Everyone deserves a moment to live their dream, so join Your Chance Productions for a special charity concert this October to help raise money for Derbyshire LGBT+ and the Notts LGBT+ Network.
Live Your Dream will be an uplifting evening of West End and Broadway classics, bringing powerful performances from a host of talented local performers. They’ll be stepping into a number of dream roles they’ve not yet had the chance to play or re-living some of their favourite past performances.
Ahead of this concert taking place at The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton on 21st October we speak we director Jessica Morgan-McLean and assistant director Richard Kish.
What can you tell me about Live Your Dream?
Jessie: It’s about hopes and dreams and giving people a chance to sing and take on roles they might not have had the chance to for different reasons. We’ve gathered together a wonderful group of performers, some are seasoned actors and singers, others are fairly new or have only recently returned to theatre and performing after a break. This concert is giving them all a chance to live some of their dream roles and on top of that we’re supporting the LGBT+ community! Some of our members are part of the community, and the rest have friends and family who are, so it was important to us to support the cause as LGBT+ people are facing many challenges right now. Your Chance Productions was created as a safe space, a place where everyone is welcome and everyone can feel like they belong and they have friends; Live Your Dream as a concert is an extension of that.
Richard: We’ve got a really wonderful mix of classic and contemporary musical theatre in the concert. There’ll be many songs you know and love, and many songs you’ll come to love. It’s going to be an evening of big songs and love and celebration. Plus, we’re raising money for our local LGBT+ charities, Derbyshire LGBT+ and the Notts LGBT+ Network. Both have been working tirelessly for decades to support LGBT+ people, providing welfare support, resources, and community events. Right now, it’s more important than ever to support them as we see our rights to just live a normal happy life are being challenged across the world.
What inspired this evening of musical theatre?
Jessie: We’re quite a small group, operating on quite a small budget for most shows. This means that we often can’t afford to perform big, flashy stage shows with elaborate sets and colourful costumes. I have worked with a lot of talented performers at Your Chance Productions, and we normally only do plays because of the costs associated with musicals, which limits what members can do. But everyone loves a bit of musical theatre and a concert like this allows us to do something different, to celebrate musical theatre and to showcase the many skills our members have.
How have you approached selecting the talent that is going to perform and the numbers that will feature in the show?
Jessie: Everyone was welcome. Anyone who has been part of a show we’ve done before was approached to get involved and we also shared our plans on social media allowing anyone else who was interested to reach out. The team had a discussion about songs that might fit with our theme, but cast members were also asked to contribute numbers they’d like to sing and from there we worked out a beautiful set list. As we’ve rehearsed, we’ve adapted the show to work around the talents that we have and to support those who have the skills but not necessarily the confidence to shine.
Richard: When Jessie messaged me about taking part back in May, I leapt at the chance. I had such a wonderful time performing Avenue Q with the group last summer, so it was an honour to be asked to take part in this concert. Princeton in Avenue Q actually was my dream theatre role for the longest time, so I actually got to live my dream then. So, when it came to ideas for this concert, I had to figure out what my new dream roles were and what songs I love to sing and what could work in a concert setting like Out There from The Hunchback of Notre Dame or You Will Be Found from Dear Evan Hansen. As I got more involved with the production side of the concert, it was lovely working with the other performers and Jessie to find songs that fit the themes of dreams and love and identity. It’s been a real collaborative effort, but the final set list is really lovely and I can’t wait for us to perform it.
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| The company in rehearsals. |
The night promises to spotlight and celebrate inclusion, hope and the freedom to be yourself. How have you approached this?
Jessie: Musical theatre is quite cut throat even in amateur dramatics. There are a lot of groups and a lot of talent. Quite often directors are faced with tough choices, to go with a safe option, someone they’ve worked with before, or take a risk on someone new. Many very talented people are overlooked for this very reason. They’re new to a group, or they don’t have the right look and when shows are so expensive to perform that can often mean directors don’t pick someone, not because they’re not good enough but just because they don’t look right or they don’t know them well enough. Not here, this show allows people to be who they want to be, without the pressure of an expensive musical with certain expectations and it means they can sing and they can shine, because everyone deserves the chance to shine.
Jessie: Musical theatre is quite cut throat even in amateur dramatics. There are a lot of groups and a lot of talent. Quite often directors are faced with tough choices, to go with a safe option, someone they’ve worked with before, or take a risk on someone new. Many very talented people are overlooked for this very reason. They’re new to a group, or they don’t have the right look and when shows are so expensive to perform that can often mean directors don’t pick someone, not because they’re not good enough but just because they don’t look right or they don’t know them well enough. Not here, this show allows people to be who they want to be, without the pressure of an expensive musical with certain expectations and it means they can sing and they can shine, because everyone deserves the chance to shine.
Richard: I’m so proud of everyone who’s performing, because we’re lifting each other up and supporting each other and pushing ourselves further than we perhaps thought we were capable of - and the result is a wonderful concert of great songs with some stunning performances. Everyone is so talented and I’m spending most rehearsals just grinning.
What would be your 3 Desert Island Musical Theatre soundtracks?
Jessie: Just 3, that’s a tough question. Musical theatre has been part of my life, most of my life, since my parents would watch classical musicals on TV when I was a child, to local groups as well as professional shows I’ve been to see. Recent shows I’ve seen and really loved have been Starlight Express, Mean Girls, Bat Out of Hell, Legally Blonde and Bonnie and Clyde but there’s so many classics. Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Calamity Jane, West Side Story, Oliver, Avenue Q. So many.
Richard: It’s too hard for me to say just three, as there’s so many soundtracks I have on repeat regularly. Right now, it’d be Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame; but give me Avenue Q, Waitress, Legally Blonde, Wicked, and most Disney any day and I’ll be singing along.
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| The company in rehearsals. |
What was the first piece of theatre you remember having a big impact on you?
Jessie: I’ve always enjoyed theatre, my parents got me the VHS tapes of Cats and Joseph as a kid I’d watch them lots, but in terms of live theatre? I saw Starlight Express at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham when it toured in the early 2000s and remember it blew me away as I’d never seen theatre like that before. I remember seeing Avenue Q when a local group did it, which gave me my love of puppetry and then when I saw Lion King in the West End that also blew me away, but that was only a few years ago. I rarely got a chance to see West End productions when I was younger.
Jessie: I’ve always enjoyed theatre, my parents got me the VHS tapes of Cats and Joseph as a kid I’d watch them lots, but in terms of live theatre? I saw Starlight Express at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham when it toured in the early 2000s and remember it blew me away as I’d never seen theatre like that before. I remember seeing Avenue Q when a local group did it, which gave me my love of puppetry and then when I saw Lion King in the West End that also blew me away, but that was only a few years ago. I rarely got a chance to see West End productions when I was younger.
Richard: The first real piece of theatre I remember is going to the Nottingham Playhouse panto every year on Christmas Eve. Those shows formed the core of what Christmas is to me. After that it would have been The Lion King down in London which we saw for my Mum’s 40th birthday. I actually still have the ticket stub for The Lion King and think back fondly on how special it felt. And actually, I also grew up on those same VHS tapes of Grease, Cats, and Joseph! Since then I’ve seen many other shows that have all had something special, from the warmth of the crowd the first time I saw Everybody’s Talking About Jamie to the fastest standing ovation I’ve ever been part of at the first run of Heathers at The Other Palace. More recently the two shows that have stuck with me are Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York), which is opening on Broadway soon, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which is closing in the West End in a week or two.
What gives you inspiration?
Jessie: Often when I see a play, hear a piece of music, watch a film or TV show and something in it sparks something inside me. It makes me think “I want to do something like that” and then I often fall down a bit of a rabbit hole, researching, watching different versions, listening to sound tracks and then plans start to form. I have a whole book of productions I’d like to do when time, budget and/or licensing becomes available.
Richard: Life and other art. Every book I’ve read, every show I’ve seen, every game I’ve played, every song I’ve heard; it all comes together to form the fabric of my life and seeing how others have created that art inspires me to go on and create my own. Which reminds me that I really should get back to writing my second novel once this concert is over!
What would you hope someone takes away from the evening?
Jessie: Nothing is impossible, if you want to do something, then do it. Never be afraid to be who you are. For anyone who feels like they don’t belong, well here you do. We are a community, we are friends and you are always loved. Even if people just go away thinking “that was a good show, I’ve had a good night” then that’s also great. Come, have a good time, sing along and support a good cause.
Richard: By bringing us all together, Jessie’s letting us live some of our dreams on that stage, so I hope people will take away the message that dreams can come true, and everyone deserves a chance to live their dreams. But also, that everyone deserves the chance to love who they love and be who they are. I didn’t realise my own sexuality until my late twenties because throughout my childhood, society had presented it as something wrong and a reason to be bullied. And so I refused to acknowledge that part of me. If there’d been some of the shows we have now back then, maybe I wouldn’t have had to suffer the way I did. And with seeing the challenges the community is facing right now in America and even here at home in the UK, it’s more important than ever to be present and vocal about supporting the LGBT+ community because we cannot go backwards.
When is the evening taking place?
The concert is taking place Tuesday 21 October at the Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton.
Where can readers get tickets? Tickets are available at https://bit.ly/LiveYourDreamConcert or they can visit https://www.duchess-theatre.com/
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| The company in rehearsals. |
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