Stage One Drama School held its annual prize giving and certificate presentation on Saturday at The Studio Theatre, Ballakermeen.

Special Guest of Honour was Ben Karran, who is currently studying performance at Arts Educational College, London and is a former student at Stage One. Ben played the part of Gavroche in Douglas Choral Union’s Island premiere of Les Miserables, Louis in The King and I, and Michael Darling in Peter Pan all in 2009. He played the title role in Oliver in 2010, Plato in Cats in 2013 and most recently played the title role in Joseph this summer at The Gaiety Theatre.

One hundred and twenty-five Stage One students were entered for Trinity Guildhall Group Performance exams in July and all students passed with Distinction, scoring an impressive 90%-98%. Students aged 5-18 years were examined in Performance Arts, Scripted Drama, Musical Theatre and Devised Theatre. The students were prepared for examination by Stage One principal Jacqui Hawkes and musical theatre coach Sonia Callin.

Jacqui said: ’We are absolutely delighted with the students’ results again this year. This is the third successive year when our students have all passed with Distinction, but the marks this year have even surpassed the previous two years with a tremendous score of 98% for Grade 5 performance arts.’