NODA awards success for Grace

Grace Smith wins Best Young Performer 2025

We are also absolutely thrilled to announce that Rising Stars member Grace Smith has been announced as Best Youth Performer 2025 in NODA East District 5.
Her portrayal of Sheherazade in ‘Arabian Nights’ wowed the audiences and we are delighted that her outstanding performance has been recognised in a particularly competitive year.

Grace will be presented with her award at the Annual NODA East Awards in March.

The nomination of Best Youth Production 2025 in District 5 for ‘Arabian Nights’ and Grace’s Best Youth Performer 2025 award are a testament to the talent and hard work of all our young cast, the production and technical teams and to everyone involved with Rising Stars so we hope you are all as absolutely delighted as we are.

Congratulations Grace.

Rising Stars nominated for prestigious NODA award

Arabian Nights nominated for Best Youth Production 2025

We are delighted to announce that Rising Stars’ production of ‘Arabian Nights’ in March last year has been nominated for an award by the National Operatic & Dramatic Association (NODA). We are on the shortlist for ‘Best Youth Production 2025’ in District 5

NODA are such experts in amateur theatrical productions that to be recognised by them in any capacity is a real achievement. The overall winner won’t be announced until the NODA East Gala Awards Ceremony in March but just being nominated means that ‘Arabian Nights’ was one of the best youth productions in the area.

Congratulations to everyone involved. You should all be incredibly proud of yourselves for putting on such an amazing show.

Tickets on sale NOW for Arabian Nights

Poster for Arabian Nights

Tickets are now on sale for Rising Stars’ forthcoming production of Arabian Nights – a musical full of Eastern promise.

The cast of talented 9 to 18 year olds are currently putting their finishing flourishes to this dramatic and wondrous production which will be staged nightly in Beccles Public Hall & Theatre from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th March 2025 at 7.30pm.

Long ago in a far-off land, a King is to be married to the beautiful Sheherazade. No one is celebrating, for the vengeful and brutal King Shahryar has executed 1000 wives before her. The same fate awaits Sheherazade and only her gift of storytelling can save her life.
Can she melt her tyrant husband’s cold heart with her tales of treasures, monsters, genies and magic and create a true love story of her own?

The multi-talented young cast sing, dance, act and take on many different characters as Sheherazade’s stories are brought to life on stage. In full costume and accompanied by live musicians, this stunning musical is suitable for all the family.

Arabian Nights is the next fully staged show in an ever growing line of successful musical productions by the Beccles-based musical theatre group, whose previous credits have included Legally Blonde, The Addams Family and Peter Pan. Although the majority of the cast are under 18, they pride themselves on bringing the high quality and professionalism that you would expect of any theatre company to all of their performances.

Tickets for Arabian Nights are priced at £13 for adults and £10 for under 18s and can be purchased online at any time from the Beccles Public Hall Box Office using the button below.

Tickets can also be purchased by visiting Beccles Public Hall Box Office in person or by telephoning 01502 770060. The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 3pm and accepts both debit and credit cards.

For further details please Contact Us

Arabian Nights – we have a cast!

The young cast of Arabian Nights reading through the script

We had a large number of young people applying to audition for us and were blown away by the quality of their auditions and the talent they showed us.

This gave us a tough couple of hours deliberating, but we finally have a full cast for Arabian Nights.

Congratulations to all successful candidates, and commiserations those that did not make the cast this time. It’s so sad to have to turn away talented youngsters who have put so much time and effort in auditioning. You all did yourselves proud and we would have included everyone if we could fit you all on stage and in the dressing rooms!

Rehearsals have started already and we had lots of fun at our first script read-through for Arabian Nights.

With tales of treasures, monsters, genies and magic, fabulous music and an amazingly talented cast – we are so excited about this show!

Auditions slots available NOW for Arabian Nights

Are you aged 8-19? Want to be part of an award-winning musical group? Book your audition for Arabian Nights NOW.

We are now taking bookings for audition slots for Arabian Nights.

Cast auditions will be on Friday 4th September (evening) and Sunday 6th October (daytime).

To book your place, please complete and return an Application to Audition form (available from our downloads page) by Sunday 29th September.

Audition rehearsals start on Friday 20th September from 7-9pm in Blyburgate Hall, Beccles for anyone who would like to be in the cast as a principal and/or a company member.

Full details of Pre-audition rehearsals

Friday 20th September, 7pm – 9pm
Company & principal audition practice / guidance

Sunday 22nd September, 2pm – 4pm
Principal singing audition practice / guidance

Friday 27th September, 7pm – 9pm
Movement workshop.
Company audition practice

Sunday 29th September, 2pm – 4pm
Company & principal audition practice / guidance

All rehearsals are in Blyburgate Hall, Beccles.

Don’t panic if you can’t attend all the pre-audition rehearsals as the character descriptions and audition requirements are detailed in the Arabian Nights Cast Information (available from our downloads page)
We look forward to meeting you at a rehearsal and hope you take advantage of this opportunity to perform with our friendly and talented group.