Community
20 September, 2024
Theatre stalwart’s big adventure
A CAMPERDOWN Theatre Company performer has returned from the opportunity of a lifetime.
Madidi McKenzie returned from London recently, where she took part in the West End Stage Summer School.
West End Stage Summer School is a United Kingdom-based theatre camp which aims to spark young people’s passion for theatre.
Ms McKenzie said it was a busy week, with classes from Monday, August 19 to Friday, August 23.
“Every single day, we would have a dance class, a singing class, a drama class, and a master class,” she said.
“I had some really cool teachers – my singing teacher was Angelica Schuyler in West End’s Hamilton, which was really cool.
“The masterclasses included someone from Les Miserables who came and did a masterclass, we had Cats the Musical make-up masterclass, and a Sister Act dance masterclass.”
The regular classes held throughout the week were preparing Ms McKenzie and others for their production of Beauty and the Beast on Sunday, August 25.
She had the role of Dusty the feather duster, which she said was “cool”,
“In drama, there were about five scenes, and in my group, there were about 25 of us,” Ms McKenzie said.
“They had rejigged the script to make sure everybody had a part. We all had four lines each, so it was all even that way.
“Dancing, we had to learn one dance that was just our group and then we did a whole performance group.
“In the singing, we had to learn three songs – two whole performance songs and one colour group song – I got a little bit of a featured part in the colour group song, which was cool.”
Attendees were organised into four colour groups based on age groups, with Ms McKenzie’s Indigo group being the oldest age group.
Ms McKenzie said her group had the end section of the play to perform, with the rest of the play consisting of sections performed by other groups.
“The other groups had another section of Beauty and the Beast, and when we all got together and put our corresponding sections in a row it all made sense,” she said.
“At the end of the week at the West End Stage, on the Sunday, we went to His Majesty’s Theatre in London, which is the home of Phantom of the Opera and we got to perform on that stage – which was incredible.
“We got to have a run-through because we were performance one. We did our run-through first, and while we were eating our lunch we could watch.
“There were three other performances, so we got to watch their practices, and we had our actual performance at 3pm on the Sunday.”
As one of 300 accommodation students, who stayed at Trinity Laban during their time at West End Stage, Ms McKenzie participated in nightly activities such as a talent show, a movie night, and a dress-up night.
She said attendees got to meet West End performers at the end of each day at the Guildhall of Music and Drama.
“We saw Joe Griffiths-Brown and Eve Shanu-Wilson, who are the current Raoul and Christine Daae in the Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty’s Theatre; Carrie Hope Fletcher, who was in Les Miserables and Heathers; Joel Montague, who is the current King George the III in Hamilton on the West End; and Lizzie Bea, who we got to go and see in Sister Act - she played Sister Mary Robert and she’s also been in Heathers and Hairspray,” said Ms McKenzie.
“I got to go see four West End shows – I got to see Mrs Doubtfire the Musical, Michael Jackson the Musical, Hello Dolly! and Sister Act.
“It was heaps of fun – there was full-on days.”
Ms McKenzie said the trip was “incredible”.
“It has really inspired me to do more with musical theatre because we got to see what it was like,” she said.
“Hopefully there might be a future in musical theatre.
“I think it was well worth the trip.
“London is a long way away, but I loved it.”