From Cats to Cinema: A Performer's Journey - With Hannah Kenna Thomas

Join your hosts Simon Jones and Émilie Freeman for an inspiring conversation with Wrexham-born performer Hannah Kenna Thomas as she shares the remarkable journey of her career on stage and screen.

From early beginnings at Delta Academy in Wrexham, to performing in the world-renowned Cats the Musical,  to appearing in major Hollywood film productions such as Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins and Wicked. 

Hannah reflects on the dedication, resilience, and passion that have shaped her path in the performing arts. She offers a behind-the-scenes look at life as a professional performer, discusses the highs and challenges of the industry, and shares memorable stories from some of her biggest roles.

Whether you're an aspiring actor, musical theatre fan, or simply love hearing the stories behind successful creative careers, this episode is packed with insight, inspiration, and plenty of entertaining moments.

🎭 In this episode:

• Hannah's journey from Wrexham to the world stage
• Behind the scenes of Cats the Musical
• Working on Major Hollywood film productions
• The realities of life as a professional performer
• Advice for aspiring actors and creatives

This is one not to miss....

Check out Hannah's Instagram channel HERE 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Creative Wrexham, the podcast celebrating the incredible minds, artists, and performers shaping the creative world. I'm Simon Jones.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

And I'm Emily Freeman, and we're so glad you're tuning in today because do we have an absolute powerhouse for guests for you today? If you're a fan of musical theatre, elite dance, or major Hollywood blockbusters, then you are gonna love our guest.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Absolutely. Today we're introducing the brilliantly talented British stage actress and dancer Hannah Kennethhomas. Now, Hannah's training is top tier. We're talking the Delta Academy of Performing Arts and the prestigious Royal Ballet Upper School in London. In fact, while she was still studying, she was performing annually at the Royal Opera House.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

And she shared the stage with dance royalty too. Back in 2012, she performed alongside Darcy Bussell at the London Olympic closing ceremony, and she's even danced at Buckingham Palace for the Prince of Wales. But for many musical theatre fans worldwide, she is best known for her absolutely iconic run as Victoria the White Cat in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

She practically made that role her own, from the 2014 UK Tour to the West End Revival at the London Palladium, all the way to the International Tour and the Vienna Revival. She even took part in the historic special tribute when they opened the Gillian Lynn Theatre.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

And if you think you haven't seen her, just check your movie watch lists. She's brought her incredible choreography and presence to the big screen as a featured dancer in major Disney films like the 2017 live action Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins Returns and Wicked.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Fantastic. She's an absolute force in the dance and theatre world, and we're going to dive into her journey from the Royal Ballet to the West End and Hollywood. Hannah Kenner Thomas, welcome to Creative Wrexham.

SPEAKER_04 1:42

Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Looking at your career today, what was it that inspired you to kind of pursue a career in dance and performance?

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Inspired me. I don't know. I was always drawn to the stage, I think. And I think I was quite shy as a kid. So I think my mum just kind of threw me in lots of different activities, and I guess just dance stuck. And it was the thing of being on stage, and you could kind of be someone else. Kind of drew me in a bit. And I always remember it took me so long to be able to just smile on stage. It was such a bizarre concept. Once I did it, I felt invincible. I don't know. That was kind of the pull. I don't know what.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Where did you kind of start then from Hannah, young person going into this industry?

SPEAKER_03 2:32

So I started at the Delta Academy of Performing Arts in Wrexham. Oh, it was great. I loved it. From the first minute I went there, I knew it was just where I needed to be and um what I wanted to do from you know the age of 10.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Can you tell us a little bit about your training at a Delta Academy and how that brings you up to the Royal Ballet Up School in London?

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Yeah. I always think it's weird because I think when I started Delta, there was a coincidence there was a new ballet teacher who also started there because Delta, it's like it's great. They prepare you really for like the whole industry. It's not just one, you're not, you're not railroaded down like one road. They do everything. So um I was really lucky to experience all that. But for me, I was drawn to the ballet side, and they had this new ballet teacher. And I just think it's strange. Like, she started there just when I'd started, and she was a real like ballet specialist, so weird, like meant to be kind of situation. And um would have her, and I think I must have watched, I don't know, Billy Elliott or something, and I was like, Oh, I want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Was it more performing arts or was it more ballet that you were interested in?

SPEAKER_03 3:43

I'm not sure. It was both. It was both, but I think when I started the ballet journey, I think I loved the um is it like the discipline and all this? Yeah, like it's technical and the way my brain works, it's very like black and white. So ballet is that. And yeah, I just took it off with this this new teacher, and she believed in me, and she said, Look, I think you should audition for the raw ballet. And I was like, What?

unknown 4:10

Like, why?

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Why me? Um, and I always remember, oh, I will never forget that audition, it was awful. I I did one, um, and it was I think I hadn't danced for long. I was quite late. I started when I was 10, and my other teacher, Diane, who was like the principal of the school, was just like, you know, just go in, they'll just get you to skip around the room, you'll be fine. I was like, okay, that's chill. And me and my mum went, I think I must have been 12, and it was so intimidating. Yeah. Because all the kids were so much more ahead of me in terms of uh technique, everything, experience. And I remember leaving and I was like, let's just go. That was like the transition-ish.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Where was the audition at?

SPEAKER_03 5:03

It was in Birmingham, yeah, it was for the Royal Ballet, and obviously I was terrible. I was terrible. I remember leaving, I was so embarrassed. And we left, and I was like, Oh, I'll never do that again. Like, not you know, let's just get out of here. But then I had a letter like a few months later saying I'd gone into the associate programme, which is just every weekend, and I was like so shocked. I was like, that's weird. Yeah, but yeah, I guess from there I started doing weekends in the associate program and just went from there.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

For those who don't know, what is the associate program?

SPEAKER_03 5:37

So it's uh a program they do, so it is the Royal Ballet, but it's every weekend. So they have the full-time students, um, the vocational students, and they also have like the associates. So it's you're still of a standard, you're not the vocational standard, but they keep an eye on you and they train you in that way.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Did you find that that helped you as a performer going from that stage rather than going straight in?

SPEAKER_03 6:03

Definitely, because I wasn't ready. And I actually got in a full-time school in between or after I got the associate programme. Yeah, before I started. It was really weird. And a a lady came to Delta and she said, Look, you should be in full-time training for the for the for the uh it's called Elmhurst. She got me a private audition. I'd previously auditioned and I didn't get in. She got me a private audition, and I think I was 13 or 14 at the time. I auditioned on the Thursday, and on the Friday, the principal came up to me of this vocational school and said, We'd like to offer you a place. Come on Sunday. Now I was a girl that I'd never been over, I'd I was not a sleepover, I couldn't do a sleepover at this point. But it was my dream, and I was so excited. We went, my mum was absolutely like not devastated, but she was. It was kind of very abrupt. I was there a week. It was too much, it was too much too soon. And my mum was like, right, that's it. There's no more dancing because you've done it, like this is it now. Like you've got to stop. Like there's no more dancing after this. This what's the point in going back? And I was like, that's fine. I just I want to go home.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I'm so homesick.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

But that kind of inspired me because I saw the girls there and I thought, yeah, this is what I want to do. And I did carry on in my own way after that. Um, it was hard work, but it was, you know, we had to travel to Birmingham every other night to get the ballet classes at that point. Um, so it was a full-on two years, but it was worth it in the end, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah. Sounds like a big up to your mum for a lot of training. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

Oh my god, the train journeys we'd have running for trains late at night. It was fun.

unknown 7:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Yeah. Do you because without that support, do you think you'd have been able to give it another try at doing the full living scenario?

SPEAKER_03 7:55

Definitely not. Definitely not, no. And and again, it was weird, like we just bumped into people who said, Oh, you should do this, you should do that. And it was, I always think I love, I think when you when something's meant to be or when something is meant for you, you'll find people will come out of nowhere and give you some advice and and help you on that journey. And it's one of my favourite parts about this.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

This has been one of the themes that has come up a lot in uh all of the podcast conversations that we've had, which is that every single f uh person that we've interviewed has talked very heavily about the idea, whether they've labelled it as such, but have talked about the idea of synchronicity. Yes. About the idea that even when things hadn't worked out, it had enabled them to be in the right place at the right time for the thing that did come up. 100%. Um and that yeah, it's one of the sort of lessons that I've taken on board from the conversations that we've had is every single person we've interviewed has talked very strongly about synchronicity. And we've felt it ourselves in in our own things. Exactly. And it does, you sometimes just sort of I think have to be able to go with the flow but open to the opportunities that are coming, like eyes open and ready for when when they're coming, because they they do in the weirdest sort of ways. And it's always when you've been knocked back or something, and then you go, ah, that's why the no or the doorway that you think uh the worst thing that happens to you sometimes being the doorway to the best. The making, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah, definitely. And and being able to have those opportunities to not see it as a closed door, like you said. Yeah, yeah. Because sometimes there's a reason why it closed on you to open up another possibility for somewhere else. Yeah. And I've experienced the same thing myself where one door closed and then another one opened, which probably was a better one.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely at the time.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Um, so yeah, very much so. You mentioned before about Delta and your time with Delta, a big shout out to Delta Academy again. Um, you're teaching there now as well, is that right?

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Yes, I am, so I'm back there, and it's amazing. Like I was just saying to you, um it nothing's changed there. The the venue's changed, but other than that, like it's it's it's such an amazing place, and um there's so much passion, and it you know, yeah, it's it's great. I think it's amazing if you're for me, it's it was life-changing going there as a kid and just having all that experience and and yeah, nice to give something back as well. Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

We we had uh Harrison as our uh a previous guest on the podcast. Um you both started off at the Delta Academy, but you've both had very sort of, I guess, similar but also very separate trajectories. He's gone very much into um acting. Your career has a real focus on classical ballet. It comes up and comes through a lot. How do you think classical ballet as as an art has helped shape the performer that you are today specifically?

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Yeah, good question. I think it's very different because I've gone into the musical theatre world from the ballet world. It's very it's so different to just general musical theatre or modern or any kind of dancing because there's so much um discipline and like etiquette that's involved in it. And yeah, it's for for things like cats and stuff, it was the best training, but I must say, in terms of like the whole dance world, it is really good because you know your setup really well. If anything, I always think people who have done ballet, you can tell because not to sound um not bad, but they're so humble, like if anything too humble, yeah, than you know, kids who have trained in musical theatre and they're like, You're amazing, yeah, go for it, which is great, and you need that, but ballet, ballet kids, especially but if you've trained in ballet at a high level, you're broken down. You're broken down, you're told you're shit, yeah, you're not very good, and sometimes you're you're not built built back up again.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Do you think it makes you more prepared for rejection because you've had that harsher critical lens on your own?

SPEAKER_03 12:05

But it's a it's a fine line because definitely you're you're definitely prepared for the real world because it's harsh, and the in in the Royal Ballet School you were more than prepared for that, and um but yeah, on on the other scale it's like yeah, it can go too far the other way where you you sometimes can lose all confidence because it's so harsh, but um I think it's a good thing because it it definitely prepares you for for real life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Where did you kind of end up then with doing your ballet from Delta going to the ballet school? Where did you kind of go from there?

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Yeah, so I got into the Royal Ballet upper school. After all, I left the Elmhurst and um just did train journeys every night. And it was also a bizarre thing that I got in because it was only vocational kids and people from all around the world who there's 12 places worldwide who get in. And it was my mum used to say, Hannah, if you get into the Royal Ballet School, I'll run around Carvent Garden Stark as naked. So she didn't believe in me. But that's how hard it was, and she's just realistic. Um but I did, and it was just a weird and wonderful thing. And once I got there, I don't know, I was definitely behind the other kids because I was I didn't have the vocational training, but I had the potential, and they saw that in me, which was really, you know, grateful to this day. Um but I think being there and being so behind, and especially the school being the way it was, I just lost all confidence. I lost I want to say not the passion for it, but I did a bit.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Um, and I just I went with it and I was like, this isn't for me. It's not for Philly, like the reward I get from it isn't worth the sacrifice for me at this point. For some people it is, but for me, I was like, it it's not it's not enough.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

How did you find that then being so young, going through that experience and not necessarily losing your kind of childhood and your your teens, but obviously you were in a very professional capacity as well.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

How did you kind of associate that your free time around your professional work as well?

SPEAKER_03 14:24

Um, well, we had a lot of fun outside school. We had to because we had to blow up so much steam because it was such an intense environment. Um, so I'm grateful for that in a way, because I it and I think we're all weirdos. I think the kids who go to these schools, you all misfits, you're all weirdos, and it's like you all have find this thing that you're really good at together to a high level. So together we all got on so well, and I think it was kind of not a trauma bond, but we went through so much together. We're like family now, like all my we're still all like my best friends to this day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Um did you have to continue your studies? I know when we spoke to uh Lydia Griffiths uh on the podcast, who was on the West End herself, she was in LeMiz. Lovely from Wrexham herself, and she was still studying, she won a uh talent competition, then went to uh perform, but she had to continue her studies at Castle Allen. Did you have to continue your studies through that time or did you pass in the Royal Ballet?

SPEAKER_03 15:23

No, they do, but it's like let's just do a business B Tech. It's probably changed now, I don't know, but we did a lot of business B Tech inquiration marks, and it was yeah. You you do, but they no, they real rule. Yeah, yeah, which I loved because I'm not an academic person.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Yeah so while you were training at the um at the ballet, you were also performed at the Royal Opera House annually. Um what was that experience like as a young performer and how did that come about? Was that because of your training?

SPEAKER_03 15:54

Yeah, and it it was through the school, so it was like end of year shows they put on there, um, and it was amazing, absolutely amazing. Like it's the stage is incredible, it's so daunting. And um, I just remember being like incredibly nervous, incredibly nervous about their performances, but great, it's great experience, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

You also performed in the London 2012 Olympic closing ceremony alongside Darcy Bussell. Um, what are your kind of memories that stand out from that event?

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Well, I remember it was such it was in the summer, and I had to stay over at a friend's house, and it was all a faff, and it was like, oh I just I shouldn't have done this. It was like all the rehearsals, and I will never forget the actual the feeling of it when I went on and did the actual performance. It was like nothing other. It was like, whoa, it was all worth it because the atmosphere, I don't know, it obviously the stage is huge. Yeah, and it was just the atmosphere, and I don't think I'll ever experience anything like that again. Um, it was all worth it because it was incredible. I don't remember a single thing other than the atmosphere, and it was just all a blur after I, you know, you go on and perform. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

No, you mentioned before when we we popped into the Willie Masson Hall earlier, and even then you said it seemed a lot bigger at the time. Obviously, when everyone's a bit smaller, it always seems a lot bigger. What was that like? Obviously, being on that stage, coming out to that huge, huge audience.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Yeah. Yeah, speechless, literally speechless. It didn't have a word for it. All I can think is the atmosphere, and it you just had an out-of-body experience almost, but so grateful for it.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

And how did you get that event or how did you were you asked to do that?

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Yeah, they came to the Royal Ballet School and um yeah, they just asked if if uh some of our class would like to take part in it. Fantastic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

How did you transition then from, you know, your career was very much ballet focused? How did you then transition into musical theatre? Yeah. Did that change come in?

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Uh that was when I left the Royal Ballet School in 2013. And I left and I was like, right, that that's it now. I want to do I don't even know. It wasn't a clear thing. I just knew, right, I still want to perform, I still love what I do, but it's just not ballet. That it's just I've got to go back back to my roots almost with Delta and doing I used to love doing all the the different uh style dances in the competitions. It used to make me feel more alive and yeah, the ballet just wasn't doing that. And I just was like, Yeah, I'm gonna do that. Not sure. I didn't know where I was going, if I'm honest. I came home. Yeah, I'm gonna do musical theatre. Okay, can you sing? Oh, not bad, I don't know. And it's so again, these weird coincidences. My mum bumped into a friend's mum, he also, Matt Holland, he also used to go to Delta Academy, and he's in he's done the West End. He's another one maybe you can talk to.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Um and she bumped into his mum in Aldi, and I'll know if I'll never forget this. And I was looking for at the time an agent because in the musical theatre world, to get an audition, you need an agent. I had no clue about any of this. And she bumped into her and she came home and she said, I've just bumped into Matt's mum. His agent is casting cats. Now, cats was when before I even started dancing, I used to be obsessed with it. I used to watch the video, and I used to I make my mum buy me a white cat suit, and I used to just play around the living room pretending I was in cats. Anyway, so I've always it's always been there in the back of my mind. And she said, He's get in touch with his agent, he's casting cats. I was like, Oh, just leave it. You know what you like, you're just like mum, stay out of it, like just leave it. And anyway, I remember just sending him a show reel just to shut my mum up, really. And I'll never forget, like a few days later, he got back in touch with me. Well, you know, I'd forgotten I'd sent the email and he said, Hi Hannah, thanks for getting in touch. Um, we're actually casting cats at the minute, we're just looking for the white cat. Would you come along to this audition? And I as soon as I read that email, my stomach dropped. Like I just it was weird, it was just that one character they were casting. Oh, really? That was the one that I'd always wanted to be. And it was like, I don't know, I just was like, oh god, I knew it. Like I knew I don't something was gonna come from it. Yeah. And I went to the audition and it was full on because we did the part of the jellicle ball from cats, and that's very hard. But um it was a weird, like full circle moment. I remember doing the white cat solo in the audition and being like, I can't believe I'm doing this right now. This is what I used to do when I was little. Yeah. Anyway, from there I I got the job, and that's how I got in. Then I took um my agent who cast that. He then became my musical theatre agent.

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

So yeah, weird coincidences. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

From Aldi.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Aldi.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

From Aldi's the place to be. Casting agents in Aldi.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

You you said that that was always the character, you know, strangely, that you'd always liked when you were a little girl. What was it about the role of Victoria that you were drawn to? I'm really not sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:25

I think most little girls who come to watch the show love it because it's it's white and I don't know, all all the little girls are drawn to it. It's so strange. For me, I don't know what it was. I I still don't know.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Like it's a part of uh a, you know, British childhood, a rite of passage to watch it on the VHS tape. I can remember the cover of it. Same. And and to go on a school trip, we went to um Black. Let's say the the Manchester Lyceum. Is that right? Probably. Um remember it was a theatre in Manchester, and we we all went to see it as a class group. And it was like the one and only time that we did something like that. As children, you know, where we went to go see it as on a school trip. And there was something magical about being up past your bedtime, you know, with your school friends. And you know, it's not necessarily just the people you go to sleepover with and all the lights going down. And if you've never seen theatre before, it's it's quite an intense, you know. I think it's a make or break thing for making people either love or hate theatre because if you're gonna see any show, that is a show, you know. You've got performers jumping all around you, and it doesn't sort of stop from start to finish. And I remember some people coming out of it a bit like I didn't like that, and then a load of kids coming out of it that became obsessed with with it, you know, because it's it is a very full-on production, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

It's huge. I remember going to London myself and watching Phantom of the Opera at a very, very young age, and it's still touring to this day, I think, for the next couple of years. It's still touring in London. Um, but I'll never forget that experience and that that dramatic power that that isn't the chandelier and the the performances. I was very fortunate to see it with Sarah Brightman, which was phenomenal, and it's it's stayed with me ever since.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

I love that. But it is that feeling the lights go down and it you're in a different world then almost.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

Yeah, the the sort of stars on the uh on the backdrop start twinkling, and I remember just sort of you know, they recreate, you know, I know all the trash cans and everything, and they'd recreate even little things. I could remember, you know, I'm I'm not uh as well versed with the story as you are, but one of the cats comes through the audience, a male cat, and you on stage you can't notice it. But when he was up close in the audience with us, you could notice like the shimmer on all of the things that he was wearing, and you could see how beautifully the detail.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

The detail.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Yeah, and I remember all of the children being a bit like you know, because it is you you don't notice the the sort of attention to detail unless you're immersed in it, you know, watching it on a VHS tape, as most of us did in the 90s. It's a very different experience to being there, you know. I'm so glad you've watched it and you know, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

It's almost like the the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester where it's like an octagon. Yeah, and all the performance come come out from all different angles and you're immersed in that kind of environment. Um and I remember when I took my my and my daughter there, it was kind of an immersive experience for her to see all these performers up close rather than being far away on a stage somewhere. Um going back to your performance in Cats, what was um what was it like making your debut as Victoria?

SPEAKER_03 24:27

Oh, it was magic. It was just I mean, it was all again a bit overwhelming and just kind of thrown into it, really. We had seven weeks to learn the show. There was not I'm lying, we had four weeks to learn the show. Four weeks. It was hard because the it was a lot to learn, and I was again a fish out of water, like I was in the ballet world. I was a fish out of water here, and it was a lot of training, a lot a lot, and um, you know, they took no prisoners. The lady who trained us, she was amazing, but really like tough because she used to also be the white cat back in the day, so wow, she was very tough on me, which was a great thing in the end. But it was I was only 20 at the time, and I used to used to leave rehearsals and I used to cry a lot.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Yeah. I was trying to explain to my partner, he um, you know, is very practical, practical man who does very practical careers. And I was trying to explain that anybody that is in the creative space in any sort of way, whether you did acting, training, singing, musical, theatre, classical, anything like that, if you had creative teachers, you watch the film whiplash and you will absolutely understand what that experience is like because everybody knows what it is like to have the difference between somebody that just teaches you at your job and somebody that has, you know, the personality of a drill sergeant in full metal jacket, you know, and their job is to break your spirit, you know. And you can do, you know, all the people in all these different disciplines of the creative arts, every single one of them knows what it's like to have that sort of creative mentor. You know, it training for any sort of creative job usually involves a lot of people. It's like army training, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:09

It's a lot of emotional resilience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

I can imagine when it comes to that though, after all of that happens and you come out on stage and you perform, it all comes into place.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

Well, it took a lot because obviously you do eight shows a week.

unknown 26:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Yeah. And I would say I never really got my teeth into it until a f like I'm gonna say months. Months it took to grow into it. And even that's the good thing about the show, you do the same show every day, but I've done it, I did it for years really, and always learning, always improving, and it I don't know, it provided so much, but the the beginning was so magical and just dream, absolute dream come true.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

So it was and being with a cast and and crew as well on such a Andrew Lloyd weather performance.

SPEAKER_03 27:00

And believe it or not, this is another funny story. We toured second venue. I we started in Wimbledon, that was where I opened, did a week there again for shelf water. The next venue was Landidnal, but got a little bit of foot in at this point. Anyway, we'd spent the day, it was like a summer, spent the day in the park, was on the swing, felt motion sickness, was like going into work. Like, I feel a bit weird. Our company manager came in. Oh, we've got a VIP guest in today. Oh, who? Andrew Lloyd Webber. Wow. And Trevor Now. Oh gosh. Oh, great.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

No pressure.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

Of all venues. He came to Landidno. And it was from there that he decided he wanted to bring it to the West End. He saw our production and said, We're gonna bring it to the West End from that day in Clandedno. Again, out of the blue, just happen randomly. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Victoria as a character is one of the more sort of physically intimidating and demanding roles in the whole production. You mentioned then that you, you know, as with lots of productions, you're doing eight shows a week for a very extended period of time. How do you then take a role that that's that's that physically demanding? And how does your interpretation of that character change over time, over different years, over different productions, even? How do you keep that character sort of fresh for yourself?

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Definitely, great question. Um so yeah, you've got to you've kind of got to master the physicality of it. Um, but it's also a a great exercise to for me, it was like to bring the acting side out of it, which was like a whole new thing. And we have three words by Trevor Nunn, because he did, you know, he did the all the I'm gonna get this wrong now, but he was like he was kind of like the storytelling side of cats, and he gave every cat three words and you can play with them. So Victoria, it was romantic, unself-conscious, and innocent.

unknown 29:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

And that was a really great thing to come back to if you were a bit lost in your what you know, whatever you could play on um romantic one show or play on on another word and all that kind of thing, but it definitely develops, and I think as I grew, it changed, and you can bring different experiences to it. Again, same show, same character, but it changes. So that was the beauty of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

For anyone that's wanting to get into that kind of role, how do you or is there any kind of tips or tricks of how you bring yourself into that role? Is there anything you brought to it? You thought I need to establish this character, this is what I do to become that character.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Yeah, good question. I I think the way they cast cats, they're very clever. And the lady who casts Chrissy, she is like I don't know, like she sees you, like it it she casts it as as you, so uh it's kind of easy because you come in and you see the actual performer and the character they're playing, and you think they are that character. Yeah. It it's so bizarre, yeah. And so it's kind of easy in that way, but I don't know, I think it's different for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

I think um Do you kind of utilise your training and your ballet training to become that character?

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Um, yeah, definitely, physic physically, but I think the acting requires something different to become the character. So it you've got the physicality, but you've also got to bring you've got to think about it more. Whereas in ballet, you know, you it's just physical, a little bit of acting on top, but well not, it's not it is more than that, but um yeah, you de I definitely had to think more about it. And the three words helped me, and just seeing other people do it, watching other people on stage really helped me as well.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Do you kind of critique your own performance? Yeah, yeah. Or too much how do you kind of move from that then? Because I know we're all very critical in our own kind of creative minds, but obviously doing a performance that's so iconic and it's gotta be on the money. Yeah, literally. How do you kind of not I wouldn't say improve yourself, but how do you change once you know you've done something?

SPEAKER_03 31:17

I know. Um, so for me it was such like again, I got so much from the show because the solo itself, the White Cat solo, when you're just balancing on one leg, it's only a few minutes, but it's very exposing, it's really intense, and you've got to be on it. And the first when I first joined, I don't know, I kind of just sailed through it and I was like, Yes, easy, blah blah blah. And then something happened. I think you can do it so many times and your mind just again the critic the crit the critical side of your mind kicks in and you overthink and do this and do that. And it it became like a bit of a block and a bit I got quite anxious and nervous about it, and it's like anything, once you get a thing about something, then yeah, you're in that rabbit hole and you've got to get out of it. Exactly, yeah. Um, and that was a whole challenge in itself, and that's dealing with yourself, yeah. And that's what I loved about this show because it it not only are you doing what you love, but you find places within yourself that you have to dig deep and come out of and and deal with and and grow. Um so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Did you get any feedback from Andrew Lloyd Weber after that performance, other than taking it to London?

SPEAKER_03 32:39

Yeah, do you know what I had a really lovely um note from Andrew Lloyd Weber. He gave us all um Old Possum's book of poems of practical cats. Can I say it wrong? T. S Elliott, yes. And this was where Cats was was from. It was a book of poems, T. S. Elliott's poems. It's I've I've got it.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

It's a lot of people. Oh I love how it's the cutest little book um of cat poetry. And if you read it, um you'll hear it in the songs. The songs are written around, and each of the characters is one of the little poems in there. It's a lovely little book.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

So he gave us all one of these as a present. That's so lovely. And he wrote in it, and I love this because he just wrote, White cats will never be the same. Oh, that's lovely. I thought that was incredible.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

That's great. Android Webber.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

And that's beautiful. No something more Netsy then, not tea.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

No, I'll keep that one. The white cat ballet is one of the most like iconic parts of the whole show. It is it must be so physically demanding as a section. Do you think there's anything about the rolling cats, not necessarily yours, but just performing in cats, a physical demand that people wouldn't expect or wouldn't think of? Because everybody sees people tumbling about everywhere and you think they're doing this eight times a day, like they must be, you know, you know, they are athletes. Is there an element of the physicality that people wouldn't expect?

SPEAKER_03 34:00

100%. It is you're an athlete, and it's like eight times a week you've got to produce the same thing. The jellic ball, which we all have to do. Again, some characters are more intense than others physically. Um, but it's tough. It is tough. But I think if you're made for that show, you love it.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

I loved it.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

You know, my days when I'm in the show, yeah, it's like, oh, you've got all day off. All day is prepping. It's like you're preparing for a race, you're preparing for something all day. I used to eat pasta at the same time every day. Pasta, yeah, pasta at 3 p.m. Oh my god, I don't want pasta. Yeah, I was gonna say about your diet. Yeah, and a protein shake after the the ball and all this stuff, but you accumulate that routine, for me anyway, that that worked, but it's intense. And I remember once we were on tour, and one of the I think it was the producers or something, oh, you're just having fun on stage, and we were like, you have no idea. Yeah, we are having fun, but it's so demanding, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Very much so. Um, Hannah, you've performed your role in the UK tour, then went on to the London Palladium. Amazing, then an international tour and the Vienna Revival.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

So how did each of one of those productions differ, if any?

SPEAKER_03 35:18

Yeah, good question. So yeah, they're all so different. Of course, the tour productions, they've got to be kind of lighter on their feet, if that makes sense. Like they've got to be able to tour. So the set is slightly smaller and the band is smaller, and then obviously when it came to the palladium, it's bigger, better, things would things changed for the palladium, they changed some of the roles. And I must say, the Vienna production I I did was it was great because they had, I want to say, like, a 30-piece orchestra. I'd only ever done cats with like a seven or eight piece orchestra. Oh, and that was such a dream. And what a place to be for the Viennese kind of orchestra there. It honestly, it there was no expense spared for that production.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

How long were you in Vienna for?

SPEAKER_03 36:06

I did cats there for three years. It was only meant to be one. COVID happened, it kept extending and extending, which I loved because I'd never had that sense of security, not security, but that long in a contract before. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:21

And it's a beautiful city as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Oh, I'd go back tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

We've just touched on the difference of some of your roles being uh tour-based. What do you think some of the um sort of demands and the highlights of touring versus um being sort of its set in a production is? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

I think there, yeah, pros and cons to both. The good thing about tour is you really like you're in a bubble and you do loads with your cast. You're like, you are like a tribe, you know, the jellical tribe on stage, but off stage, it's good and bad. You know, if you get along with them, it's great. If you don't, you're stuck with them. Like yeah. So there's that sense of like togetherness, um, and you really get to know people and you become a family on tour. It's obviously touring is hard because you know, you're in a different venue each week, you don't know what you're eating, you're in a hotel, it's food is difficult, and it's the good thing about being set in one place is you can get your routine, you've got your you've got your you know, where you live and stuff, but the con is you don't spend so much time with the cast, you especially in Vienna, uh, people who were like from Vienna, they've all got their families and stuff, and they'd go home after. Um, but it would be a lot of us, a handful of us Brits who were out in Vienna that kind of clumped. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

When it when it comes to touring or um working somewhere international, how do you maintain that um your mental well-being and your physical health when you're doing something that's a little bit more out of the ordinary? You've got homesickness to add to the bill, you've got, you know, the the bubble sort of environment, like you say, if you don't get along with your castmates, or even if you do, how how do you keep that um focus on your your mental well-being and your physical well-being when you're doing something like that?

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Good question. And I don't really know the answer, to be honest. Sometimes I've done better than others. Um and I just think it's a case of throwing yourself into it and just and yeah, just throwing yourself into that environment and being open to it all. And because I think the minute you push it away and think, Oh, I want to be at home, it it's done, you know, you may as well be at home. So I think you've just gotta throw yourself into it.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

I know we had the same conversation with Harrison recently about how he kind of divides his time and has his kind of professional side, but then has to kind of go and do other things, and he does a lot of kind of gym work and does he?

SPEAKER_03 38:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Do you have any particularly memorable backstage moments from your time with cats?

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Backstage moments? Oh my god, I should have thought about this. I definitely do.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

What I kind of envisaged was more from every touring production that you've done, just being backstage, looking at the audience, looking at the the people arriving, those kind of moments. I can imagine every one of them was different in itself from the palladium to Vienna.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Definitely, it's that it's the nerves, isn't it? And it's that excite it's nerves, but it's excitement. I must say it's probably the the one that sticks out, it's probably the opening night in the London Palladium because it was the revival the last time it was there was in was it the 90s or something. Um so that was really special. And we started the show, it's called Flashing Eyes, and again, you got the light, the eyes on, and you you're in the audience, like scaring them with the eyes. And that was weird because you start in the audience, you'll crouch down, and you could feel the audience in a way, um, and I just knew that was a really special night, and was really grateful to be a part of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

Fantastic. You've appeared in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins Returns, and more recently, Wicked as well. Um, how does that transition move from your kind of musical theatre and performance there uh to now working on major kind of films?

SPEAKER_03 40:21

It's so different. It is so different because on stage it's like you're on stage at 7:30, you know what time you're on. In the film world, it's what is it? It's like get ready and wait kind of situation, and it's early morning, so it's complete opposite lifestyle of the theatre world. And I think Beauty and the Beast was the first one I did, and it was such a shock to myself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

How did you make that transition then from being a performer on the stage to getting away?

SPEAKER_03 40:50

Yeah, on the screen. It was all kind of connected, and the yeah, it was just through my agent. He also got the auditions through and Aldi again. Not this time, maybe next time. Um, but yeah, it was just through him and I did the audition, and yeah, such a shock to the system because it is just complete opposite. I just remember waiting in a in a small room with 50 other debutant girls with corsets on and huge dresses. You know, you got up at four o'clock in the morning and sometimes you're not used till six pm at night. Um, so it that was kind of a really difficult experience for me, but I kind of now I love it. I don't know why. It's I've kind of gotten into it a bit more now.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

And so is this whilst you were still performing with cats?

SPEAKER_03 41:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

How did you transition then between the time of being a performer on cats to then going and doing films?

SPEAKER_03 41:52

Um, I don't think I have. I am not a morning person at all. Um, but I'll do it. When I did Wicked recently, they were night shoots, and I I found that a lot easier because it just felt like you were on a long night out. You start at like 10 p.m. and you finish at like 6 a.m. And that worked better for me rather than getting up at 2 a.m. getting to set for five and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

So I yeah, they're they're such different beasts, aren't they? I mean, you you're eight shows a week, everything's insane, everything is so fast paced, it doesn't stop for no one. And then, you know, TV and film sets, there's an awful lot of waiting around. 100%. A large portion of your time is because you've got so many different departments, you know, all working as different cogs in a machine. And, you know, you might be, if you're one cog in the machine, you're waiting for 15 other cogs to do their things exactly for when you need to do yours. But then when it's on, do you think having that uh ability to sort of be non-stop helps you for when when it's your department's turn to switch on, it has to go like a million miles an hour because definitely it's your time to be on and you know you've been hanging around for this long, you need to, you know, be quick as you can for this next 15 minutes of your life. Do you think that stamina and that energy of working on stage?

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Definitely you can definitely it's that adrenaline, isn't it? It's that same thing. You you may not have had the luxury of prep and getting yourself in the right headspace, but yeah, you've just got to go. And yeah, yeah, it is a good, yeah, good prep for that.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

How does that kind of differ then with obviously on a film set you can retake, you can have those performances retake on stage? That's it. It's the the only performance you've got. Um how did that differ for you? Were you able to do more takes? Were you able to be changing your kind of style a bit more?

SPEAKER_03 43:46

Yeah, um, again, I feel like yeah, you can do more takes, but you're still, you know, you're still under the like you've got to get it done kind of thing. And it's not up to you, is it essentially like how many takes they do? So you've just every take, you've just got to try. Okay, do my best. This one. This is the performance. Now, now it's this one. Now it's this one. So it's kind of similar to the stage. You've got to produce the same thing every time. Because you don't know when they're going to go. Yeah, that's fine. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 44:13

Oh, it wasn't a good one. What's the difference, Feel, between having, say, an audience who are set back from a stage to a camera that's a few feet away from your face? You know, the the difference.

SPEAKER_03 44:24

It's so weird because I'm used to the stage. So it the stage naturally it kind of gears your body up for um adrenaline. And so you're naturally more in a I don't know whether it's your nervous system is naturally more prepped for performance. That's how it is for me. Whereas in the camera, it it feels more unreal. So it for me, it's harder to get in the zone a little bit more because it's I don't know, you you think, oh, it that's that, but there's a million people essentially behind that camera. Yeah. You just don't see them. You just don't see their reaction. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Plus, you're not getting, I think we touched on this on the last podcast. You're not getting that audience reaction. Yes, absolutely. You're not getting that feedback and that feel.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. There's just crew walking around, like, oh yeah, just do this, just do that, okay. Oh, action up now, action now. And you're like, oh god.

SPEAKER_02 45:17

The energy difference of having a whole audience of people hanging on your every word and three guys having a conversation about what they're gonna have for lunch, you know, and it must be a really different verb.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

Dispels that myth a little bit of all the magic of Hollywood that's going on. How did it feel then? You we talked about that that that feeling of walking out on the stage for the first time. What was it like walking onto a film set for the first time for you?

SPEAKER_03 45:40

Weird, weird, because it was um yeah, the Beauty and the Beast one, and it was obviously a huge ballroom scene, so very lucky Disney ballroom set, you know. It just you know, for the first one, that was so magical. Um, but just a completely different different world. You know, when you're there, it's you don't tie you're there all day, you don't see daylight, and it's you're in a different world. It's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 46:08

What was your character in um Beauty and the Beast?

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Um, a debutante. Debuton. Yeah, so yeah, there was a few of us who were debutons dancing around. That's in the ballroom scene.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. What about Mary Poppins Returns was another film you're in?

SPEAKER_03 46:23

Yes, so um I was an animated dancer in that one. So when you s if you see the flamingos, they're animated, but we did the movement for it. That's um so that was incredible. Um, we were dancing behind, I think, Emily Blunt and Lynn Manuel, I think that's his name, yes. We don't want to get that wrong. Miranda, yeah. Um, yes, and um so yeah, and it was amazing because it was a a lot of work in that one. You don't see us because we're cartoons, but the work involved was really fun.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

Was that motion capture? Yeah, the motion capture suits.

SPEAKER_03 46:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

Amazing. And then more recently, Wicked. Yeah, fantastic, it couldn't get any bigger as a film, really.

SPEAKER_03 47:03

So good, so good. And again, just came out of the blue for that one. I didn't I I didn't even audition it. My agent just put me forward and they needed ballet dances. I was still living in Vienna at the time, and I just flew home and did that, and it was incredible. Night shoots, again, hard work, very hard work over the summer, um, but a magical experience. We were on set, and Ariana and Cynthia they were singing live, so that was incredible. Like a random moment, like 3 a.m. in the morning, middle of this field, not far from Milton Keynes, is where it was filmed. I still pass it on the train now to London. I'm like, that's where Wicked was filmed. It's so weird. Yeah. Um, and just hearing them singing, and you think, what is life? Like, this is incredible.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah, how far you've come from those days, you know, of being nervous and apprehensive of going to kind of classes.

SPEAKER_04 48:03

That's it, absolutely. Yeah, so lucky.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Um, looking back on your career so far, what has been your proudest achievement through all this?

SPEAKER_03 48:13

Definitely cats, yeah, definitely cats. Yeah, it's like I say, like such a dream come true. And I'm always just so I'm so grateful and just so honoured to have been able to be in it, and especially the productions I've been in, I think have been so special. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

Do you think you prefer going more into the film side, or would you go back more into theatre?

SPEAKER_03 48:38

I definitely am very intrigued by the film side these days, and I would love to do more in that a hundred percent. Um, and obviously still love theatre and dancing and performing, so um I'm up for it all. Yeah. But definitely the film is really intriguing me at the minute, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:59

Well, um what advice would you give to a young dancer um or performer that was wanting to sort of follow a similar path, go down the musical theatre route or go as into film as a dancer? Yeah. What sort of advice would you give for somebody starting out in their career?

SPEAKER_03 49:14

I would say it sounds cliche, but just follow your heart with it and just if the passion you've gotta be passionate about it. You've gotta be. And just follow that. And you know, things come up, the path changes, but just go along with it and you've got to work hard, obviously. But I think when you've got that passion, it's not a hard ask. It's like, but you've got to keep going because you'll get so many knockbacks, whether it's I don't know, just things at the beginning, like, oh, that class has stopped. Oh you'll have to find another class. Find something else. If it's there, you've got to keep if you know, you know, you've got to keep going. And as you get older and you go to auditions, so many knockbacks, but you've again you've got to keep going, keep the faith, and keep the big one. You've just got to always believe in yourself, always. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

What kind of inspiration have you given to the the youngsters at Delta Academy? Obviously, being so so much in the industry yourself.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

What do you prepare them for?

SPEAKER_03 50:17

Yeah, I I think obviously it's like the technical stuff, but I always keep it lighthearted because I think it should be. I think this industry is you've got to keep that love and that light-heartedness there. And I think I experienced a lot of the heaviness from it, so I don't want to do that for them. I want to just I think essentially it comes from them. I can only do so much. Like I think any someone teacher or anyone who's guiding you, and you can tell the ones who have got that fire and will go for it. And I just want to encourage the love of it and um the belief and just keep going. But don't take it too seriously, is what I always like to think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:03

How do you think the industry's changed since you were f you first started in it professionally?

SPEAKER_03 51:07

I think it's changed a lot actually, especially since COVID. Actually, I I've noticed a huge change. Obviously, there's less money in it, I think, in the everywhere. The film, the theatre since COVID, and that's got a big, you know, change to that.

SPEAKER_00 51:25

So I think more people have been used to what streaming shows.

SPEAKER_03 51:30

And watching shows.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

I know a lot of performances were streamed in cinemas and and at home.

SPEAKER_03 51:36

Definitely. And I think the what people want to see on stage is different now. And for me, coming from a classical background, I'm not gonna be in the shows like um Hamilton or anything like this. So the dem the demand is changing. So I've noticed like the the the classicals, it's still there, of course, but of course everything has to change and evolve. So yeah, I have definitely noticed it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Interesting. What's your favourite classical piece for theatre?

SPEAKER_03 52:06

Ballet or musical theatre.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

Ballet and musical, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:09

I'm gonna say cats 100%. Of course. It's gotta be cats. Um and ballet, um, oh gosh. Um, I'm just gonna say classic Swan Lake, really. I just I love the music for that, so that's why I think music's a big part of it for me. If the music hits me, you know, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

Yeah, very much so. We're just gonna play a very quick fire round with you. Um asking a couple of questions. So you can either give it as a one-answer or you can give it a couple of answers. Um, I'll let you start with the first.

SPEAKER_02 52:40

I think we're already gonna know the answer to this, but what's your favourite role that you've ever played? Victoria the one. And do you have a dream role that you haven't played yet?

SPEAKER_03 52:49

I would love to do Chicago. I don't know, I I should know the name, but it's the the Russian one in Chicago, and she goes, not to do the tea. Was it? No, it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 53:00

I would love to do Boxy, but I don't think I got the voice. It's the Russian girl in the cell block tangles, isn't it? Yeah, and she's yeah, what does she do? She's the bit that goes uh uh uh out of all of them.

SPEAKER_03 53:13

Aldi more often.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Um what's the most favourite city you've toured in?

SPEAKER_03 53:20

Oh, toured, I'm gonna say Amsterdam. Oh interesting. Loved Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

Uh pre-show rituals.

SPEAKER_03 53:31

Oh god, don't go there. Many. And everyone's the same, and I'm so glad I'm not the only one who's absolutely nuts with this. I had to tone it down because I would do the white cat solo probably about a hundred times before I actually did it on stage. Oh, yeah. And then we had a break from the show during COVID, and I said to myself, Hannah, it's gotta stop.

SPEAKER_04 53:56

With myself, we can't continue like this. I was dead before you got stage.

SPEAKER_02 54:01

Everyone else is just trying to do their warmups, and you were just doing the white cat was too in the corner. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

I was strict with myself, and I I cut it down to like two or three, maybe four, maybe five.

SPEAKER_00 54:16

I know some people have different routines of food, or they have to have certain things in their country. Yeah, that as well.

SPEAKER_03 54:21

No, definitely. And some of my friends, I won't tell you, I won't drop names, but the things he would do, he'd have to drink, he would have to sneak to a certain person's dressing room and drink from his tap.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

It's just brilliant. And he'd have to do it then.

SPEAKER_00 54:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:38

And he'd say, Don't tell him, don't tell him because I I won't be able to drink from the tap.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

Even after changing different locations, the same dressing room, same WhatsApp.

SPEAKER_02 54:46

So great. Um, what is the most challenging choreography that you've ever had to learn?

SPEAKER_03 54:54

Again, cats.

SPEAKER_02 54:55

Really? Over ballet?

SPEAKER_03 54:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:58

And I yeah, I also was shocked when I was in rehearsals for that because it was it is a mixture of ballet and stamina and strength. Of course, like ballet is very, very, very, very hard, but I think it was the mixture of it all together, which was um my body wasn't used to the strength and the stamina aspect of it. So yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:19

Where can people find a lot of your performances that you've done? Can they find it online?

SPEAKER_03 55:23

Can they find it through websites or I think on YouTube they uh the Katz um the Vienna production put a lot, there's a lot of videos on there.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:32

Um Cats Vienna, probably, type in on YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

Who is the performer you inspire to be?

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Oh gosh. When I was when I was younger, I used to love Darcy Bussell. So she was like, I used to look up to her and in the ballet world and and you know, want to be like her.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

And you got to work with her as well.

SPEAKER_03 55:54

Yeah, well, yeah. Um, and again, I'm gonna say it was um the lady in the the again, I'm gonna say cats again. Um uh Philoder Smith, I want to say, and she was the white cat in the in the the old VHS. And I met her as well at an event, and she was lovely, and um I got a picture with her, and I was like starstruck.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

So you're quite nervous meeting her because obviously you're doing her performance.

SPEAKER_02 56:21

Absolutely, yeah. She was lovely.

SPEAKER_00 56:23

Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

Describe your experience with cats, but only in one word. Magic. Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 56:30

Fantastic. What's next for you then, Hannah? And are there any upcoming projects that you're excited to share with us?

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Um, yeah, so I um there's a few things. Again, I would love to delve more into the acting world. So I'm taking a few more classes with that and just seeing where that leads. Um, I've done another few um movies that ha haven't come out yet, just you know, not the star by any means, but you know, it's great to be a part of, and I love I'm I'm loving being a part of the atmosphere and just soaking up, soaking it all in.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

So yeah, that's kind of what you have to change agents for that in between the film size.

SPEAKER_03 57:13

Um there's a f uh ish. Um I I think I may need to in the future. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

Finally, if you could go back and give yourself your younger self one piece of advice before you entered into the industry, knowing what you know now, what would you tell your younger self?

SPEAKER_03 57:31

Oh my god, that's such a good question. Um my god. Just do it for what you love, always believe in yourself and keep doing it for for the love of it, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 57:43

Hannah, it's been a pleasure having you on the Creative Recksum podcast. You've certainly had an amazing career and something that you know is is very inspirational. Uh, given your performance and your kind of industry knowledge back to Delta and the people there as well, uh, is invaluable, really. Um what legacy do you hope to leave in the world of dance and musical theatre?

SPEAKER_04 58:05

Oh my gosh. Um, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 58:08

Legacy, it's such a big um yeah, just oh gosh, legacy do I want you to leave? Like again, just I want to just inspire people to just if you love something, you've just gotta throw it, throw everything into it and everything, don't leave anything back and just like yeah, uh for the work I've done, I've always done that. It's always it's all all consuming, but I wouldn't have it any other way, and I think that's what makes things for me. Um I'm quite all or nothing. So I I think it's great to just throw everything into what you do if you love it. And yeah, I hope I hope it shows on in performances and on stage. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:55

I feel it's a very inspiring career that when you look at the audience members, young audience members to either theatre or ballet, they're always inspired by the performers, they always read the booklet and find out who each one is.

SPEAKER_03 59:06

Definitely, and I think they can sense they sense it, don't they? It's like as you're drawn to certain things and there's something that you just can't put your finger on. And yeah, that's what I like.

SPEAKER_00 59:16

From what we said before, with all those experiences we've all had as young people.

SPEAKER_03 59:20

Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 59:21

We all inspire to be something, and we inspire ourselves by people we see doing that role. So it's it's a great, great legacy to have, really. It's inspiring people.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

I agree. Very much so. If there's one thing that you would like anyone that is an aspiring performer listening today to take away from this conversation about changing their dreams, would that be it? Just to sort of throw everything at it? Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

And belief. A huge one, yeah. Because you've if you don't believe in yourself, you you'll be knocked down straight away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:51

That brings us to the end of today's episode, really. Hannah, um, thank you again so much for joining us and sharing your incredible journey uh from your training at the Royal Ballet School to performing on stages and scenes around the world. It's been absolutely fascinating to hear about your dedication, your artistry, and the passion that you have that shaped your career.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Thank you so much. I've had a really lovely time. Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Anna.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

The Jericho Moon is shining bright.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

Jericho's come to the jellico door.