Guest Blog: Actor Connor Dyer On PARADE At Frogmore Paper Mill

Connor Dyer played Leo Frank in Vivo D'Arte's promenade production of Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown's Tony Award-winning musical PARADE at the world's oldest working paper factory, the Frogmore Paper Mill.

Due to the time limits of a two-and-a-half-hour show, there are many bits of information that we don't get to hear about. So to prepare for playing Leo Frank, I spent most of my time just reading whatever I could - like a detective working a case, I became obsessed!

Steve Oney's And the Dead Shall Rise became a go-to. I found that immersing myself in this world through literature, pictures, letters and various films and documentaries became key in really getting under the skin of Leo.

Getting to perform Parade in such a unique setting was extremely exciting! I have always been obsessed with the show, so when the opportunity arose to tell this poignant story in a number of different spaces within the confines of a working paper factory, I knew it would be special.

Staging it as we did really brought the world to life and made it so much easier to be completely in it. I think the promenade aspect brought so many important things out of the piece and highlighted them in a way that no other stage production has been able to do before

Since we closed the show, I've been lucky to look at what other people have said about it, and it's clearly apparent that it was an experience so mesmerising and emotional you had to be there to really understand it!

What was difficult was not letting the story really get to you and making a conscious effort to try and distance yourself from it when you got home every night. There were times where I just felt overly emotional about the whole thing and I had to try to let it all go.

However, I think the hardest thing about being in a Victorian factory was the lack of central heating - it was freezing! But I'd still do it all over again.

It's just been incredible to have the opportunity of being involved in what I feel was an extremely special production. I will be eternally grateful to have been part of director and producer Dan Cowtan's vision of staging this poignant story in such a visceral way.

To hear audience members sobbing and left speechless by the story you presented is quite remarkable, and a memory I won't forget!

Picture credit: Jamie Scott

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