Lavant Players take to the stage with Aladdin

Rebekah Leggatt will be our Princess Jelli as the Lavant Players take to the stage with Guy Evans' Aladdin at Lavant Memorial Hall from February 6-8.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Registrar at Sussex Newspapers, lovely

00:05to speak to Rebecca this afternoon, who you are making your debut with the Lavent Players

00:10coming in, well not quite at the last minute, but they'd already started when you were approached

00:15to become their Princess Jelly. Yeah, that's right. How's it gone? Yeah, it's going so well,

00:22they've been so welcoming. It was a challenge to kind of come in when everything had been mapped

00:26out, but they've been so welcoming and slotted me in really nicely and it's so fun to come every

00:32week, well twice a week now. Absolutely, well they have that reputation as being a super

00:36friendly company and clearly they are. Yeah, definitely, I definitely agree with that,

00:42they're so lovely. And tell me a bit about Princess Jelly, what's she about, what do you

00:47have to do to be Princess Jelly? So Princess Jelly is kind of the Jasmine character in the

00:53traditional Aladdin story. She's very feisty, she's very independent, she likes to put people

00:57in their places and she kind of grows on a journey of finding herself throughout, which

01:03is really nice to portray as an actor. And you've got plenty of experience in Panto, not least

01:09The Spring in Haven last year? Yes, I played Cinderella in Cinderella at The Spring last year,

01:15which I absolutely loved, it was so much fun. And I've grown up doing all sorts of Pantos,

01:21mainly around Portsmouth at the King's Theatre. Yeah, name drop, name drop, Paul Daniels.

01:29You shared the stage with the late, great, lovely chap, Paul Daniels, didn't you?

01:34I did, yeah, Paul Daniels and his wife Debbie McGee over in 2014, we did Alice in Wonderland

01:39together in an Easter Panto and I loved it, it was brilliant. Oh fantastic, and all this that you're

01:45doing now, despite the fact you are a student, how do you fit it all? You're a second year at

01:50the University of Chichester, aren't you? Yeah, lots of organisation and not a lot of sleep,

01:56just making sure we fit everything in each day, working it around work and uni is a challenge,

02:02but I wouldn't have it any other way. On top of which, you're in theatre school,

02:06which is quite something, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, I started it two years ago

02:12and I love it, I love inspiring the children and every week they come bounding in and they always

02:17have something new and exciting to say. Mention its name, mention its name, your school's name.

02:23It's the Theatre Academy UK at Chidham Village Hall. Wow, and what do you teach them?

02:30Well, lots of things really, aside from your normal singing, dancing and acting, I also

02:36like to think that we teach them life skills, how to interact with people, how to be a nice friend

02:42and a nice person, and how to share what you love with other people.

02:47Fantastic, well, good luck as Princess Jelly for the Lavent Players,

02:52really lovely to speak to you, thank you. Thank you so much.