Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in just ten days
Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is this year’s Summer Youth Project from Hastings White Rock Theatre’s learning and participation department, with five performances on the main stage, starting with a gala night on Thursday, August 15 and running until Saturday, August 17.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Fantastic
00:06to speak to Ben Watson again. We last spoke for Panto at Christmas at White Rock in Hastings,
00:12but Ben, you're back. Very different guys, very different challenge ahead. You are masterminding
00:17the big summer youth project, which this year is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Stats
00:24are quite, well, daunting, aren't they? 100 in the cast, 10 days to put it all together.
00:29How are you going to cope with this? Except you've done it before.
00:35So hopefully, according to form, we're all on track. And what could possibly go wrong?
00:42Firstly, I just wanted to say it's lovely to see you again, Phil. And you'll be glad
00:47to know that Cinderella has found her prince. So I'm now redundant from Hard Up Hall. So
00:57I'm now, I've now left, left Pantoland. And I'm now, so I'm now stepping into, yes, into
01:07essentially a world, a world of pure imagination. Absolutely. There you go. There you go. I'll
01:16see how many, how many songs I can crowbar into the conversation. But yes, no, but you've
01:20done this big project. This will be your sixth time of doing the summer youth project, but
01:24it still sounds an enormous prospect. It is. I'm not going to lie. It is. Each year,
01:34it feels like we're trying to raise the bar a little bit each year. And I think we set
01:41the bar quite high when we first started in 2017 with Oliver. And each year, we try and
01:49add a little bit more. We obviously want it to be professional West End quality. We treat
01:58the participants as young professionals. But this year especially, I mean, we did Wizard
02:05of Oz last year, which we thought was quite an undertaking, let's say. I mean, let's do a full
02:13MGM musical with no edits for licensing. So we're talking a two hour plus musical in 10 days.
02:25This year, we're doing the same, but with a more modern musical that involves intricate harmonies,
02:33more complex dance routines as musical theatre has evolved. Yeah. Obviously, things have become
02:44more intense, more intricate. So we're kind of going with the times with Charlie and the Chocolate
02:50Factory. But yeah, it's another bar raised. Absolutely. But the crucial thing is it's such
02:57a fabulous story as indeed is the Wizard of Oz, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I mean,
03:01you're on board instantly, aren't you as an audience? You want to be part of that world.
03:06It's Roald Dahl. It's a children's book classic. And the majority of people who,
03:18I was going to say who doesn't like chocolate, but I know there's a few people I know who don't
03:22like chocolate, but the majority, yeah. But it's, you know, it's, yeah, it's got everything in,
03:28it's got all the, it's got something for all the family actually, because
03:35the West End show and the touring show was designed for families. So a little bit like
03:41with Panto, there is something in there for the adults and there is something in there
03:46for the children as well. So, but it is very family friendly for everyone to come and see.
03:54Absolutely. But from the perspective of your young actors, what do they walk away with at
03:58the end? What's their experience been, do you think, if all goes well? Which it will.
04:04What we hope is that we've instilled more confidence with them both professionally
04:13and also personally. So that, and also that they've learned theatre skills. I mean,
04:21one of the primary things is that they've learned more about stagecraft, you know, singing,
04:29the timetable, the schedule of putting on a show. And, but I think most importantly of all
04:36is the friendships that they make. It's really lovely to see from day one, their confidence,
04:45but also the relationships and the bonds that they form.
04:51And as we were saying, they will remember this forever, won't they?
04:55That's what we hope. Yeah, that's what we hope.
04:59And do you crawl off to lie down in your darkened room at the end of it?
05:04I do. I literally, yeah. The rest of August is just, it's a, yeah, I go to my cryogenic
05:15freezing chamber, which usually after panto, I'm cryogenically frozen for 11 months of the year.
05:24A bit like Han Solo in Empire Strike Back, you know, it's a bit like that. But what happens is
05:29I get defrosted in about, literally a few weeks ago, I've been defrosted. And then I can be sort
05:37of re-frozen for Peter Pan. Is that safe to keep defrosting,
05:43did you think? Actually, that's a really good question.
05:46Something I haven't, I'll have to check with the health and safety side with the theatre and just
05:53find out what the guidelines are for being cryogenically frozen.
05:58But you will be back again this Christmas then?
06:02I will be, yeah, for Peter Pan, which is the, a proper pirate panto for Hastings. I mean,
06:10for me, it's the, it is the panto for Hastings really, isn't it?
06:15Absolutely fantastic. Well, let's make sure we speak again then. Lovely to speak to you again
06:20and all good wishes for this big adventure you're going on.
06:25Thanks Phil.
06:26Thank you.