THE dramatic tale of a romantic hero, complete with traditional flamenco dance, extraordinary aerial acrobatics and comedy, comes to The Courtyard as Performing Arts students from Hereford College of Arts take to the stage of Thursday, June 18.

sword fighting skills.

Zorro: The Musical, set to the music of the famous red-hot gypsy kings, also features sword-fighting skills as the story of two brothers, Diego and Ramon, unfolds.

"Originally we wanted to do Robert David McDonald's version of The Threepenny Opera, but we couldn't get the rights," says director Mia Gordan, explaining how the choice of this year's musical was made. "We went through a book of musicals from A to Z and when we reached Z, we couldn't believe their was a musical of Zorro, and decided to go for it.

“We are working with professional musical director Alan Durman, because it needs some classical understanding of the music, which in many places has the feel of an operetta."

"When we ordered the script," says Mia. We hadn't listened to the music or read the script. We thought 'if it's got music by the Gypsy Kings, how hard can it be! We then realised that we'd bought a bit of a beast of a show for students of 16 and 17 - the lead roles are real stretches for people still in tertiary education, but they have been amazing," says Mia.

"There are 43 of them on stage, so just managing that physically could have been a disaster, but they have been motivated and enthusiastic. There is a mariachi band on stage, so one of the second year students, Jack Seckham, went away and sorted that out, for example."

"There's also a shortage of boys on the course, so the majority of them are playing five or six different characters, and doing it incredibly well, and they literally don't leave the stage apart from costume changes."

Rehearsals and performance all form part of the students' assessment for their two-year Extended Diploma course. “The six-week rehearsal period is rigorous, with students taking part in daily physical and vocal warm-ups, blocking of scenes, learning choreography and aerial dance routines and songs as any professional performance company would,” said Gillian Hipp, choreographer for the show. “Our aim is to ensure that students are given experiences that mirror the performing arts industry as much as possible."

An action-packed love story, Zorro is the story of Diego, sent away by his father to military school to prepare for his destiny as leader of his people in California, but Diego has other ideas and instead joins an itinerant troupe of gypsy entertainers and embarks on a tempestuous affair with Inez. His childhood friend Ramon, meanwhile is put in charge of the army but power proves a corrupting force. Louisa, who has grown up with the pair, sets off to bring Diego back. Eventually persuaded, Diego returns accompanied by the gypsies, and to avoid Ramon feeling threatened, he instead adopts the persona of Zorro, the original caped crusader ....

"It's not the same as the Antonia Banderas version," says Mia. "It's action-packed, witty and moving, but the story is very different from what people might be expecting. The musical is based on the novel by Isabel Allende, adapted by Helen Edmunson."

Dan Davies plays Zorro with Matthew Hince as Ramon, Kaleigh Pritchard is Louise, Kelsea Richardson plays Inez with Milo Rodell John as the comic sergeant and Tim Gilkes as the comedy padre, among many other parts.

“As the Performing Arts course at HCA moves onto the University of the Arts London qualifications this coming September, followed with a degree in Performing Arts (predicted to begin in September 2016), the ongoing and growing relationship with the Courtyard Theatre is integral to give students a professional experience,” said Gillian.

Tickets are £11 (£10 concessions), with a special matinee offer of £6 per ticket for schools, and can be purchased from courtyard.org.uk or by calling the box office on 01432 340555.