Ten-year-old Freddie Thomason is looking forward to treading the boards in the upcoming professional production of Tennessee Williams’ prize-winning masterpiece Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  

This bold new revival plays at the Liverpool Playhouse from Wednesday, September 22 to Saturday, October 2. It is a co-production between Everyman & Playhouse, Curve Leicester and English Touring Theatre and is directed by

Anthony Almeida, winner of the 2019 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award.

Freddie plays one of the sons of Gooper and Mae Pollitt. Gooper is the older son of wealthy Big Daddy and Big Mamma together they have 5 children. 

Says Mrs. Lamont: “Freddie is such a talent. As well as this latest success, he has recently passed with Dictinction and 95 marks his Grade 3 LAMDA exam and has enjoyed performing in several drama festivals, winning many prizes.  It is lovely to teach Freddie because I taught his mum, Danielle,  at the same age and Freddie has definitely inherited the same love of performing!”

Freddie will be performing at the following performances: Sept 22 (7.30 pm) , Sept 23 (7.30 pm), Sept 25 (2 pm), Sept 28 (7.30 pm), Sept 30 (1.30 pm), Oct 1 (7.30 pm), Oct 2 (7.30 pm).

Good luck Freddie!

Practice makes perfect so they say….. and in the case of 3 Lamont pupils that’s exactly what happened!

In the latest LAMDA examination session, all pupils received distinctions and 3 pupils gained 100%. Yes 100% !!!!

It was also the first time that a parent and child took the exam together.  Gabriel and his mum studied for the Grade 6 exam together and both gained high distinctions with 93% and 100%.  Brilliant!  They are now studying for Grade 7.  What a wonderful experience!

The full results are as follows: –

SPEAKING OF VERSE AND PROSE

INTRODUCTORY 3           

Taron Premakantha       

GRADE 01

Joseph Edwards

GRADE 2

Ava Wright

Emilia Guy

Campbell Gie

GRADE 3

Sujaani Mathanraj

GRADE 4

Pip Charnley

Charlie Geldart

April Humphreys

Siena Wright

Bay Jaworski

GRADE 5

Flyn Aindow

Josh Sikdar

GRADE 6

Gabriel Osborne

Vicky Osborne

Anishiha Vigneswaran

Lori-Jo Quinney

GRADE 8

Alexander Goldman       

Congratulations to Rory Rushton on his sensational 1^st Class Honours degree from Lancaster University.

Rory, a very successful Lamont student, in both festivals and LAMDA exams, (a.k.a also cherished nephew!) has just completed his four-year Finance and Accounting Degree with the news of achieving a 1st!

Sadly, no graduation ceremony until 2022, but plenty to celebrate nevertheless!

Rory was accepted into the National Youth Theatre in his teens after many years of success in verse, prose, solo and group acting in drama festivals. In 2020, he spent his placement year at Fitch Ratings as an Associate Analyst in London’s Canary Wharf after being awarded a scholarship place on the company’s Placement Initiative. He will return to Fitch Ratings in September as a full-time analyst on their graduate fast-track scheme.

He said: “It’s been a challenging time with Covid restrictions impacting on both my final year at university and on my placement. Fortunately, things relaxed just in time for me to get in some end of exams celebrations. All my friends have done well so we are celebrating with a holiday in Edinburgh.  My manager at Fitch told me he was more impressed with the fact that I’d gone to NYT than any of my exam results – so all I can say to current pupils is give it a go!  I never thought that such a great experience would also play such an important part in getting a job!”

Says Mrs Lamont: “Super proud of my nephew who always gives 100% to whatever he’s doing! However, I never imagined when, as a five-year-old, reciting ‘Roger was a Razor Fish’ at Southport Festival, that it would be the first of so many successful moments. Well done, Rory! You’ve got a great work ethic which I hope you, partly, learnt at Lamont Drama!”

Last day of filming for 9-year-old Lamont pupil Lois Cringle on the BBC1 comedy drama The Responder.

Lois, who plays Lexie, is pictured with fellow actor Martin Freeman who played Watson in the BBC’s contemporary adaptation Sherlock. Martin also played Bilbo Baggins in the three-part Peter Jackson film series The Hobbit, as well as numerous other successful film and TV series. Martin plays the lead character in The Responder.

Also pictured is Faye McKeever (Trollied, Death in Paradise), who plays her mum in the series.

Lois has had a brilliant time filming and now we all can’t wait to see her in the series when it airs.

Well Done, Lois!

HASTINGS VIRTUAL FESTIVAL OF MUSIC, DANCE, SPEECH AND DRAMA

Well done to Gabriel, Serafina, Orlando, Evie, Verity, Amelie, Martha, Freddie and Grace who took part in the Hastings Festival recently.

The drama adjudicator Jean-Marc Perret was very impressed with Lamont pupils and awarded them very high marks, picking them out for glowing praise in every section entered.

The School entered 12 classes and gained 8 1^st places, 6 2nds and 5 3rds.

1^st places were won by:

Orlando Campolucci-Bordi – for Set poem (Yrs 9/10/11), Sonnet (any age) and Prose Speaking (Yrs 9/10/11)

Martha Last – for Prose Speaking (Yr 3-6) and Humorous Verse (Yrs 3/4)

Evie Clark – Dramatic Monologue (Yr 7/8) and with sister Verity – Dramatic Duologue (Yr 7/8)

Gabriel Osborne – Dramatic Monologue (Yr 6 and under)

Congratulations to you all!

Not many good things have come out of Covid – but one unexpected development is Lamont Drama becoming an ‘international’ school.

Mrs Lamont is still doing the majority of her teaching via skype and this has opened a lot of new doors.

It started when Mrs Lamont began teaching the Oyedeji family from the Wirral by Skype.  Itsoghena, Ifeoluwa, Chayil and Gadowl have all been getting excellent results in their LAMDA exams.

Mrs Lamont was next approached by former pupil Nick Henderson, who wanted to arranged Skype LAMDA lessons for his daughter, 10-year-old Amélie Henderson, in California! The lessons have proved very successful and Amélie recently passed her Grade 4 LAMDA exam with the very high Distinction mark of 94. Amélie had all of her weekly lessons via skype and then ‘virtually’ sat her exam with her in America and her LAMDA examiner in the UK.

Now, Mrs Lamont has been asked to teach a new pupil in Switzerland and one slightly nearer to home in Plymouth.

Said Mrs Lamont: “I never thought I would enjoy doing so much remote teaching but it’s not until you try something new that you realise it can work really well.  Due to necessity, I have honed the Skype experience so that it is as good as having face-to-face teaching and I now really look forward to seeing all my lovely pupils pop up on screen.

“The benefit is that I can teach anyone, anywhere in the world as long as they have a good internet connection. It’s certainly added a new dimension to the drama school and it’s very interesting and rewarding for me to teach pupils from different countries and cultures.

“Even for those nearer to home, for some families, a mixture of Skype lessons in the early stages and then face-to-face sessions nearer to the exam is their preference. I think in these challenging times the key to success is being as flexible and accommodating as possible.

“I hope my list of Cyprus, America, Switzerland, Cumbria, London, Nottingham, Plymouth and the Wirral continues to grow and Lamont Drama continues to reach out to pupils around the world!”

In the latest round of LAMDA examinations, 8 pupils sat and of those 6 gained Distinction – all with marks in the 90s. Two gained commendable merits.

Said Mrs Lamont : “I’d like to single out Verity Clark who did particularly well gaining her Grade 8 Gold Medal with 94 marks – a month after her 12^th birthday!  She is one of the youngest pupils to take Grade 8.   Verity started her LAMDA journey in 2013 and has achieved Distinction for every exam.  Her hard work and talent have always shone through.  It has been such an enjoyable 8 years to teach such a wonderful pupil!”

The results are as follows :-

Speaking of Verse and Prose

Entry                     Joseph Edwards (93)

Grade 3                Freddie Thomason (95)

Grade 4                Olivia Hall (90), Martha Last (90), Amelie Henderson (94)

Grade 5                Vaishana Ilanko (Merit)

Grade 7                Vaishali Ilanko (Merit)

Grade 8                Verity Clark (94)

Trophies for the highest marks from the March/April session will be awarded to:

JUNIOR                Joseph Edwards (93)

MIDDLE                April Humphreys (98)

SENIOR                 Louisa Whorton (99)

Congratulations to you all.

Good news for Lamont pupil 9-year-old Lois Cringle!

Her character of Lexie has been written to re-appear in the final episode of the new six-part BBC1 police comedy-drama The Responder. The final episode’s cast has just been released to casting agents and Lois is being asked to be available from May 25^th to June 17^th.

Well done, Lois, you must have done an excellent job as Lexie – for the production to want to see more of your character.

Lois has already enjoyed filming for scenes in earlier episodes in the series alongside Liverpool actor Ian Hart (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), who plays Lexie’s Dad.

A star in the making!

We are excited to hear about the next chapter for Gabriel Cardeira.

Gabriel, who has been a Lamont pupil since junior school, is keen to study drama at a higher level and has had a number of fantastic offers from which to choose.

He received offers from Trinity St. David Wales, Arden and UCLAN.

He’s decided to go to UCLAN and as they offered him an unconditional offer in BA Hons Acting, Gabriel’s place is already secure.

Congratulations Gabriel! Gabriel’s talent for acting has shone through over the years both at festivals and in his LAMDA exams, culminating in him passing Grade 8 – Gold Medal – with Distinction.

“I’m really excited!” said Gabriel. “I think UCLAN is the right place for me and that I will really benefit from the course and enjoy it as well! I want to say a big thank you for all of the hard work from Mrs Lamont to get me to this point and for the nice gestures of festival scholarships.”

Said Mrs Lamont: “ It’s always bittersweet when my long-standing pupils leave. I will, of course, miss Gabriel as I’ve been teaching him for a long time but I’m also  immensely proud of him and excited for him as he takes this next step. Gabriel – you’ve been a real pleasure – and I wish you every success in this new venture. Keep in touch! “