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Evita Workshop with Seamus Cullen

It was Sunday morning; we had already had Chapel and had just been informed that if we wanted breakfast, we had ten minutes before our mystery West-End star ‘Seamus’ arrived.

You can imagine the scene, but probably not the day that quickly followed it.

At around ten to eleven, in strode Mr P (Pickles) with a young gentleman with this massive smile who was greeted by Mrs P (our director), Mr Robson (our musical director) and Mrs Lewarne (our choreographer). It wasn’t long before we were all stood up around this happy chap, eager to get the day rolling.

Seamus Cullen was a finalist on the BBC show ‘Any Dream Will Do’ and we could all certainly see why. From the word go he was energetic and charismatic, getting us to drop all inhibitions we may have had and generally warming us up by making us shake about. After this brief exercise, he told us that one of the best definitions of acting was that acting is the ‘ability to live truthfully in the given imaginary circumstances’ and that this would be our focus for the day (along with his other command to not judge ourselves). We all introduced ourselves at this point with the interesting method of saying our name, where we’d like to be in five years time and something that we had felt or been moved by in the past forty-eight hours which gave us all an insight into how everyone else was feeling.

Then it was straight into vocals!

He briefly focused on how to breathe properly, which was informative yet fun as we got to shout ‘oi!’ multiple times (when the group of three had one person left we had a full scale demonstration which left some ears ringing!) and then we watched short clip on the vocal chords and how they work. He then got us to stand around the piano and sing to ‘Brr’ (nicknamed ‘Bubbles’), ‘Vvv’ or ‘Rrrr’ for those who could roll their Rs. This proved to be a challenge for some as we hit those low notes that girls can only dream about and those high ones that boys tend to fear. An interesting and enjoyable morning; and as we broke for lunch everyone was enthusiastic to show Seamus a little of our own production.

We reconvened a little later, fed, watered and ready to go. And what a better way to channel such zest than to spring the most enigmatic song of them all on Seamus – the full cast number ‘A New Argentina’. We all shuffled around to find our spot, and five minutes later (spot the cast who still hadn’t finished digesting their lunch), Harry and Marienella (Peron and Eva respectively) were singing the opening phrase to a vocally and physically demanding song. We sang through it once and after a few pointers from Seamus and a few more than few from Mr Robson, we performed it again, with a little more conviction. Again, once we had finished Seamus gave us some advice, saying that we should really imagine what it would have been like, fighting for what they believed in, and to embody the personal emotion we could draw from that, both physically and mentally. Third time lucky and we were really going for it! By the end I was pretty wound up, and the last notes rang in the air as Seamus gave us the feedback. We finally got the necessity of drawing from our own emotional catalogue and that meant we were on the road to good acting.

At this point, we divided off and our principals went with Seamus as the ensemble continued to work on different parts of the show. We all took Seamus’s advice to heart and a lot of the acting felt real, which really spurred us to work harder and we all enjoyed the experience much more.

As the day began to draw to an end, Seamus reappeared with Harry and Marienella (they had been working together for around an hour) and sat down in front of us. Seamus briefly explained that they were going to perform Eva’s final scenes (‘Dice are Rolling’ and ‘You Must Love Me’).

And then they were in. And it put us all to shame, what they managed to produce in front of us.

As it became evident that the tears that were falling were coming from our Eva were personal and very, very real the cast began to realise that this was exactly what we were aiming for – this emotion so raw and effective that by the time they had finished the scene (even with the few breaks so Seamus could give them advice) with both Peron and Eva in tears, there was a minutes silence as we all sat there dumbfounded.

Seamus had just shown us what it meant to live truthfully in the given imaginary circumstances, and had completely and utterly blown us away in the process. We had just sat in front of the two people who build the story and we had watched as they threw their entire being into the story and situation of Eva Peron. Needless to say, there weren’t many dry eyes in the room.

Seamus told us to give them a hug, so with the full cast hug achieved, Seamus signed off with a standing ovation very humbly received by our West End leading man. People began to leave the rehearsal, none before personally saying thank you again to Seamus and hugging the two leads again; and as I said my final goodbye I felt truly amazed by what one man had managed to do with thirty tired teenagers on a Sunday afternoon.

Looking back on that day to write this, it really must be said that Seamus completely and utterly refocused our attention on this musical. It can be very difficult for a director (as Mrs Pickles has told us before) to motivate a cast, and although Mrs P is a truly inspirational director, Seamus was what we needed to get us to step up to the plate. We are very grateful for the hard work that went into the day: no doubt the result will be clear when the show takes to the stage.

Thank you, Seamus.

Text by Kosi Carter
Photos by Jeremy Pickles Enjoy the photo gallery

28 October 2011

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