Pigeon English – National Youth Theatre REP season

I’m always nervous when I’m about to make an entrance. Then came Cambridge and the opening night of the tour on 20 April in the Arts Theatre.  I stood in the wings. It’s Sasha Reagan’s All Male HMS Pinafore and I play Josephine, the lead soprano.  The level of my nervousness that night was off the Richter scale and it was a real struggle to keep it down. In the event I missed a note and was very cross with myself. It was an easy note and I’d never missed it before. I was mortified – although comforted in the wings by reassuring mates – and immediately texted the director to apologise.

Nothing in my musical theatre training at Arts Ed had prepared me for this role. I’m a natural baritone and they say it’s easier for us to sustain a falsetto than it is for tenors but nonetheless it is very hard work and you have to exercise the muscles of the voice, rest it and gradually build stamina. I suspect that the tension of the opening night coming at the end of three weeks of rehearsals and a week of tech meant that my voice and I were just tired. I was vocally shattered. In fact it is actually much easier to do eight performances a week than to rehearse because you have time to rest during the day.

It’s a great company to work in because All Male HMS Pinafore is conceived as an ensemble piece and everybody supports everyone else. We’re all of an age too – actually ranging from 19 to 35 in years – but all at about the same level of professional maturity. It’s one of the nicest casts I have ever worked in. I’m 27, and have played in all male shows before, but only as ensemble or cover and without the pressure of getting onto the stage and singing those leading solos.

Of course I’m still very nervous and I don’t think it will go away but it’s better than it was on that first night and, of course, nerves settle as each performance progresses.  And in the scheme of things that missed note didn’t matter much. The audience chuckled supportively and no one held it against me.

Ben Irish was talking to Susan Elkin. Sasha Reagan’s All Male HMS Pinafore toured in summer 2016.

Fourth Monkey’s production of Elephant Man

It is less than a month since I wrote http://susanelkin.co.uk/articles/time-disband-drama-uk/ in which I argued for the winding up of Drama UK. I didn’t expect it to disappear round the U bend quite so quickly but it is now dead. Drama School principals, one of whom forwarded it to me within minutes, received an email to advise them of Drama UK’s closure  last Monday. So it’s time they took down the website which is still gleaming with promises at the time of writing.

Well I don’t know at what stage in the year the £6,000 membership fee is due but, if some of these schools have already handed over their students’ money, then I hope they get a refund promptly. But I’m not holding my breath. The chances are that any money in the coffers has already been squandered on dubious projects in China and Ireland.

Did I say “dubious”? Well yes. I learned recently, for example, that if as a newish graduate you opt to take part in one of Drama UK – now trading under a different name – showcases in China or Ireland you have to pay £150 for the privilege. And a reliable informant who asked to remain anonymous has expressed very serious worries about safety and the way things are run at these over hyped events. The word “lies” was used more than once in the emails I saw.  It is all very alarming to think that vulnerable new graduates, many of them very young and inexperienced, are being exploited in this way by the very organisation which was ostensibly set up to protect their interests.

Meanwhile back in Blighty, the unlamented demise of Drama UK means that there is no longer any such thing as an accredited school or course. How much does that really matter? Agents tell me that some companies and casting directors,, refuse to see anyone who hasn’t trained on a two or three year course at an accredited school. Could the demise of Drama UK help to dent that ridiculously old fashioned and blinkered attitude?

Outstanding newish training organisations such as MTA and Fourth Monkey, which have steadfastly refused to associate themselves with Drama UK, are turning out dozens of industry ready young professionals every year. Their percentage of graduates signed to agents and in work is much higher than for some of the formerly accredited schools, many of which don’t even bother to track their alumni accurately anyway.

The playing field has now, I think, levelled a little. Agents will need to work very hard to persuade companies and casting directors that a good performer is one who can do what the role requires. All schools are now unaccredited. It doesn’t matter a bit whether Sherman Smith or Mei Ling trained at the Royal Something of Whatsit or at a school which was founded within the last decade. Proof of the pudding and all that.

Of course, there are ropey schools out there too whose graduates are likely to be less talented and less well trained and therefore not up to the job. Agents, in general, know better than to sign them up and perhaps this is the moment to become even more discerning. That’s a sad tale of exploitation – and another blog for another time perhaps – but these people are unlikely to find themselves at auditions wasting the precious time of casting directors so what’s the problem with casting (literally) the net wider?