Chichester Festival Youth Theatre open-air debut with Shakespeare classic

SussexWorld

Elise Christina Donoghue has been with Chichester Festival Youth Theatre since she was 11. She's now finally making her debut with them – A Midsummer Night's Dream in West Dean Gardens.

Transcript

00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil here, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.

00:05 Fantastic to be speaking to Elise Christina Donoghue.

00:08 And you are about to perform with Chichester Festival Youth Theatre for the first time.

00:14 I am.

00:15 You clearly, clearly love A Midsummer Night's Dream at West Dean Gardens,

00:19 August the 4th to the 19th.

00:22 Now you've been a member of the Youth Theatre for a long time, but this is your debut.

00:26 It is.

00:27 Your first big performance with them.

00:30 It is.

00:30 It's taken so long and why now?

00:32 Oh my gosh, well, I absolutely love watching the shows every single year.

00:39 It's the, you know, the Christmas family tradition to go and watch the Youth Theatre

00:46 productions.

00:46 And I just never, I was never available for all of the rehearsals and time that goes

00:52 into putting on such beautiful productions.

00:54 And now I am because I've finished all of my education.

00:58 So yes, I am finally.

01:00 You're in between, you're wanting to go into the next stage of education.

01:03 Yes, yes, yes.

01:05 Going to drama school.

01:07 But yeah, I'm finally able to be in a production at Chichester Youth Theatre.

01:13 And yeah, it's, I'm very, very, very grateful.

01:16 And I feel very privileged.

01:18 Just speaking to you just now, it's clear that you absolutely adore Shakespeare.

01:22 Why?

01:23 Yes, I love the language and I love how, you know, how when you have feelings and emotions

01:33 in, like in plays, you know, in contemporary plays, a lot of, there's a lot of subtext

01:39 and a lot of, you know, hidden meanings, hidden feelings underneath a line that you might

01:46 not be actually, actually meaning.

01:48 But I think, especially with Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, she says how she's feeling.

01:53 She wears a heart on her sleeve and it's, and everything is explained beautifully through

01:59 imagery and, you know, through the sounds, even the choice that Shakespeare uses.

02:05 Does it?

02:06 Maybe surprisingly, you're suggesting that Shakespeare is so much more straightforward,

02:10 yet the language is pretty difficult too, isn't it?

02:13 Yes, yes.

02:16 Yeah, we've been working extremely hard to, you know, unpick everything that Shakespeare

02:22 puts into his language.

02:24 And it's, yeah, it's not, the play's not straightforward.

02:31 A lot happens.

02:32 There's a lot of fairy mischief that goes on.

02:35 Well, absolutely.

02:36 I was going to ask you, what do you think we're supposed to make of A Midsummer Night's

02:40 Dream?

02:40 Because it's a completely bonkers story, isn't it, really?

02:42 In the nicest sense.

02:44 It is.

02:45 It is bonkers.

02:46 Yeah, I feel like that's life.

02:49 That life is bonkers.

02:50 And you meet a lot of, you know, strange and wonderful people.

02:57 And so, you know, it's just all thrown together in the two hours that we're performing.

03:03 You know, all the characters are just heightened versions of people we come across, I think.

03:08 So everyone is recognisable then, is that the point?

03:11 Everybody, you know.

03:13 There's a character for everybody.

03:16 And I certainly, I go, oh my gosh, I would do that in that situation.

03:20 Or, oh, I wouldn't do that, personally.

03:23 Wouldn't go that way about it.

03:25 But yeah, there is a little bit of a difference.

03:26 And you've definitely found your character, haven't you, Helena?

03:29 I have.

03:30 I have.

03:31 Why do you love it so much?

03:32 You speak of her with great fondness, don't you?

03:34 Yes.

03:35 I've learned a lot from her.

03:39 I feel like there's something so beautiful about, you know, being able to express emotions

03:46 and, you know, and fighting for love and believing you're worthy of love as well.

03:54 She goes for what she wants.

03:56 Yeah, she completely is.

03:58 And she's just so, you know, she's just so vulnerable and so honest.

04:06 And even if she doesn't go about some things in the way that maybe, you know, would be right,

04:14 I feel like there's something so great about putting yourself out there and learning from

04:20 your mistakes, you know?

04:21 What's the point of, you're never going to learn if you don't try.

04:24 And that's what she does.

04:26 She tries very hard and it pays off in the end.

04:29 It sounds fantastic.

04:31 And you will, of course, be in a fantastic setting, won't you?

04:35 West End Garden.

04:35 Yes.

04:36 That's, yeah, I'm very excited for that.

04:38 We did a rehearsal a couple of weeks ago there and I was just, yeah, I was blown away.

04:44 It's so beautiful.

04:46 That will come with its own challenges, won't it?

04:49 It will.

04:50 Well, my hay fever certainly won't be helping.

04:53 You're going to be a sneezing Helena.

04:55 Yeah, I said to my dad, I said, I'm allergic to dust, so in the theatre it's a problem.

05:00 And now I've gone outside and now it's the hay fever, so it's just worse.

05:03 Oh, well, so if you'll be sneezing anyway, it doesn't really matter, does it?

05:07 Oh, no, no.

05:08 Yeah, I'll sneeze anywhere.

05:10 Yeah.

05:10 But yeah, a lot of challenges, but a lot is, you know, it's great as well because it means

05:19 that we, you know, we don't have to imagine what's happening around us.

05:23 Yeah, we can smell, we can feel, we can hear sounds, like everything is already done.

05:30 Just a gorgeous setting.

05:32 And in the greater scheme of things, this will be useful as you try and get your place

05:36 for three years of study.

05:38 Yes, yes, yes.

05:40 I have learned so much.

05:42 Obviously, you need a Shakespeare monologue when you're auditioning for drama school,

05:47 so I'm going to be well equipped with this amazing...

05:49 You just happen to have one.

05:51 Yeah, well, I do have one now as well.

05:53 But also with the work that all of the creative team have been doing with us, I'm going to

05:59 now be able to look at a piece of Shakespeare and, you know, be able to, you know, not be

06:06 overwhelmed by it, you know.

06:08 And yeah, it's, yeah, the creative team behind this is, I'm just inspired by them every day.

06:14 They are wonderful.

06:16 Fantastic.

06:17 We're really looking forward to seeing them.

06:19 Midsummer Night's Dream, West End Gardens, August the 4th to the 19th.

06:23 Really lovely to speak to you and good luck with all that's to come.

06:26 Thank you.

06:27 Thank you so much.

06:29 Nice to talk to you.

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