Midsomer Norton-based Merriman Theatre Group celebrates its twentieth anniversary next month with an epic production of one of the world’s best-loved musicals.

A gala performance of Les Miserables: School Edition on Saturday, 7th July will mark twenty years since the youth theatre company was formed in Midsomer Norton, with many ex-members and staff attending for the youth theatre’s annual Summer production, and a post-show reception.

The group was originally formed when ex-Norton Hill pupil and Drama graduate, Graeme Savage, returned to the area from Northampton. At the time, there was little specifically youth orientated drama activity in Midsomer Norton, with young people having to travel to Bath or Bristol, on the often over-subscribed waiting lists at the Theatre Royal Bath and Bristol Old Vic youth theatres, or joining local am-dram societies, where youth opportunities were often limited to the annual pantomime.

Using a model of workshops, education and opportunities for creativity, as well as rehearsals and performances based on that employed by the Derngate Theatre in Northampton, where Graeme had worked for two years, Merriman Theatre Group was established during the summer of 1998, with a group of forty young people aged from nine-to-sixteen, with the first sessions taking place at St. John’s School, Midsomer Norton in September 1998, and their first production, Flute!, a devised piece based on Mozart’s The Magic Flute, performed at the school the following May.

More than 400 young people have been members of Merriman over the last twenty years – as well as the core Merriman Theatre Group for ten-to-eighteen-year-olds, there is now the hugely popular Junior Company, ‘The Minimen’, for six-to-nine-year-olds, and an adult company, made up primarily of ex-members and guests from other local am-dram societies. The group has won several awards for their productions from NODA (the National Operatic and Dramatic Association), including the Outstanding Achievement Award for Jesus Christ Superstar in 2012 and the award for Youth Achievement in 2015 for their production of Cats. In 2011, Graeme was honoured to be invited to meet HRH Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, at a Gala celebrating those working with young people in the arts.

Graeme says: “Our philosophy at Merriman has always been firstly to encourage young people to develop their confidence as well as their performing abilities. Drama is an incredible life skill, and while we’re hugely proud of those who have gone on to perform professionally and semi-professionally elsewhere, we’ve always been inspired by those young people who have been able to take the skills learned at Merriman to boost their confidence in school, at work, to help them through job interviews and driving tests! We always strive to put on the best productions that we can, and have been thrilled with the responses from the audience, but also always remember that Saturday morning sessions should be fun, and an opportunity to build social skills and friendships in a creative atmosphere that schools and their curriculae are not always able to offer in the current climate.

“Former Merriman members are currently working professionally onstage as performers, and behind the scenes as writers, directors, producers, stage managers, costume designers, artists and musicians – one of our ex-members even led some of the medal presentations at the London 2012 Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games! However, there is something equally special about seeing children and young adults who have taken those same skills and adapted them to become paramedics, teachers, managers, event organisers, having the confidence to work in shops and dealing with the public in customer service roles.”

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary, current Merriman members have been rehearsing since January for Les Miserables, the school edition of one of the best-loved and longest-running West End and Broadway musicals of all time. An epic show for the young cast, this also fits with the group’s ethos of challenging the young performers, exemplified by their ambitious productions in recent years of Phantom of the Opera, requiring six-part operatic harmonies and traditional ballet, and Cats, which required the entire cast to learn complex dance routines. So successful was the latter production, that the group were invited to perform excerpts from the show at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End, alongside established dance schools from across the country.

Graeme adds: “We do like to push the young people to work outside of their comfort zone, but always in a supportive way. There’s inevitably a sense of nervousness when we announce such big and challenging productions, but by being supportive, encouraging and helping the members to discover these abilities for themselves through long rehearsal periods, rather than expecting them to learn to read music or tap dance overnight, the sense of achievement that they feel at the end of these shows is huge, and rewarding for all of us involved.”

Les Miserables: School Edition is being performed at the Dragonfly Theatre, Writhlington School, on Saturday, 7th July at 7 p.m., and Sunday, 8th July at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets for the Saturday performance include the post-show gala reception. Tickets are available now from: www.ticketsource.co.uk/merrimantheatre or from the Box Office on: 01761 414957.