film then any other films and it used a mix of different special effects. In the end a few people from my academy were chosen to attend the film festival which was a festival that was attended by lots of different academies and the films made were showcased. In the end our academy won and the people that attended from PQA High Wycombe were welcomed on stage to receive their award.
Being at PQA has increased my confidence and helped me build friendships with people who share a love of performing and filming. It has taught me the different aspects of the industry and has given me great connections and references for the future. It has also given me amazing opportunities such as performing on the west end and being a part of huge film projects.’’
A huge thank you to Beth for a fantastic week at HQ!
If your child is looking to get involved in similar projects to Beth in academy, search for your nearest academy and book your first session for free.
