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.
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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.