An Interview with Scaramouche and the end of 'We Will Rock You!'

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Today marks the end of an era for a particular show on the West End. We Will Rock You (WWRY) recently had it's 12th anniversary, an achievement in modern times when 'new' material is rarely well received. In fact when it debuted on the 12th of May 2002 at the Dominion Theatre the show was met with fairly negative reviews, the Guardian stating it "really is as sixth form as it sounds". The show, which was created by Ben Elton, Brian May and Roger Taylor, has really stood the test of time when compared to the recent demise of 'I Can't Sing' which lasted just over six weeks. Most famously 'Les Mis' was initially met with less then positive reviews so there is proof out there that some musicals can defy the critics.

With the closure yesterday of the Jesus Christ Superstar tour (with the cast being given their two week notice) there are definite questions that need to be asked about the future of theatre in England, and of course further afield. Equity has come out on Twitter calling for a discussion and revision of the 'two week rule' which I honestly don't think is fair. If you think that the vast majority of people in other types of work are usually given a months notice when their employment is to end, performers really do have the short end of the stick. The argument against having it any longer is that people working in theatre know the 'rules of engagement' and make a  conscience choice to work in these conditions. However I'm personally in favour of doubling the notice period to four weeks to a) fall in line with other types of work and b) give those who work in entertainment more security.

I'm hoping to have a chat very soon with Annemarie Lewis Thomas from the Musical Theatre Academy about the future of theatre and the responsibilities of varying organisations to produce and encourage 'new theatre'. I, myself have an original short play debuting at the Camden Fringe Festival and the wave of positivity and enthusiasm has been a joy to hear. Maybe the future of theatre lies in the fringe festivals and in 'local theatre' to build up a fanbase of regular theatre-goers, who in turn will be urged to see some of the bigger productions. This is a topic for a post all in itself and I'll happily address it at some point soon, but it is interesting how the 'theatre family' as a whole are linked. It may be worth noting that as shows in the West End close due to dwindling houses, the same can be said of theatre all the way down to 'am-dram' level. More frequently I hear about local groups suffering financial hardship and more fund raising funds being required to fund their two musicals a year. Maybe Equity are right and that the whole system needs to be addressed and looked into from the very top to the grassroots where many aspiring young (and old) performers first take those tender steps.. 

Back to We Will Rock You and I've been granted the good luck to have an interview with Sabrina Aloueche, who played the part of Scaramouche for an extensive period of time. With WWRY closing today I wanted the chance to ask one of it's former cast members her thoughts of it's closure, what's next for the production and a few questions that many budding theatre students always want to ask stars of the West End.

image from westendframe.com

Chris: Thank you so very much for agreeing to do a interview for my blog 'Theatre Thoughts'. I'm as sad as anyone that We Will Rock You is closing after so many years on the West End being a avid theatre-goer when I'm not performing/directing myself. Back to the very beginning though, when did you decide that musical theatre would be your career?

Sabrina: I think its something I've always known.. i can't pinpoint a time in my life where i decided on musical theatre, its just always been there.

Chris: What do you think were the biggest lessons you took away from your time at Sylvia Young and Mountview?

Sabrina: Stay real, keep your identity as true as possible (you'll be needing it!). don't compromise what you love for what is easier.

Chris: One doesn't simply walk into any part, be it on the West End or at local theatre level, what have been the biggest challenges you've had to overcome?

Sabrina: in all honesty my biggest challenge is a current one. when you've had a certain amount of success at such an early point in your career... it's a hard slog to maintain! its challenging at the moment especially with the show closures but as performers we get to do what we love, its not special if just anyone could have it, so I remind myself to stay focussed on my goals and to keep honing and working hard!

Chris: From the various casts and production teams you've worked with, who has had the biggest influence on you and why?

Sabrina: They've all influenced me in different ways.. I've had good nudges and not so good nudges along the way, and both shape you!

Chris: Out of theatre, I take it you've had a lot of support from friends and family?

Sabrina: I've a ton of support that I promise you even today I'm blown away by! Family and friends mean everything to me, and I simply wouldn't have managed at times in this career without them.

Chris: Everyone always asks this question but.. What would you say to any aspiring performers out there thinking of trying to make it in the industry?

Sabrina: Keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut!! Ok, in all seriousness though.. Auditions - be as prepared as you can be, make no excuses for your lack of preparation- there are none if you want something that badly. Cancel and continue the second the audition is done! Keep focused on your own path, others journeys may seem appealing and more successful than your own, but we all have our own path to forge, stick to it. Hone! Hone! Hone!

 

Chris: Back to We Will Rock You, what have been your fondest memories of your time as Scaramouche?

Sabrina: The Show must go on with Brian May and Roger Taylor. Ricardo Afonso (Galileo) once sang the whole song and the cast sang the bv's and it was just the most incredible moment of my life. at one point a light came in from an exit door front of house that caught my eye for a second.. and i could see an old man in the audience.. his expression as he watched us all... literally never left me!

Chris: Lastly, what does the future hold for you and do you think this is the last we'll see of WWRY on the West End?

Sabrina: I don't know what's next for me, there are a millions possibilities! I know which shows I love, which are coming in and which I'll work my tush off for and the rest is in the hands of the Gods! And do I think this is the last we'll see of WWRY in the West End? Ever? Nahhhhhhh!

 



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I'd like to thank Sabrina for taking the time to answer my questions and if anyone would like to get in touch please find our Facebook and Twitter links in the buttons in the right sidebar. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on the issues discussed!

New Design – Hope you like it?

Hello!

Don’t worry, you’re not lost, instead you’ve found your way to my recently designed blog! As the name suggests there will be a tilt on theatre related matters from reviews of local/national shows/plays, interviews with anyone I can get my grubby mitts on to my musings on the industry as a whole.

Aside from this there will be tons of other content for those less ‘artistically’ inclined. I sometimes eat food and like to have an opinion on it. This mantra goes for many things in my life from charity raids on a Saturday morning to real life angst from yours truly. If there are any suggestions lurking in the backs of your mind then don’t be shy, comment or email me (link to the right) and let me know what you’d like to see/read about.

On the topic of charity shops, I love them! So I will try to go armed to the teeth with a meagre amount of money and see what treasure I can come across. This may extend to the occasional cheeky car boot, but as the weather is unreliable at the best I can’t make any promises. Just last week I came across the greatest.. wait, that’s a blog article right there waiting to be plundered! You can hear about those adventures at the weekend.

Back to the re-design. I decided to have the layout and image of this blog changed for engagement reasons really. No, I’m not engaged and nor will be I any time soon unless someone comes crashing through the door and makes a move. Single guy here! What I mean to say is that there is no point having a great message to spread or an idea to express if the packaging and frame aren’t attractive. Cancel that, they don’t have to be overly pretty but certainly can’t afford to be dour and frumpy.

Clean lines, white space and some good content. I think that’s a good starting point, don’t you? :)

My tumor

Some of you may have come to realise that despite the title of my blog, I haven't spoken at great length about theatre. This isn't a conscious decision, more that I have allowed events of excitement or related thoughts space to feel and grow. 

I initially got 'into' theatre when I nearly died.

Sweeping statement, but also very very true. Some years back I was diagnosed with having a schwannoma tumor behind my left eye, actually inside my skull. I was shocked, upset, crushed and aware I had to remain strong for my mum. She was the person that brought me up to be the person I am, so I felt I owed it to her in part to smile through it and do everything I could to see a bright side. I ended up taking it to the extreme one day when leaving hospital with her after a consultation with a surgeon by quoting a line from 300. 

'It's just an eye. The gods saw it fit to grace me with a spare'.

She didn't really see the funny side. Well, she did but she cried a bit too as we walked slowly down the hill towards the town below. It goes without saying, but I lived. One day I may go into more detail about it but if you're desperate to find out then feel free to email me at chris@cd-productions.co.uk 

Fighting through the 'eye' episode of my life and coming out the other side certainly left me a strong person. I undertook a great deal of charity work with my best friend, Dan. He had had his own medical hardships and the achievement of reaching various milestones and raising money for good causes was a time of my life I will never forget. For anyone out there who supported me during this times, thank you. 

Coming out of the battle with my tumor made me not only value life but also challenge what I wanted. Naturally at school I was a very quiet kid, which lead to a bit of bullying and probably made me a pretty soft target. Growing up in a single parent family wasn't always easy but the love and support I received was far more then many others get in 'conventional' upbringings. The feeling I get when I take to the stage is a total departure from those days and I feel blessed for the turnaround of fortunes I have experienced. Many aren't so lucky and lose the battles life puts in front of them. 

I realise this isn't about theatre, but I think it's a heavy nod towards how I ended up 'in theatre'. You can look around St Pancras and see a vast multitude of people, but how did they get there? What purpose brought them to the capital? Will they ever leave? The questions we could ask are endless and to an extent futile, much the same as if you were given all the answers to a quiz before taking the hot seat. You're pulse won't race nor will any challenge present itself.


If you're reading this and your battling against an obstacle, whatever it is, know that you can overcome it. I did. I'm just like you, a person who has had his fair share of knocks and setbacks but used them to motivate me to succeed and be the person I know I can be.

The fight isn't easy, the journey will be tough, but you can do it. Good Luck. :)

Spread the Word

So today had been an ordinary day as Friday's go. All the usual run of the mill stuff happen then I found myself outside Chimichanga. Now this in itself is obviously not exciting (unless you have a fetish for Mexican food!), but then something happened.. I check my phone, more specifically my Twitter feed and something brought a huge smile to my face.

Now I am a huge fan of the Game of Thrones books and thus the TV show by HBO. I 'follow' a number of the actors and actresses on my and C&D's twitter accounts and I take as much interest in their tweets and activities as much as I do other people because namely, we are all just 'people' at the end of the day. However, following people from all walks of life opens the curtains that bit wider when you wake up in the morning and allows you to see more of that lovely, sunny horizon.

Well, as anyone who has read this blog will know, it's brand spanking new! Thus not many people know about it, nor does it have much of a following or readership. That will all change hopefully in the future, but for the time being.. baby steps. Anyhow.. So I saw a tweet by a chap called Eugene Simon. I've found quite a few of his tweets interesting, engaging and fresh, so when I saw he had some blog related info to spill I immediately replied with some information about mine. Here's the rub..

Eugene happens to be an actor. Who plays a character from the above mentioned Game of Throne series. Who has 50,000 followers+ on Twitter. What happened? He replied.

At this point the thought of my date I was waiting for (she was 5 minutes late at this point) went completely out of my mind and I may well have done a little happy dance, I can't remember. It's irrelevant. What isn't is the fact a tweet I posted got retweeted to quite a big bunch of people which is fantastic and if you're one of those people who have happened upon this blog via Eugene's kind retweet then may I say a humble, Welcome.

Now the theatre company I co-own is bare three months old and despite the grand plans I have in the back of my mind, it's still very much fledgling, kinda like this blog. What would be super would be if more people came and read some of my rambling thoughts, followed @CD_Productions1 and spread the word about us a little further. The possible excitement in Eugene lending his support (even if it ends up being fleeting) is it's good natured and honest. 

Who knows.. in three years time I could well be directing a small play in London at a deliciously intimate venue and he could be in the cast. The world is a funny place and none of us know where we might end up. Life is about living, spreading positivity and supporting others to follow their dreams. Coincidentally, Mr Simon also has a blog so in the nature of this post - here's the link! Feel free to give it a read and show him the same support you're showing me by becoming part of my world. 

I may be super cheeky and see if I can do my first ever 'vblog' with him as it would surely create lots of excitement, be in keeping with the sentiment of blogging and would be a good excuse for a mini road trip!

What do you say Eugene?

p.s. My date did eventually turn up, we had a splendid time and I'm hopefully seeing her again next time. Bye!

The Beginning

I’m not sure where to begin if I’m honest.

I’ve just spent the last few minutes looking at the above line wondering how to continue then suddenly realised as I type that I have in fact begun. Life can be like that sometimes. You ponder and worry what the next step to take is and sure enough, by the time you’ve plucked your head out of the clouds you’re walking. Sometimes you don’t know where, but.. isn’t that sometimes the best way? You’re on your way to work on the bus or tube, you feel miserable. Why? Because you know what awaits you. The same building, the same dreary office furniture, the girl you like who is enraptured by the new guy.. That’s why I enjoy what I do.

Theatre.

I’m sure many posts will be of course littered with thoughts and opinions on theatre and a kaleidoscope of other somehow related disciplines, locales and people. It is of course the latter that can leave the most long lasting impression on someone, so maybe I should have put that first, it did however allow me into this train of thought. People can have such a huge impact, in a positive or negative light, that it can seem a risk stepping out of your door and opening yourself to the experiences they can offer. But then, what would have happened to Middle Earth if Bilbo hadn’t taken that first step he almost didn’t make?

I digress. The point I think I was trying to make was that if you don’t give people the scope to not only enter your life but also stay around a little then you deprive yourself. Life can be hard enough, but to choose to battle it out alone when you have potential allies at every turn just seems madness. I’m quite impressed by myself that this is a theatre blog but I have now only mentioned it twice. Maybe it’s a lesson that no ‘one’ thing should be all encompassing and to give passions and interests room to breathe you in fact nourish them rather than provide an over suffocating blanket, similar to an overzealous parent on that first day at school.

I’m Chris btw. I’ve let you into my mind so I thought it only polite to introduce myself. I won’t bombard you with an avalanche of experiences, events and mindless data just yet. I’ll try to slowly let it seep out through the cracks of my conscious so I don’t overwhelm you too suddenly. I’ve been involved in theatre for four years and have worked with probably 200+ people in that time, across a multitude of venues across the UK. I guess that’s why I like theatre so much, it isn’t the same building or the same furniture or people.

The pretty girl smiling at me in the front row one night could just as easily be a discerning critic the next. Different venues offer a range of alternatives experiences on so many levels from meeting staff who weren’t working the night before to the change of promo material and propaganda. I’m sure future posts will explore this angle in more detail but I’ll leave you with a thought. Venues change with the seasons. Make sure you bring your umbrella.

Chris