UCLan’s third year Music Theatre students are to perform their final show ‘Watertight’.
‘Watertight’ was written by Douglas Maxwell, who has work performed all over the world and directed by Roger Haines, an award winning director who has worked in the industry for over 18 years.
The undergraduates are to perform their last show from March 26-29 and will be held at St. Peters Art Centre on St. Peters Square.
An exciting new dimension for the students was working with such credited people, who are still in the industry.
The show centres on John Paul Abraham, a wealthy businessman, perishing in a fire at his house.
No one knows how he died; except for a few of the guests who attended the party, ‘The Thirteen’ – who were all coincidentally down by the barn, away from where the fire started.
Everyone is a suspect; together they constantly try to rehearse the story to create an alibi.
The show was originally performed in Glasgow at the Royal Scottish Academy (now known as the Royal Scottish Conservatoire) but was adapted to accommodate the UCLan group.
Roger said “When it was originally performed, it was with 14 students, whereas here we have 24”.
“We had to increase the amount of police in the investigation, we introduced a new area into the show, the interns, and they didn’t feature in the Glasgow show”.
“It was a great benefit, we introduced a sense of lightheartedness – it’s a dark piece, but the interns bring something else to the show”.
A lot of the students have never worked with an industry professional like Roger before, it is invaluable experience for both parties to gain.
“I treat them identically (Industry and Student casts), in terms of rehearsal processes and terms of myself on the floor (the stage). Although I have to remind myself you can’t expect everything at this level that you would have automatically at professional level, the students are still learning”.
Roger commented on how impressed he is with the standard that the students have, this being his 3rd year of working with UCLan.
“One of the reasons we come back each year, providing we are available, is the course leader, Mark Goggins- Who is very passionate about making new work. He’s very happy to make a production that is not necessarily known to the public”.
The third years were amazed on how things change when you work with someone who is outside the university.
Hannah Thurston , who plays ‘Jade’ and in Programme design, said “I feel everything has to be more professional ,we’ve learnt a lot because of that and the pressure to look good and impressing them has made the working process is different because everyone is taking it a lot more seriously. And we’re being more professional as performers.
Natasha Proffitt, who plays the ‘Japan intern’ and part of the costume team said “It was a challenge because we’ve had to source everything ourselves to a budget, but it was great to have a new production role”.
The production team and the cast have worked extremely hard for weeks, rehearsing round the clock to perform what will be their last show together.
Tickets are open to the public. £10.00 adults £4.00 Concessions (No Concessions on Friday – Saturday evening)
The complete performance times are;
Wednesday – Saturday evening (Thursday and Saturday evening have sold out!)
Matinee’s – Friday and Saturday
To book your ticket, email watertightuclan@hotmail.com
For more information about the performance, cast and crew, please visit Watertight