Daddy Warbucks: "Moving to Brighton reignited my passion for life!"

Andy, who is originally from Texas, said: “This is my first introduction to the company. I had heard through some friends that they were doing a production of Annie and I thought I would audition. I had grown up in the theatre all my life but then I moved over to the corporate career route, and then we moved to England two and a half years ago. We came to Brighton, and Brighton just completely re-engaged my passion for theatre. Brighton is such an artistic place and if you have any passion for theatre, then being in Brighton just pours gasoline on it! So I went for the audition and luckily I got cast and we have been working six months now on the show. And I can now honestly say that I would happily forgo my corporate life to do theatre full time. I would love to go back to my childhood dream of being an actor and making my professional career out of it.”

It's all happy confirmation that moving to the UK with his partner was completely the right thing to do: “We moved because of my partner's job but I had always been obsessed with England. I don't want this to sound terrible but I suppose it really started with Queen Elizabeth II. My entire life I just had so much respect and love for her and also for Princess Diana but also when you think about the entertainment in Great Britain, the TV series and the movies and amazing actors that have come out of it, it's just such a great place to be. Everything made me feel that part of me belonged in England. But I never got the chance to come here until we moved here. My partner got the opportunity to move with his job and we just said yes! We had the choice of Brighton or London. London would have been the dream but we looked at the rents and we thought ‘Right, Brighton, it is!’ so we moved here in October 2022. The pandemic was ending and everything was slowly opening up again. And coming to the UK, in particular coming to a city like Brighton, everything about the whole move just reignited our passion for life again.”

Now he's thrilled to join the production of Annie: “I grew up with Annie. I saw the show multiple times and I saw the movie countless times but I never really thought of this as a role for me. I saw myself as more of a character actor but actually Daddy Warbucks right now is such an important character with such an important message. It doesn't matter what your political views are and whether you are rich or you are poor, the character shows that what really matters is finding someone to love and to share your life with. Warbucks is this multi-millionaire businessman and then he meets this plucky little orphan who comes into his life and completely upends it. Before then it's all about the business but Annie comes along and he realises that there is so much more to life than he realised and that none of the riches mean anything if you don't actually have someone to share them with. You hear about how love changes people and this is the classic example of how love has changed someone so much for the better.”

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Andy is delighted to be working with PTC: “The company is really all about having inclusive diverse space for children but also for adults to figure out their love of theatre. They have an academy that really fosters an environment for you to come along and discover theatre and to discover yourself and to feel safe and comfortable. Whether you are a child that has never done theatre before or has done multiple shows, you can come and be yourself, and it's also all about the diversity of making everyone welcome in a really inclusive way.”