Trent College Year 7 Alice Hogan becomes Annie!

Published on isbi School News dated Friday 3rd of May 2013

Trent College Year 7 student Alice Hogan was part of large production of Annie at Loughborough Town Hall, from 12-16th March 2013. Alice gives a full account of her experience below, from the audition stages right through to the performances.

'I had decided to audition for the Loughborough Town Hall production of 'Annie' (12-16/3/13) after hearing about it through my theatre group, 'Stagecoach'. On the day I was really nervous and scared. We walked into a room where lots of other girls were sat waiting. We were given a brief explanation of what was going to happen in the auditions and then we were split between two rooms, based on ages.
I was really nervous when it finally came around to my turn. I walked into the audition room and started to sing. Once I had finished the panel clapped and said 'Thank you Alice, you may go now'.

Then came the dance audition, which also went really well. Then the panel (made up of the director, choreographer, musical director and two chaperones) made a 'cut' of nearly half of the girls (out of over 50 who had auditioned).
I made it through the 'cut' and then had to do some acting and was asked to 'read in' for Annie. Once all this was over, they called me and 3 other girls back in and asked us to sing, act, and sing again for the part of Annie. They then made another 'cut'. I made it through again! The remaining 19 girls were split into two teams. I was in the 'Manhattan' team, whilst the other was 'Brooklyn'.
They first read out who was playing who for the Brooklyn team. Then it was 'Manhattan's' turn. They said 'The person playing Annie is� Alice'! I was really surprised and I burst into tears of joy. I ran out to my Mum who had been nervously waiting and told her I had been given 'Annie', she was so so happy.

A few weeks later we started rehearsals. The whole process for me was absolutely amazing, with many fun-times creating many memories. All my new friends, Maddie, Joey, Grace, Evie, Casey, Hannah, Amelie (to name just a few) were so kind, so talented and I miss them all so much.

As the show got nearer, things were getting stressful - having to balance homework with rehearsals and then on top of that, nerves were getting my voice. But none of that stopped me, and on the opening night I went out there and sung, dance and acted as best as I could and I loved it. On the Friday and Saturday performances I was given standing ovations. When the last show was over it was so sad for me because I had loved the experience, the people and just doing what I loved.

The lessons I learned from my experience in 'Annie' were to never give up and to always aim for the best.
I would like to say a big thank you to the Teachers at Trent College for being so supportive throughout my time as 'Annie'.'

We would like to congratulate Alice on all of her hard work and wish her every success in acting for the future.