From Military Wives to Choir at Chichester Festival Theatre

SussexWorld

Laura Checkley, who plays choir mistress Morgan in Choir in Chichester’s Minerva Theatre (August 2-30), counts among her credits the film Military Wives.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, group answer as we're at Sussex Newspaper. It's

00:06lovely this afternoon to speak to Laura Checkley, who's going to play Morgan, choir leader,

00:10choir mistress in the Minerva Theatre in Chichester from August the 2nd to the 30th. And as we're

00:17just saying, you had a lovely sort of prequel or audition. You were in Military Wives. Does

00:22that help? Does that help to now be in a play about a choir?

00:25Yeah, I think definitely all of those things that you can draw upon older jobs. But yeah,

00:33it definitely has echoes of that, you know, of people coming together and the power of

00:42singing together. And yeah, I understand the feel. I understand. And also, I think I understand

00:50what people want from this sort of show. They want to come away and they want to feel uplift

00:55and they want to feel part of something. And I think being part of Military Wives has definite

01:03echoes of this job for sure. And yeah, and actually, I hadn't sung in a very long time

01:09and I'd done Military Wives. And I had to really sort of concentrate on doing harmonies, which

01:16is happening again. I haven't sung in a very long time. So, but I know I can do it because

01:19it's coming back. And you're playing Morgan, who sounds, what are you saying, slightly complicated

01:26character, slightly nuanced character. She's doing the choir for the right reasons, but

01:31opportunities come along and maybe her motivations get a little bit skewed, don't they?

01:36Yeah, that's exactly it. She starts the choir because she wants to make music again. And I think

01:43she's lonely, she wants a sense of community. And that's how it starts. And then this opportunity

01:49arises to help this young student that she teaches to get into music college. And it's the first

01:56performance the choir's ever done. And we joined them in that final week leading up to the charity

02:01concert. And an opportunity arises to be on a television program or part of it, be on a segment

02:07for the one show. And for Morgan, it's an opportunity to showcase herself and unfortunately, her ambition

02:16and drive to be seen and heard as an artist, and to perhaps even build the choir somehow,

02:22to be something, to make her mark.

02:25That kind of takes over.

02:26That sounds very human, doesn't it?

02:27Yeah, it's very human. She's very human. Her heart's in the right place. But that takes over

02:31and it starts to unravel the choir. And it all starts to fall apart. And it really is

02:37like, ah, is this going to happen? Is this going to happen? Yeah, and it's whether Morgan

02:41can push that aside to, you know, bring back the choir to remind them why they're all really

02:48there. And it's the joy of singing, the joy of community.

02:51And is this your first time in Chichester in the Minerva?

02:54It is. Yeah. And Chichester is one of those theatres that I think every actor wants to work

02:59at. So I'm ticking a box, and I'm really thrilled. I can't wait. I've heard it's gorgeous. And

03:03yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.

03:05And there's something absolutely special about the Minerva. Brilliant. Well, it sounds lovely.

03:10Yes, I've heard that, yeah.

03:11Well, Laura, really lovely to speak to you. Thank you for your time.

03:14I'm very much looking forward to seeing the show. Thank you.

03:16Thank you. Thank you so much.

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