Headlines
Louise with Richard Davies as Timothy Dawes and Minnie the Piano
These Were My Salad Days
19th May 2010
Louise Ruch, Library Assistant at HSFC, describes her experiences of being the leading lady for the Hereford Musical Theatre Company (HMTC) in their recent production of Salad Days and taking part in the Trinity Guildhall Drama exam held at the College.
Salad Days, a musical set in 1950s London, was held at The Courtyard theatre 27th April -1st May this year. Being a complete "newby" to the acting world, Louise landed the lead role of Jane Raeburn. The musical is not about salads (and no, the show didn’t involve dressing up as vegetables!) but it is the story of two university graduates – Jane and Timothy – who are literally ‘young and inexperienced’ in life. The performance involved learning a lot of script, dances and songs – including two solos. The show had a fantastic cast and much fun was had. The whole week was a truly enjoyable experience.
There were great reviews, including the NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association) report:
Louise Ruch and Richard Davies were perfectly matched as Jane and Timothy; their opening ballad was beautiful. Tina Lawrence as Lady Raeburn was outstanding in the scene in the beauty parlour which was hysterically funny and must have been very difficult to master. The band accompanied the cast in such a sympathetic way that you could hear every word and the musical arrangements were lovely. The choreography was gentle and well suited this charming production. It was also nice to see some chorus members step into the limelight. Congratulations to President Mike Tomkins on his 50 years with NODA.
A week after the show had finished, Louise had to finish preparing for the Trinity Guildhall Grade 6 Drama exam. The exam was held at the College and select students took part. Louise and the students have been guided and mentored, for four months, under the excellent care of Colin Thompson.
The exam involved learning three, five-minute monologues off by heart; sight reading and question & answer time with the examiner. To get a Distinction you need to achieve at least 85%...Louise gained a staggering 97% result.
Surely Louise has past experience of acting and the theatre? No such thing – her first ever experience of getting up on stage was in December 2009 for Upstage’s production of Sweet Charity. Louise hasn’t even got a GCSE Drama under her belt and even back in her school days, there were no drama productions to get involved in.
The past six months have been a whirlwind and a surreal experience for Louise – having never learnt a script before, the whole thing was a very challenging experience.
Louise would like to thank all the students and staff involved with Upstage – it is with enormous thanks to them that she was inspired and decided to pluck up the courage to get on stage. Her extra special thanks go to Colin Thompson, Mat Walters, Nathan Scott, Kim Owen and Peter Fletcher – all of whom have guided and encouraged her.
So what is next in line for the ‘dark horse Librarian’ as she is now known? Well, her advice is that if you fancy a challenge, then you need to get out of your comfort zone and “go for it”…you really never know what you can achieve until you try. As for her next Drama experiences, HMTC will be putting on the iconic musical Carousel at The Courtyard in November and the Trinity Guildhall Grade 8 exam is Louise’s next goal…
But until then, Louise is content to continue stamping books in the Library and to help out students with her happy, smiley face.
For further information and photographs, click here: http://www.hmtc.org.uk/productions_detail.asp?productionid=29