London debut beckons for former Chichester Festival Youth Theatre member
Former Chichester Festival Youth Theatre member Polly Maltby is thrilled to make her off-West End debut in a new folk musical called The Witch and The Whistleblower running at The Glitch, Waterloo from April 8-20.
“I grew up in Chichester and was part of Chichester Youth Theatre from the age of ten. A highlight was when I played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2019. Having moved from Bognor to London only six months ago, this London debut marks an exciting step in my career!”
The show is inspired by the true story of Marion Walker and Margaret Aitken and of a witch hunt that almost destroyed a town. The year is 1597. A woman is accused of being a witch. She can save herself, but only by condemning others. The community is crumbling. Neighbour turns on neighbour as a town turns on itself. But then the fightback begins. Widow Marion Walker, horrified at what is happening, decides to expose the truth about the witchfinder John Cowper and his newest weapon…
“I am in the ensemble,” says Polly who is delighted to be in her first London show since drama school. “I went to Mountview in south London. I graduated in the summer of 2024 and I suppose my experience has been similar to many other actors in this industry. I was very lucky to get an agent straight out of drama school. I have been auditioning since then. I've done lots of small-scale projects. I've done a commercial. I've done a music video and a concert and a workshop, lots of bitty jobs. This is my first big theatre contract.
“It can be very lonely when you are auditioning. You don't know who you are going up against. A lot of the time you are just sending off self-tapes and you just have to hope something happens. You have to go into any possible job being hopeful and knowing that it will be OK as long as you put in 100 per cent of your effort. You just have to take the view that what is meant to happen won't pass you by so I'm really excited to be doing this.”
Polly, from Chichester, went to school in Lavant and then at The Prebendal and then at Lancing College. She was in Chichester Festival Youth Theatre from the age of ten until she was 18: “And I think there are two main highlights of my time there. The first was the first show that I ever did which was Running Wild, the promenade production. That was incredible. I was just a tiny pawn in the production. I was 13 years old and I had no idea of just how it special the experience was.
“And then I was lucky enough to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. I remember the first night going on and I remember standing backstage. And I wasn’t nervous! I was thinking that I should be nervous and I was trying to make myself feel nervous but I wasn't!
“And then I was singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow within the first seven minutes of the show, and it was just amazing. You know that all the people are out there. And for a 17-year-old that was just my dream, to do that show but also to be performing in front of all those people. That is still my highlight.”