12 Things I Learned From Six UK Tour Alternate Jen Caldwell's Workshop and Q&A

May 23, 2020 by Rachael Dickson in theater

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

I did another workshop this morning, this time with Six UK Tour alternate Jen Caldwell through Theatre Fan Workshops! It was only at 7 AM EST, where I live, so I got to sleep…slightly later than I have the last few weekends? Lol. Jen’s a swing on the 2019-2020 UK tour of Six the Musical and also serves as their social media captain. She temporarily served as a swing in the West End production after performing as Anna of Cleves for several shows as an emergency cover.

Jen taught us some of the moves to the “I Don’t Need Your Love (remix),” which was pretty difficult and fast. I’d put it at perhaps #2 in difficulty in the Six dances I’ve done so far? At least for me personally. I was able to get only some of the moves but I wasn’t as laughably terrible as I was during “No Way.”

5. Six (taught by Harriet Watson)
4. Sorry not sorry (taught by Vicki Manser)
3. Get Down (taught by Harriet Watson)
2. I Don’t Need Your Love (Remix) (taught by Jen Caldwell)
1. No Way (taught by Collette Guitart)

Jen has this wonderful sense of humor that kept coming out as she was teaching the class. I copied down so many wonderful one-liners from her. She also was super cool and recognized a number of people on the call, specifically noting who she’s met at various performances and such.

Joking about what’ll happen to anyone who’s late and misses the warm-up: “THEY WON’T BE WARM.”

Later: “Everyone get on your goddamn feet!” “You’re all getting it, I’m not seeing anyone who’s upsetting me.” "

On teaching via Zoom: “It’s a goddamn nightmare!”

“Guys, I belieeevvveeeeee in youuuu” /sings/

Discussing one specific section of the dance: “Do whatever you want to do - /feel your oats/” [american accent]

referring to her wooden spoon: “I’m talking into this like a microphone and i need to stop.”

“Holyyy molyyyyy” [sings]

“and then we all imagine that we have friends. singgg with allll your imaginary friendssss”

“sing into the camera like I’m henry and you HATE ME”

She joked about how people can post clips of the class but “not the whole bit. We got an email about it.”

Standard disclaimer that I did the best I could to transcribe Jen’s answers all accurately but of course I might have gotten a few words wrong here or there.

Training: She did a one year course at LSMT (London School of Musical Theatre) and did a degree “Somewhere in Carlisle.” She joked: “don’t go there guys – I learned nothing.”
Audition Tips: “Just be yourself. They really want someone that they want to work with. Someone who’s moldable and malleable, someone’s who pleasant. You can have someone who’s the most talented person in the world, but if they’re a douchebag, you’d be like /ugh/ - it’d be amazing if everyone was talented and lovely – but mm, there are some REALLY talented douchebags. You must bring /yourself/ and show off what you can bring to a company and what you can bring to a course or a role. That’s what I would say - Be you!”
On her Costume: “I remember my first costume fitting, where they said you’re getting the teal, and i was like, ‘well that’s really turquoise,’ and ‘you’ve got a skirt! ‘Oh great, that’s cute!’ [makes face] And they showed the mockup of the skirt….And I was like ‘mmmm, that’s really short,” and there’s a big panel like, ‘hiiii everyone, have a look at my inner thighs, everyone look at the part of my body i hate the most.’ But now I love it. As soon as you’re on stage you forget about the bits of yourself that are showing.”

3. Favorite Queen to play: “My favorite changes all the time. I DO love Cleves. I also love Howard because she’s funny and a little bit bitchy.”

4. Least favorite Queen to play: “Toss up between Parr and Aragon. Aragon is a lot of pressure. You have to lead [the show] and she’s ALWAYS talking….and you have to sing and belt and riff and it’s very hard and not me. Parr - I’m not her. She’s very calm and I’m not particularly calm. I like singing the song but I find Parr a bit of a stretch for me. She’s hard.”

5. Funniest mistake she’s seen on stage: Apparently at one point Lauren [she just said “lauren” and didn’t specify which one, so this could be referring to Lauren Drew who plays Aragon or Lauren Byrne who plays Seymour] forgot her lines and was just “saying words” and looking around desperately at the other girls for help. “And Shaka’s [Shekinah McFarlane, who plays Cleves] got no peripheral vision, so she’s just looking around having a good time – and laruen’s looking at her like ‘HELP ME.’ Jodie came in and was like [spits out very fast patter in a great imitation of Jodie Steele, who plays Howard]”

6. Favorite part of her job: “Making some wonderful friends! God I love them so much. Not just the girls, everyone on that job is just insane. Being able to work with people that are that talented every day is insane.”

7. Advice during a gap year: “If you have the money, go to as many classes as you can - dancing and singing.” She also suggested doing amateur theater - “I always learn by doing…you learn how shows come together. You’re never too good to learn from other people.”

8. Dream role: “Miss Honey [from Matilda]. I’ve got like three that go with my age. Right now I think I’m like Miss Honey age. In 10 years, I want to go be Donna in Mamma Mia. I say 10 years, maybe 5 years [squints at wrinkles on her face, which are NON-EXISTENT by the way]. 10 years after that, I want to be Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.”

9. Harriet mentioned in her workshop a few weeks ago that Jen really helped her learn how to be a swing with her swing bible; I asked Jen how she put that together and how she learned how to be a swing. “Everyone does things differently. Cassie [Cassandra Lee, another alternate on the UK tour] tried to do a swing bible and that didn’t work for her – she learns from videos and mirrors and stuff. My first experience as swing on American Idiot; me and the dance captain made it together. I have a stage map and everyone’s got color coded dots and arrows when they move and where they move… Harriet tried to do it and was like ‘I can’t, it doesn’t work for me, can I just use yours?’ And I was like, ‘yes, yes, that’s fine.’ For me, once I’ve drawn the swing map, it like cements it in my brain. Once I draw the swing bible, I don’t need it. so I just gave it to Harriet.”

10. Differences between performing on tour and in the West End: “The house in London is smaller than the houses we play on tour. It’s a very different kind of energy. In town you can afford to do a lot less but the result is still the same amount of energy. If you’re projecting as much as you do if you’re playing the Edinburgh festival,which is like 1800 seats, if you give that much in a theater that only seats 350, you’re going to look ridiculous and people are gonna be like ‘calm down.’ Also every show that you do is different because of all the swings stepping in, which I love.”

11. Favorite show you’ve ever done: “I love all of them and I can’t say a favorite. I will not. [laughs]”

12. Did you get time to rehearse on the London stage before you went on? “About an hour? I did some rehearsals with Franny [associate director Franny Anne Rafferty]. THat was when Sophie Isaacs [who plays Howard] was rehearsing as well, so I had like an hour. She was running some Howard, so I was just running some Cleves stuff with her, which helped.”

15 Things I Learned from Six UK Tour Alternate/Dance Captain Harriet Watson's Workshop and Q&A

May 04, 2020 by Rachael Dickson in theater

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head”
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!
(^This post includes links to workshop/q&a roundups from Lauren Byrne, Grace Mouat, Natalie Pilkington, Sam Pauly, Cherelle Jay, Vicki Manser, Collette Guitart, Jen Caldwell, and Harriet Watson)
Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical
The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes
The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen

Last Saturday, I participated in a virtual dance workshop and Q&A with Six UK & Ireland Tour alternate and dance captain Harriet Watson! The event was hosted by Theatre Fan Parties and I really enjoyed it! Honestly, when I signed up, I kind of thought that there would be like 100 participants, but there were only around 20 and it made for a really lovely, intimate setting. Harriet was super sweet and lovely and encouraging, and I had a great time!

I liked it so much that immediately afterward, I went and signed up for a class in a few weeks with Colette Guitart, the dance captain and one of the Six alternates in the West End production (of course, I later realized that this particular workshop will happen at 5 am my time…ouch, but worth it!).

I frankly have zero dance training except for the few moves I learned in color guard in high school and some ballroom dance classes in college and shortly after. I definitely haven’t taken any dance classes since…2012 at latest. I’m not a very coordinated person, okay? But Harriet was a wonderful teacher and I managed to follow along pretty well despite all that.

Harriet posing nicely when Tyler (the owner of Theatre Fan Parties) asked her to. My face is awkwardly in the upper right because Zoom.

Harriet adorably hiding her face when someone asked her a question she wasn’t sure she was allowed to answer.

After a quick, efficient warmup, Harriet taught us the dance part to Get Down that starts at “I’m the queen of the castle, get down you dirty rascal” and goes through the next phrase through to “cause I’m the queen of the castle.” The individual moves weren’t too hard, but they were VERY FAST with the music, and I’m pretty sure I just flopped around like a fish. Harriet was constantly checking the chat for any questions about individual moves and interacted with everyone, complimenting people when they were killing moves and generally just being a wonderful person.

I did a lot better with the “Six” dance which she ended with, which was much easier. I actually still remember all the moves (Get down was gone…pretty much immediately from my mind, let’s just be honest). Harriet ended up taking a video of all of us doing the dance together and posted it to her Instagram stories, which was really cool! She also commented on my Instagram later about it, which was lovely.

After the dance workshop portion was over, Harriet answered questions from the attendees! She started out with a general explanation of how she got involved the show. I took a ton of notes, but I’m sure they aren’t perfect quotes (I was typing quickly but my cats decided that RIGHT THEN was the perfect time to start exploring the magical space behind my computer monitors and distracted me), so just expect that these are paraphrased quotes.

1. How she got in the show: She was initially up for Boleyn and Aragon – Maddie beat her out (presumably Maddison Bulleyment, who’s Anne Boleyn for the UK Tour cast).

She went to the open call for the show (handled by Pearson casting, who she described as “lovely and incredible”) and said there were probably 3,000 people there. The first day of auditions was just dance – choreography allllll dayyyy. When they got to the singing part of auditions, she sang jessie j’s mama knows best, then a song by adele, and beyonce’s halo.

After that she had a group audition, where a group would go in and each person would sing 5 songs in a row with all the other auditionees just watching. She saw Jenn (presumably Jennifer Caldwell, another of the UK Tour alternates) audition at that time.

She had a few more auditions after that, where they swapped around a ton of girls to see who worked well together. Apparently when she was offered the job, someone called and asked “what queen do you want to be.” (she later clarified that she didn’t actually get to choose which queens she was first cover for).

2. Favorite queen to play: Boleyn – she’s not my first cover but I love her because I get to be naughty on stage. [Harriet’s first covers are Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr]

3. Training: She trained at a college in Nottingham called MADD. She specifically noted that she didn’t get an agent from her agent showcasing in college and graduated with no idea where she fit into musical theater.

6 years after that, she did a LOT of workshops in London – she’d go for a week or a day. Her main training was from workshops – she got her basics from college but she didn’t know what songs to sing, what she was doing – workshops were the best things for her. That’s where she got her agent and really learned her stuff.

4. Her Personal Pop Inspirations for each Queen:

Seymour – Madonna

Parr – Alicia keys

Howard – Britney

Aragon – beyonce

She also mentioned Ariana grande and asked who was that – howard???

5. How important is being a good dancer in musical theater? It depends what type of theater you’re going into. If you want to do 42nd street or fame – you have to be a good dancer. You’ve got to sell it –

6. Beginner dance class suggestions: BALLET is the first dance class you really need to do – it’s boring but you need the conditioning

7. Hardest choreography in the show: “for me, all you want to do” It’s not the hardest – but it’s a slog – you have to stay centered and balanced and it’s SO long

She confirmed that she’s been signed up as an alternate again for the next tour!

8. Do you have to train differently to be a swing? Yes, for tech rehearsals before the show, she has to run the show from top to bottom on her own with the directors. She has a swing bible – that jenn [caldwell] made her – she listens to her harmonies and goes through her swing bible the whole time.

She highly suggested that if you want to be a swing or an alternate – start practicing NOW – start watching people’s tracks – you want to think about how to do the show as that person. I had never done it before – I never got trained in it in school – I cried so many days – jenn Caldwell saved me. Try to pick out harmonies for all the different performers. I didn’t get harmony training ever, and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

9. Favorite tour venue: I loved Glasgow!

She conferred with Gemma, who she referred to as “head of sound” and was in the room with her, to remember exactly which location she was thinking of. She ended up asking the crowd where she went on for Boleyn and a chorus of “Salfords!” came through on the chat.

Where I was on for Boleyn – Salford! That sing a long was the most incredible experience of my life – everyone was sobbing and crying.

10. Do you get to choose your first covers? She said no. She said at first that she was cast as first cover for cleves and then cassie took it away. (said with much affection!)

11. Does she stay on the same harmonies or does she switch around with each queen? They switch everyone around – Boleyn’s on the top harmony lines at first. Howard starts low and then she hits top Gs. Alternates have to know all the harmony lines – it’s definitely the hardest bit about the show.

“Can we get a petition for alternates to have one harmony line? That would make my life very easy.”

12. Rehearsal process: Jenn and I got called in a little early and got to train with the town alternates – Colette [Guitart] and such. Rehearsals were very long - she said it’s sounds so cliché, but when you really do something you really love, I could do something from 6 in the morning to 12 at night. You just did number by number day by day. We’d tap in or tap out – for the alternates – and when I felt ready, I would tap in for lauren or whatever –

She doesn’t know if she’s allowed to say anything about tours for next year. When corona is over – doesn’t know what she can say so she just covered her mouth with her shirt.

13. Dance Captain: She did not specifically audition for dance captain but was offered it in the contract she was given as the alternate. Carrie [Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, the choreographer for Six] is in every audition to watch. They also look at your ability to converse and be kind to people.

Jobs of dance captain – she goes in an hour and a half earlier – warms up all the girls up for half an hour – does notes with them – she does a show watch twice a week to just keep the show as it was when it left rehearsals.

When we went to blue peter – went along to make sure they’re all in the correct position. Photo shoots where they’re all posing – making sure they’re all in the right position –

If they have any concerns, they can take them to me and I can get them to the director – it’s my favorite job – be the advocate for the girls really

14. How they found out about the remainder of the UK tour getting postponed due to COVID-19: Basically they were traveling to brighton and they got the call that the theater was closed – and just had to turn around. And that was that.

She said that she wasn’t doing stage door for like 2 weeks before they closed because she was scared of getting sick

15. Dressing rooms?: She always shares her dressing room with the other alternates, Jenn Caldwell and Cassie Lee.

The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References!)

January 18, 2020 by Rachael Dickson in theater, English History

There are lots of specific Tudor fashion elements found in the Queens' looks when you look closely! I compiled a LOT of painting references and closeups on the costumes so you can see exactly what I’m talking about. These are elements that show up in other musicals and plays set in Tudor times as well, and I’ll try to add references to those soon, as there are, of course, many other works than just Six, lol.

Since I’m going to be talking about a few different periods of history here, I’m going to do a quick overview of the years we’re working with:

The Tudor period started under Henry VII, Henry VIII’s dad, when he defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. Henry VII reigned from 1485-1509.
Henry VIII lived from 1491-1547 and reigned from 1509-1547.
- Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) - was married to Henry from 1509-1533.
- Anne Boleyn (~1501-1507 - 1536) - was married to Henry from 1533-1536.
- Jane Seymour (~1508-1537) - was married to Henry from 1536-1537.
- Anne of Cleves (1515-1557) - was married to Henry in part of 1540.
- Catherine Howard (~1523-1542) - was married to Henry from 1540-1542.
- Catherine Parr (1512-1548) - was married to Henry from 1543-1547 (when he died).
Edward VI (Henry VIII’s son with Jane Seymour, 1537-1553) reigned from 1547-1553.
Mary I (Henry VIII’s daughter with Catherine of Aragon, 1516-1558) reigned from 1553-1558.
Elizabeth I (Henry VIII’s daughter with Anne Boleyn, 1533-1603) reigned from 1558-1603.

^The gable hood of Catherine of Aragon, the French hood of Anne Boleyn, and Catherine Parr’s feathered hat.

Hairpieces/Head Coverings: Every queen wears a headpiece or hair piece of some sort but they have different styles; this represents that in Tudor times, ALL women would have their hair covered in some way at all times (ignore the hair in The Tudors y'all, it's just...hilariously wrong).

Famous hats included the Gable hood (seen on Catherine of Aragon and Jane Seymour) and the French hood (popularized by Anne Boleyn and seen in her portrait and in Katherine Howard's supposed portrait). Women even started wearing male hat styles at times, as seen in Catherine Parr’s portrait.

^These photos demonstrate the square necks and the plentiful jewelry and neck elements evoking jewelry both in Tudor portraits and the costumes of Six.

Jewelry/Bling: Necklaces and jewelry were big in Tudor times, noble ladies would often wear lots of rings, bracelets, and several necklaces. You can see this in their portraits. The Six Queens play off this by wearing a lot of different sparkly jewelry in their costumes as well. Aragon has a huge pile of gold necklaces, they all wear earrings, Anne Boleyn wears sparkly fingerless gloves, both Boleyn and Howard wear their initial necklaces, and the neckline details seen in the costumes of Seymour, Cleves, and Howard, all evoke the jewelry seen in so many of these portraits.

Necklines: Wide and low cut square necks were very big under Henry VIII, you can see this in the necklines of several of the queens' costumes, including Catherine of Aragon and Anne of Cleves (if you ignore the cross crossing detail on Cleves’ costume). Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard also have wide and low cut necklines, although this is more of a sweetheart look.

Sleeves: All Tudor women would have worn long sleeves coming down at least to the wrist, and sometimes below that. These long sleeves, or elements of them, at least, are seen in the costumes of Catherine of Aragon, Jane Seymour, and Katherine Howard.

Lacing: There's a lot of lacing elements prevalent in the main queens' outfits and in the alternates outfits, in various pairs of pants, sleeves, and necklines, and connections between tops and bottoms. Most of these are cross lacing (Xes) and others evoke spiral lacing or even ladder lacing. These even show up in some of the fabric patterns and the way they’re cut and laid out! This looks to be a reference to the side, front, and back ties often found on Tudor gowns, although in reality, Tudor gowns were generally spiral laced or ladder laced rather than cross laced (Xes); what you see at renaissance faires is not generally accurate. You can see what I mean in the collection of painting references; all of these show spiral lacing or ladder lacing except for one Italian painting, which shows Xes which are almost certainly more decorative than practical. The other forms of lacing are simply more supportive and adjustable, which is the entire idea behind having lacings in an outfit anyway, after all.

Major thanks to Festive Attyre’s post on spiral lacing for all their painting references for this section.

Boning/Stay Type elements: I believe the strong vertical and diagonal stripes present in all the queens' costumes, and specifically those that “look” supportive may refer to boning within dresses and supportive stays. These aren’t overtly Tudor, as they’re generally associated with later time periods, and I unfortunately don’t have any painting references for this because they were explicitly /underwear/ and not something that would show up in art, but we do know that whalebone was used for support in women’s garments at least by the time of Elizabeth I’s death, as her effigy wore a corset containing whalebone. I’ve included a picture of the effigy corset and a few pictures of historical reproduction corsets so you can see what I mean.

Ruffs: Big neck ruffs are seen on The Ladies in Waiting (the in-house, on stage, all female band) and during the Haus of Holbein number. Neck ruffs like this ARE Tudor, but weren’t seen until quite a while after Henry VIII’s death; you didn't really see neck ruffs until Elizabeth I. (if you’d like to read more about the Ladies in Waiting’s costumes and historical influences, I have a whole blog post on that over here!)

Split Skirts/Contrasting Underskirt: The open front skirt, revealing hot pants under it, are a pretty obvious style reference to the classic Tudor dress look where a kirtle (underdress) was layered under a contrasting overdress. This isn’t too obvious in a lot of the six wives’ portraits, but you can totally see it in the above portrait of Princess Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth I).

Howard is the only main queen that has this style of skirt (Aragon does too, but hers blends in with the rest of her gold and black and isn’t a distinctly contrasting color), but a LOT of the alternate costumes have this look.