This summer was a very exciting time for a number of Stagecoach students who participated in an exchange with students from Oxford Stagecoach.

The project started in early July when a group of English students from Stagecoach Oxford came over to Malta and joined their Maltese counterparts in a drama workshop at St James Cavalier, where, under the direction of Denise Mulholland, Emma Loftus and Matthew Anastasi, they performed in an adapted, youth version of the musical Hair.

This was a great experience for all concerned as they learned all about the Vietnam era in America of the 1960s, and singing and dancing to the great show numbers from Hair, including, Aquarius, Let The Sunshine In, Manchester England and Hari Krishna.

The Stagecoach summer workshop was an intensive programme of activities, as the participants put up a complete show in a mere six days. It started with casting the show and ends with a performance for parents and friends at St. James Theatre and all this in 30 odd hours!

Of course, the adventure did not stop there as only a couple of weeks later the Maltese contingent travelled to Oxford to take part in their workshop. The planned show was Queen's We Will Rock You. The students had spent the previous couple of weeks listening to Queen hits from the musical and knew very well what they were going into.

On the first day of rehearsals the show was cast by auditions and the two main characters, Galileo and Scaramouche, were to be played by Damian Buhagiar and Annalise Aquilina respectively, while Justin Mamo was cast as Britney, Olenka Martino was Meatloaf, Nicole Cassar was cast as Killer Queen and Isaac Cutajar was chosen to play Pop. So six out of the seven leads were Maltese students.

Maya Sprigg, Stagecoach Oxford principal, commented: "The Maltese Stagecoach students are quite special. They are confident. They are not afraid... We were impressed!"

The show, at The Theatre, in Headington, Oxford, was very well received by the audience, who applauded and sang along Queen hits such as Radio Gaga, I Want To Break Free, No One But You, Killer Queen and, of course, the title track We Will Rock You, among others.

The performance ended with a well-deserved standing ovation.

Edward Mercieca, senior principal at Stagecoach, said: "I was so proud of them! It was really emotional. What a super experience for all of us! To end it all with such a great performance is just amazing. We're already planning for next year!"