Secrets of Stage Success
That's what we used to think growing up, dreaming of working in musical theatre. Now, after years of hard work, we've been lucky enough to star in some amazing shows, including Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Ghost: The Musical, Evita and Cats.
We've picked up lots of tips from other performers, and have developed our own strategies and solutions too. In this book, using this knowledge and our experiences, we want to draw back the curtain and shine a spotlight onto how you can follow in our footsteps.
What makes our book really different (and useful) is that we asked our fans worldwide to submit questions – and thank you to the hundreds of you who did. Dozens of these questions are featured here, covering every aspect of the industry:
- 'What is it like training at drama school?'
- 'How can I improve my vocal range?'
- 'How do I prepare for an audition?'
- 'How should I find and select an agent?'
- 'How do I deal with rejection?'
- 'How can I progress from the ensemble to a leading role?'
Louise Dearman is a musical-theatre performer and recording artist, the first performer to have played both the lead roles (Glinda and Elphaba) in Wicked. Her other performances have included playing Sarah Brown on the UK tour of Guys and Dolls, Eva Peron on the UK tour of Evita, Mimi in the Donmar Warehouse's production of Guys and Dolls and Lucy Harris in the UK production of Jekyll and Hyde.
Mark Evans is an actor, singer, dancer and choreographer. He has played Elder Price in the North American tour of The Book of Mormon, Sam Wheat in Ghost, Flyero in Wicked and Troy Bolton in High School Musical in London. On tour in the UK he has played Brad in The Rocky Horror Show and Curly in Oklahoma!. He has worked frequently in television and radio, particularly as a presenter on Welsh-language broadcasts. In 2011, he created the title role of Marcaroni, one of the most popular children's shows ever made for S4C.