Super swing saves Six: Teen Edition!

When Six: Teen Edition was released for amateur Youth Theatre Societies, I am sure the excitement that we felt in Johnstone was experienced across many youth societies up and down the country. The screams of excitement that rang out from our members, and the shock on their faces when we were able to announce our next forthcoming production, will always live in my memory.

At Johnstone Phoenix we always strive, as best as we can, to bring current and topical musical theatre to our local community and allow our young members the opportunity to perform shows that might not always be accessible to them in adult societies, or indeed as part of their careers, if they choose to follow the musical theatre career path. With Six: Teen Edition, the cast were able to experience this new treasured show fully and they embraced every second of the rehearsal period. As part of the production team, I will be biased, but the commitment, drive and talent displayed by our cast of Amelia McDonald as Catherine of Aragon, Olivia Regan as Anne Boleyn, Lucy Smith as Jane Seymour, Grace Todd as Anna of Cleves, Nieve Shankland as Katherine Howard and Emma McCulloch as Catherine Parr was exceptional. I was, and still am, so proud of each of them for bringing this production to life and earning the standing ovations and praise they received after.

With wanting them to experience the full West End feel of the show, and with consent from their parents, we booked the shows over one day meaning three shows on the Saturday with a dress and tech run on the Friday. Running for about 90 minutes, and adequate breaks in between on the Saturday, we were confident on a great result. However, the one part of the Six experience we didn’t foresee for our production, was the need of a super swing. Fans of the show will be aware that swings and alternates are so key to the professional productions, with lots of stories about last minute call backs from past cast members. Great stories to read, but not one you want to experience or indeed write yourself.

So, with that in mind, after 3 months of strong rehearsals, every part of our vision clicking into place, and with 5 days to go until the first curtain up … our Anne Boleyn was admitted to hospital! With Olivia’s health and wellbeing, a priority and thankfully in hand, as a production team we set about plan options on how to keep the dream of performing alive. Monday of show week was spent with frantic messages on what we would do. Cancelling altogether last minute would incur financial implications that could impact us as a club, and we had 5 other cast members who would have been heartbroken at the prospect of that happening. We also didn’t know how long Olivia would be out of action for. It could be a quick recovery, or take longer, meaning the unknown was harder to plan for.

In comes the idea of a swing standby, but who could that be? As a newer release, this isn’t a show that has been performed a lot recently, so the chance of finding someone who knew the part to step in was exceptionally low. The top age restriction of the license also limited the chance for a lot of ex-members or local am-dram performers who could pick up learning a part so quickly. Then enters the hero of our piece, ex-member and our forever titled Super Swing, Katie Wood. Still within the performing age group for the license of the show, and knowing the cast from previous productions, Katie accepted the challenge and agreed to learn the part, even though she knew if the situation changed, she might not get to perform.

Now with 3 days to go, a script was dropped into her on Tuesday night, and extra rehearsals planned for the Wednesday and Thursday evenings with Katie along with the other cast members, the hard work began. Katie arrived at the first rehearsal, having only had the material for less than 24 hours, off book, absorbed every piece of direction and choreography we threw at her and was giving a knockout performance already. The rehearsal time with the production team and cast was in total 6 hours and that included delivering a flawless run at the end of the Thursday night rehearsal. That rehearsal time and hard work at home, our super swing was ready, our other cast members were comfortable and we were set for the Friday dress rehearsal and shows on Saturday.

Thankfully, Olivia made a good recovery during the week and was able to attend the dress run, however with her health in mind we agreed that she would perform the first Saturday afternoon and evening shows, with Katie taking on the second Saturday afternoon show. Also being on standby in case she needed to jump in.

I am please to say we had a very happy ending, Olivia got to perform her shows safely and was grateful for the longer rest in between the Saturday shows and Katie also got an opportunity to show off her hard work. Credit should also be given to the other cast members who handled the change in casting between the shows seamlessly throughout each performance. All six of our original line up embraced Katie into their cast bond beautifully.

Not the path the team envisaged at the start of this exciting rehearsal period, but one that made this show even more memorable for our cast and crew. The team at Johnstone Phoenix Youth Theatre are so proud of our outstanding cast of seven who made Six come to life.