Wonderful opportunity as 12-year-old steps onto Chichester Festival Theatre stage
12-year-old Beatrix Daniel is loving the thought of stepping onto the Chichester stage this festive season with Chichester Festival Youth Theatre in their production of A Boy Called Christmas.
The show, based on the book by Matt Haig and adapted for the stage by Philip Wilson, runs from December 15-31. For 11-year-old Nikolas, whose nickname is Christmas because he was born on December 25, life isn’t easy. With only a doll made out of a turnip to keep him company, he believes in happiness but isn’t happy very often. Until the day he sets out – with his pet mouse Miika and a reindeer called Blitzen – on an extraordinary quest to follow his father and to find Elfhelm, the fabled village of the elves.
“I have been with the youth theatre about a year,” Beatrix says. “I heard from a friend about it and I went for my trial and I really enjoyed it. I stayed in the choir. It is fun to be with other people, older people and younger people, and it's really nice to work as a team. You feel part of something and I'm still part of the choir.”
A Boy called Christmas is her first acting role with the youth theatre. She will be playing Little Noosh and a letter-writer.
“I'm part of the letter-writers. These people at the start are writing some letters to Father Christmas. They set the scene at the start and also at the end. But I am also playing the part of Little Noosh. She's a fun elf. She is really good fun and she doesn't know when to stop talking! You have to speak in a pretty quick way and you have to interrupt all the time!
“The rehearsals are going really well. It is a great opportunity. I have never been given an opportunity as great as this one. It is a lot of hard work and it is going to get harder but I'm just really excited to see how it develops and how it works. And it's lovely that it is allowing me to work with other people and see their strengths and weaknesses and to see how I can perform better. I've never performed for as many people as I am doing in this show and it's just such an amazing story.”
And a big part of the fun is developing the character of Little Noosh: “It would be amazing to work as an actor. It's amazing to do. I'd love to spend my life on the stage. I don't know why but I just love it. I really love playing around with the character and thinking what they would be like and how they would act and what they would be saying and how they would dress. I have already started playing with little habits that I will do on the stage, like leaning backwards and forwards and also stepping forwards and stepping back and stepping up on my tiptoes – just all the things that I think the character would do.”
Tickets from the CFT.