Student Blog: It's Time to Keep Living

This is the show we have all been waiting for. Three whole years, and we conclude our course with one of the most incredible musicals. One of my dream shows. Pippin! It was a very emotional week as we moved into the theatre and seeing our set for the very first time. Very few of us had seen a draft of the concept but nothing prepared us for how fantastical it was going to be as we walked onto the stage for our first briefing. It was equally a moment for us to process that this would be the last performance we would share together in all its completion – it felt all too surreal. 

As you know, or may not know now if this is the first of my blogs you’re reading, I played Berthe, Pippin’s extravagant grandmother, banished to the countryside with a whopping 7-minute solo and sing-along! Our version of Pippin is set in a private warehouse gala, a masquerade ball hosted by our Leading Players, and the audience are all immersed as a part of the experience as attending guests at the ball.

And in this blog, let me take you through the closing chapter of my time here at the University of Winchester, with a grand finale and a farewell. Or perhaps, many farewells.

Let us start at the very beginning.

We started rehearsals in mid-March. Starting with the usual brief of how rehearsals were going to run, the expectations and how we would alternate between the double casts. Yes, our show worked was double casted, which meant we each had a buddy to work alongside for our roles! It did not mean that the offstage cast would just be standing by backstage. The offstage cast was just as involved as the onstage cast they would have to sing during bigger ensemble numbers, to lend their power.  

By tradition, the director names the casts after something significant to the show, and ours were named after the two incredible performers who played the Leading Player: Miller, after Patina Miller in 2013’s Broadway Revival, and Ben Vereen, who originated the role in 1972’s Broadway production.

Now, for rehearsals. With little time on our hands, our schedules were constructed very precisely. A week would be split into two different segments. The first half dedicated to vocals and the next half for workshopping the scenes. Our rehearsal times began at 8.30 for our student-led warm ups, led by our designated dance captains, and run-throughs for any material that the casts need revision for. At 9.30, we begin our session with the creative team.

In the first week, we ploughed through every ensemble number in Act 1. The way we did it, our MD would have us record our harmonies, send us off into little corners to practice then come back after a good 20 minutes to have a sing through.

Hearing Magic To Do for the very first time in that room is an experience I would love to relive repeatedly. And do not get me started on Morning Glow. I remember crying the first time we sang it through, and I proceeded to cry consistently every time we did it, all the way until show day. I just got very good at hiding it!

There were many opportunities going around in the production that offered cast members to be a part of the creative team. As mentioned before, we had Dance Captains, two in each cast, and we also had Music Captains, one in each cast; one of which was me, but I was more on the tech side of it, having handled Q-Lab while my co-Music Captain handled the vocal work! We had a designated props team of volunteers to make the masks for our masquerade theme, and to handle props backstage where preparation was required as we had a lot that needs a quick reset such as rolls of red ribbons for Glory (too many to count!), masks being on the correct side of stage, and the worst of all, the boxes.

Speaking of boxes, our set was made of cardboard boxes that would be reorganized onstage for different settings. It is with great emphasis when I say that they played a massive part in our production of bringing the show to life. From becoming the throne, to a warzone, to a farm – The boxes were practically our lifeline. And one of the most important roles in our creative team was our very own ‘Lord of the Boxes’, a special title bestowed by our director. They were the one who would oversee the placement of the boxes, handle the flow of transitions backstage, and ensure the correct props were in their designated boxes. They had a way with the boxes that no one else knew of.

The opportunities were not limited to our cohort, but it was opened to other year groups if there was any interest in shadowing a certain role or volunteering to be a part of the tech crew. In which case, we had three lovely third years. The first two hopped on board to shadow our choreographer but were soon promote as assistant choreographers so that we could multitask.  For example, when certain roles were needed for a specific dance number with the assistant choreographers, the remaining cast members would be taken out of the room to work on their scenes or solos with the MD or the director. It was all very intricately coordinated in our schedule to ensure maximum efficiency so that our creative team had the puzzle pieces they needed to complete the image and no cast member would be left standing idly (which was never the case with how busy this show is). The third second year joined the crew during tech week as our assistant stage manager!

It was a very hands-on production with an incredible amount of collaboration and crew working as a team to put the show together. Over the Easter break, the remaining few of us in Winchester would come in to help with prop making, and I wasn’t going to complain about the extra quality time I got with my friends. Returning to the rehearsal room after the Easter break was also a reminder that we only had two weeks more until we had to move into the theatre for tech and show week. That meant three weeks left of our course before we were officially done as 3rd years.

In the two weeks that came and went by too quickly, we spent it on costume fittings, coordinating box transitions for each scene or song, polished and ran two full runs with each cast. It was a hectic two weeks for sure, but it was more than enough to prepare us for the crazy tech week ahead of us.

Being on set for the very first time was phenomenal. I had the pleasure of being one of the first to see it as I was helping the sound crew as music captain. And, of course, the waterworks came. I was in tears seeing our show come to life piece by piece, and the tears would not stop across tech as many people were quick to point out the many ‘lasts’ we have had. Our last vocal warm up, our last physical warm up, our last round of notes – you can imagine how many of them we’d counted over our final three weeks. The most heartbreaking of the ‘lasts’ was our last time be in the rehearsal space. We said goodbye to the Paul Chamberlain building, the place that has seen us through our growth in the last three years.

The show opened on May 16, Friday with a matinee, opened by the Miller cast, which was followed by an evening show with the Vereen cast. And on the closing day, May 17, Saturday, the casts would be swapped so Vereen did the matinee and Miller did the evening. As things often are, nothing was perfect but the experience of it all was. There were a few mishaps with the boxes but many audience members have mentioned to us how professionally we handled the scene changes, much to our surprises. But the thrill of a minor change really kept us on our feet which was the energy we needed. On more than one occasion, the lace of my dress just loved to stick like Velcro to the bottom of my character heels that I would find myself tripping over and nearly meeting the untimely death of my dignity. But with acting, it would all be a part of the show. 

There are no words I can use to describe just how magical it was to be in the space, to become the characters behind the masks and just be. First year me would never have believed that I would be dancing in character shoes for my final year show when I’d been so against heels and could barely walk in them. I would have never believed that I would be singing one of the greatest acapella bits that I’ve been longing to sing since I was introduced to Pippin in Fosse/Verdon back in 2019. Most of all, I would have never believed that I would have the honors of playing the role of Berthe.

 To be surrounded by all these people that have become a huge part of my life, to bask in their brilliance everyday only to move on with life seeing them ever so rarely – There were a lot of goodbyes.

After Vereen’s closing show, one last time working with my beautiful cast, I would also say goodbye to Berthe as well.

I would give so much to sing those songs again on stage, and one of the saddest things I’ve come to discover is I might never play Berthe again until I’ve grown into the role. Unless someone is willing to give me the chance to sing ‘No Time At All’ again.

I cannot exaggerate just how grateful I have been these past three years in university, and for BroadwayWorld for allowing me the pleasure of writing these blogs to document my journey for you guys out there. Hopefully, you will consider giving university a chance if you’re looking for a Musical Theatre course, especially at the University of Winchester, and I hope some of my blog have helped you one way or another.

With my final bow, I say goodbye to this chapter of my life and to this course that has pushed me to no end to reach further.

Credits to Eloise Vaughan (our very own Leading Player) and Emily Sandoval for the beautiful pictures.

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