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Born to perform!

Upstagers has been providing a creative outlet for youngsters in the Ilkley area since 1987. Our Upstagers Academy has a great team of teachers providing fulfilling, fun and beneficial classes in Performance, Singing and Acting to our next generation of Upstagers stars. Our students get the most out of their experience by building confidence and developing communication skills, whilst also having a lot of fun and meeting new friends. We're proud that many Upstagers alumni have created successful careers in theatre and other forms of performance.

Classes are available for six-year-olds up to young adults and take place at the Upstagers Barn opposite Ilkley railway station.

Watch the video below to see highlights of a typical Wednesday performance class!

Eight in a row for Upstagers! 🏆

We were absolutely thrilled to see our 2026 pantomime Snow White named Best Pantomime at the Wharfedale Festival of Theatre Awards – making it an incredible eight consecutive Best Pantomime wins for Upstagers.

Snow White also received awards for Best Principal Girl (Amy-Pearl Watt), Best Dame (Mike Riley), Best Villain (Daisy Button), Best Choreographer (Laura Williams, joint winner), Best Director (John Clark, Andrew Hewitt & Joey Wilby) and Best Programme (Andrew Tarbett & Daisy Tarbett), alongside a fantastic collection of Wharfie Awards for the Mini Miners.

Pantomime is a huge team effort, and we're enormously proud of everyone who helped bring Snow White to the stage – our cast, crew, creatives and the many volunteers working behind the scenes.

A huge thank you, too, to the Wharfedale Festival of Theatre, its committee and assessors for everything they do to celebrate and encourage amateur theatre across our area – and congratulations to all the groups, performers and creatives recognised at this year's awards. We're incredibly lucky to be part of such a thriving local theatre community.