I asked him how old he was when he first got into musical theatre, "It's kind of been all of my life, I was about eight when I started, I got into a local drama group but my mum had been taking me to see shows for years. The first show I did was South Pacific, and from there on it's been kind of constant," he says. "Musical theatre is what I want to do. I went to see Oliver, my first ever show, when I was 4 and it's always stuck with me. I wanted to play the Artful Dodger after seeing it, I can even remember the day when I realised I was too old for the part. Also, my Dad used to take me to see panto every Christmas."
In 2009, at the age of fourteen, Ross made the transition from amateur dramatics to becoming a professional with GAMTA. "It was horrible for me because I really didn't want to leave, I can remember being so upset," he tells me, "but now I know it was the right move at the right time."
For someone so talented and after everything he has achieved, it's incredible how little self belief Ross has. So many talentless people are so cocky, yet he sits there in his Jack Wills hoodie and tells me he isn't even that good. "I got the scholarship and people were complementing me and I'm like 'guys, this isn't me you're talking about?' because I don't believe them. I don't sit there and think "wow, I'm amazing" because I'm not, looking at the people around me I can see how good they are and how hard I really need to work because I'm nowhere near as good," he says with a look of determination. When the reality is his hard work is already paying off, hence winning the only scholarship.
I admire Ross' dedication and ambition, between his hard work at school and theatrical studies, I doubt he has much time left to Facebook, watch soaps and play Xbox like most teens his age."Musical Theatre is what I want to do, it's my passion, it's all I listen to on my iPod and it's all I have on my phone, one of my friends insists I should put some 'proper music' on there. My Dad keeps saying I could tell you anything about musical theatre but I couldn't tell you the top 10 in the charts."
When asked if he would consider doing serious drama, he said "There's different ranks in acting and it's like there is; 'Shakespearian actors' then 'Theatre Actors' and then 'TV and Movies' and right at the bottom, musicals. People look down on musical theatre and say it's not serious but it's so much harder. You have to sing, act and dance at the same time. If you do a play, you have to act, yes it can be very intense and most musicals tend to be quite upbeat but there is a whole different side to musical theatre that people don't see at first glance. It is looked down on it because of commercial stuff but if you really look into it, it's quite serious and in some ways harder. I do like plays, I read a lot of plays but musical theatre is what I want to do."
Most people get nervous having to perform to even a small crowd but for Ross, his nerves really depend on the situation. "At the Young Scot Awards last year I wasn't very nervous because I was so comfortable with the people I was performing with. I just thought it's going to go well, they know what they're doing," Ross tells me. "Taken out of my musical theatre scenario, I do get very nervous. Also a lot of the time changes are made just before a show and that's quite nerve racking. You can't predict how it's going to go. One time we did a show and the main character lost his voice on the night. He had a lot of big notes and just couldn't hit them, we had a panic rehearsal and the show was changed up a lot, that made me really nervous. Usually I'm part of a cast I can trust, you can play off each other and work it out."
Ross found it hard to pick just one favourite performance, "I loved 'Me and My Girl', I did that when I was a lot younger but at GAMTA we did a performance of 'Scrooge', an adaption of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. They wrote it themselves and it was brilliant, I loved it. It was double-cast and it was brilliant, just a brilliant show, amazing music and an amazing part.." he stops to think, "But 13 was brilliant as well, the one where lead lost his voice. I heard his voice was going and I just went on stage and started singing. By the end of the song, I realised everyone else had gathered on stage too, singing. It felt like a big family came out and supported him and that was a really good night, I would probably say that was the best performance I've had just because I will never forget that."
"Just give me any theatre in London and I'll go," he answers when I ask which venue he'd love to perform in. "I'd love to play in the Adelphi in London just because they have staged some amazing shows. To stand on that stage and think 'wow, the people who've stood here before me'. I think it would depend what show as well, the experience you have and be like 'this is the place, this is where it happened'."
I asked him if there's a part he would love to play and a person he'd most want to perform with, he blushes, "Oh, this is really embarrassing, it's on Broadway just now. I'd love to play Bert in Mary Poppins, that's my dream part, how sad is that?" he laughs. "And as far as people go, Chris Colfer or Michael Ball, I admire them both so much."
He recently featured on BBC's Glee Club for Sport's Relief, "We only did it for a bit of fun, it was for charity and it was an experience. It was brilliant because now I know that I don't like that kind of scene." He continues, "I had an idea that I didn't like talent shows, I would never go on The X Factor or Britain's Got Talent but now I can say I've done it and I didn't like it."
Of course, I had to ask Ross his professional opinion on Glee, "I really like certain things about Glee but then I don't like other things about it. I like that they have brought musical theatre to a wider audience and it's like a 'thing' now," he explains. "Although, I don't like the fact they make out it can be handed to you on a plate if you join the school's glee club, because a lot of people think they can do it and it will be easy."
The industry is very competitive and he's definitely not naive, "I see the amount of people I perform with and how good they are. I went to an audition for a show on the BBC called MI:5 and there were so many people there, literally hundreds, that wasn't the only day they were auditioning and there were only 3 parts going." If he doesn't make it, he would love to teach Drama or English.
I asked Ross if he thought tickets for West End Shows in London are out of reach for most people because of their prices, he replied, "I think it's terrible, I paid £75 for my Sweeney Todd ticket alone so for a family, it's hundreds. However, these shows seem to sell out."
Ross has a lot going on in the next few months, "We're doing a show called Spring Awakening, it's quite an edgy show, with sexual content and it's all a bit grown-up. Then, I'll be leaving school at the end of the year and going to start the course full time. So there's exciting times but first it's my exams," he sighs.
0 comments:
Post a Comment