West End star holds Derry masterclass

Marianne Flood Reporter

A MUSICAL theatre star visited Derry this weekend to give young aspiring performers a taste of the West End.

Mikey-Jay Heath, who has starred in the likes of Barnum and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was the guest of Fresh Academy of Performing Arts.

Fresh paired up with Emma Lindsay Dance and Carrie Logue-Houston of Create at Studio 2 for the workshop.

Sinead Crossan, company director of Fresh, said it was a fantastic opportunity for the students. “We wanted to offer the West End experience to the young people.

“It’s something we want to do more of because we want to go above and beyond what a traditional community theatre school would offer.

“The icing on the cake is that we were able to pair up with Carrie and Emma.”

Around 45 pupils aged from 5 to 17 took part in Saturday’s workshop at the Foyle Arena studio space. Mikey-Jay put the pupils through their paces with three high octane dance routines taken straight from West End shows.

“He didn’t dumb it down this was the West End choreography lifted straight from the likes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Sinead explained.

“He pushed them beyond where they are at as performers.

“He told them ‘if you’re going to be in this game forget going in thinking you have it’.

“You have to be an all-rounder and you have to be fit.

“A lot of them are singers and actors before they are dancers.

“Mikey said dance wasn’t his strength, but he had to bring himself up to a standard where he could audition in the West End.”

At the end of the session Mikey-Jay held a question and answer session with the pupils to give them advice on how to prepare for future auditions.

“A lot of the young people will be auditioning for Peter Pan at the Millennium Forum which Mickey starred in and he was able to give them really strong advice,” added Sinead.

“It’s great too that they get to meet people from other groups because as Mikey pointed out the audition room is full of strangers.”