Fly Applesby Airlines to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
News articles and interviews with Amelie, Ava and Lola about Attendants, the show they are taking to Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2023.
Our Ava is heading back to Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2024 with the Bristol Spotlights crew. She’s producing Boardroom, written and directed by Ciara Hughes, co-directed by Evie King and produced by Ava.
Their preview shows are tomorrow in Alma Tavern & Theatre in Bristol.
If you are in Edinburgh for the second week of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 12th to 17th August, then we hope you’ll include Boardroom in your programme of shows to watch.
We are really proud that we’ve been awarded an official Sold Out Show 2023 laurel by the lovely team at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for Attendants. Huge congratulations to Amelie, Ava & Lola on this amazing achievement with their first show at the EdFringe.
Back in 2022, when the ladies wrote Attendants for their Drama A-level devised performance at GDST Norwich High School for Girls, they had no clue where it was going to take them. After watching the show being performed for the examiners, Jason (Ava’s dad) jokingly said to Marika (Amelie’s mum), ‘That would be brilliant at the EdFringe’. Little did they know that 8 months later Amelie, Ava & Lola would be performing to sold out audiences in theSpace on the Mile at the world’s largest arts festivals.
The Sold Out Show award is based on selling over 95% of tickets during the run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
‘The Attendants, Ava Borthwick, Amelie Breach and Lola Morgans. Picture: Norwich High School for Girls (Image: Norwich High School for Girls)
Ava Borthwick, Amelie Breach and Lola Morgans all achieved A* grades while studying at Norwich High School for Girls.
Their exam success comes following a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with a show they wrote and starred in themselves called The Attendants.
Overall, 97pc of grades at the school were between A* and C
Eastern Daily Press website – edp24.co.uk/news/23728453.level-results-day-2023-norfolk-waveney-live-updates/
The Drama Department and Drama A Level students at Norwich High deserve a standing ovation following their stellar A Level success, gaining 100% A*-A.
Three of the A Level Drama cohort have just returned from their sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe where they have been performing their self-penned comedy ‘The Attendants’. Drama scholar Ava Borthwick achieved an A* in Business, B in Classical Civilisation and A* in Drama and Theatre as well as a B for her EPQ. She is taking up a place at the University of Bristol to study Theatre and Film. Amelie Breach gained an A* in Drama and Theatre, an A in English Literature and an A* in Psychology. She has secured her first choice University place to study Film and Television. Lola Morgans gained an A in Drama and Theatre, an A* in English Literature and an A* for Textile Design. She is going to Falmouth University to study Textile Design.
“Since starting in the Norwich High Prep School, Ava, Amelie and Lola have shown a passion for the Arts. They have always been involved in our extracurricular programme performing, directing or leading clubs, showing a great commitment to drama. As part of their studies for their A Level in Drama and Theatre students have to devise their own piece of drama influenced by the style and techniques of a drama practitioner. Ava, Amelie and Lola were drawn to John Godber and his use of characters and comedy to satirise political issues. Choosing a stimulus of a newspaper article about sexism in the aviation industry, the girls went through the process of research, improvisation, script writing and directing to create their play ‘Attendants’. After performing the piece in December for their A Level coursework to a small audience, the girls received outstanding feedback and made the decision to take their play to the Fringe. To take a play to Edinburgh and achieve outstanding A Level results is a testament to the girls’ creativity, work ethic and determination. I am sure this will not be the last time the girls perform to sell out audiences. We are beyond proud of them.” – Hannah Rea-Gardner, Head of Drama at Norwich High School for Girls GDST
Published on Norwich High School for Girls website – norwichhigh.gdst.net/a-level-results-day-2023-at-norwich-high-school-for-girls/
Amelie Breach, Ava Borthwick and Lola Morgans are three Norwich schoolfriends who are preparing to take their Drama A Level show to Edinburgh Fringe next month. Here, they explain how it was just too funny not to take the trip up to Scotland!
How did you spend your summer holidays, after your A Levels? For Norwich schoolfriends, Amelia Breach, Ava Borthwick and Lola Morgans, it’s going to involve a nine-day run performing their self-penned comedy play, The Attendants, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe!
In it, they play three flight attendants for Applesby Airlines (best described as ‘not as classy as Ryannair’), and will be also be introducing audiences to the various other characters they meet in flight.
‘We make three people seem like an awful lot more, I like to think,’ says Lola. As a result, audiences, can expect ‘hot pilots, security guards, lads from Norwich and posh girls’.
Amelie says: ‘I play Audrey, who is a little bit ditzy and quite boy-obsessed – that is her main focus. She’s single and she’s ready to mingle!’
Ava says: ‘I play Amy, one of the younger ones, but not as young as Audrey, so she’s a bit more sensible, but she often misses the point of the joke and has a very annoying mother, who comes into play later in the show – Lola plays the mum.’
Then there’s Nicole. ‘Nicole is one of the older flight attendants,’ says Lola, ‘and is maybe more responsible than the other two.’
Inspired by the playwright John Godber, this original show was written and performed by the three friends from Norwich High School for Girls, for their Drama A Level show back in the Autumn.
During the performance for the A-level examiners, one of their parents was overheard saying to another that the show would be perfect for Edinburgh Festival. Then everyone got on board with it! A few months later, the venue is all booked, and rehearsals are well underway.
It’s been a steep learning curve: ‘It’s been quite a complicated process,’ says Ava. ‘We had to do a venue search and The Space was the best venue to come back.’ Then they had to find accommodation – never easy when it’s Festival time.
The Attendants promises to be 20 minutes of hilarious observational comedy. Set in 2005, around the time they were all born, the music will be of that era (with Jess Glynne’s Hold My Hand, as used in the Jet2Holidays advert, thrown in for good measure). Amelia, Ava and Lola will be performing to nine different audiences during their stint at TheStudio – and no two performances will be quite the same. ‘It will be the most performances we’ve ever done,’ says Lola. But she adds: ‘It’s going to be so much fun.’
Friends and family will make the trip up to Scotland to see the show, but Amelie makes the point: ‘It will be interesting seeing how people, who don’t know us so well, react to it. We’ve performed it to friends and family but not to complete strangers.’ Especially given the fact the show involves the odd Norwich reference – Norwich City Football Club, for example, gets a mention.
The 18-year-olds expect to be among the youngest performers there, but it will be a perfect distraction from the nervous wait for A-level results. As well as the friends all studying Drama, Amelie has studied English and Psychology; Ava, Classics and Business; and Lola, Textiles and English.
They all sound particularly nervous about the Drama results – all hope to go to university in the autumn and then pursue a career in the industry. Amelie hopes to go into film and TV; Ava hopes to be a producer; and Lola hopes to do textile design, leading to costume design. Getting to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has already taught them a lot, as Lola says: ‘It’s funny how this has all kind of helped us – it’s been invaluable,’ says Lola. And she adds: ‘It will be really nice to maybe collaborate again in the future.’
Before the next stage of their lives unfolds, are they all going to jet off somewhere together and enjoy a proper holiday? ‘Maybe we’ll fly back from Edinburgh,’ comes the reply, ‘dressed up as flight attendants.’
Amelie Breach, Ava Borthwick and Lola Morgans will be performing The Attendants at theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) at 2.25pm each day between Thursday 4th August to Saturday 12th August. theSpace on the Mile is in the Radisson Blu Hotel in the heart of Edinburgh City Centre. More information and tickets are available online at theattendants.co.uk
Featured images, by Tamsyn Morgans
Article by Emma Oussen in Folk Features – folkfeatures.co.uk/the-three-friends-flying-high/
Three young city actresses have set their sights sky high as they prepare to take their play to a major comedy festival.
The Norwich High School for Girls students are currently in the middle of taking their A-levels but in August they will be taking to the stage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
“Join us on Applesby Airlines, where we make the headlines,” one of the production’s characters says. “We may not be as classy as Ryanair, but we’re willing to try and care.”
Amelie Breach, Ava Borthwick and Lola Morgans originally wrote the play for their drama A-Level.
Amelie said: “We never thought this show would be seen by anyone other than examiners, so to be performing to the Edinburgh Festival audience will be amazing.”
The trio were told their show would be perfect for Fringe after their examination performance – and now their venue and travel is booked.
Ava said: “Beyond excited to experience the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time and to perform this show.
“We’re all so proud of what we’ve created and have such a brilliant time performing it.”
Lola added: “Performing at Edinburgh will be a fantastic distraction from the nervous wait for A-level results and looking forward to the reaction of our nine different audiences.”
Alison Sefton, headteacher at Norwich High School for Girls, said: “I laughed so hard I cried!
“Attendants looks at life through the eyes of three flight attendants; their observations are to the point, raw and emotional.
“It is 20 minutes of pure escapism and not to be missed.”
Amelie, Ava and Lola will be performing Attendants at theSpace on the Mile, at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Edinburgh, at 2.25pm each day between Thursday, August 4 and Saturday, August 12.
Buy Tickets: tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/attendants
Read the original article by Sophie Skyring in the Norwich Evening News and Eastern Daily Press:
www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/23570039.norwich-students-taking-play-edinburgh-festival-fringe/
or
www.edp24.co.uk/news/23570039.norwich-students-taking-play-edinburgh-festival-fringe/
Amelie, Ava and Lola headed in to the BBC Radio Norfolk studios to chat with Kayleigh Poacher about taking their show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Massive thank you to the radio team. Hope you enjoy the listen, and we hope you’ll make it to the show.
