Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Chichester Festival Youth Theatre

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Chichester Festival Youth Theatre for George Stanbridge.

Transcript

00:00 Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely

00:07 this afternoon to speak to George Stambridge, who is returning to the main house stage in

00:12 Chichester Festival Theatre with Chichester Festival Youth Theatre after The Wind in the

00:16 Willows last year. You are back for The Jungle Book. Now, you loved The Wind in the Willows,

00:22 didn't you? What did you get from it last year?

00:26 From Wind in the Willows, I think I really, really developed how I feel in my acting.

00:32 I think it was a really, really good experience as it was a very big cast to a school player

00:39 I'd been in before. It had loads of different people, loads of different people with different

00:44 ways they act, and it really made me discover how I act compared to different people and

00:49 how I work with other people in the community.

00:52 And last year you were one of the bad guys. This year you are perhaps misunderstood, perceived

00:58 to be one of the bad guys, but not really.

01:00 Yeah, I think this year I, well, I am a monkey, I'm a bandalog, as they're called. I think

01:07 this year, at the start of the play, I'm really seen as something, someone you don't want

01:13 to like go near, they're quite vicious. But as the play goes on, you find out that the

01:20 bandalogs are more people who express themselves in ways people aren't used to, as one is sort

01:27 of follows a certain rule. But the bandalogs, they don't, they do what they want. They want

01:33 to be free, which a lot of the people in the play really want to be free, especially Mowgli.

01:39 And I think Mowgli and other characters seeing the bandalogs, it really made them express

01:44 themselves and feel like themselves.

01:46 I'm so looking forward to seeing it. It's going to be great, isn't it? So you were there

01:50 on the main house stage last year. This year you'll be on the main house stage. Is this

01:55 stepping towards a career in acting, do you think? Have you made up your mind where you

01:59 want to go?

02:01 I'm really not sure yet. I think I'd really want to keep on doing more shows at CFT and

02:06 see how it goes and see, just see the different directors and how people work. I'm still really

02:13 learning and I think in a few years' time I'll be able to make that decision.

02:17 Absolutely. But you're having a great experience along the way, aren't you?

02:22 Definitely. Really, really definitely.

02:24 Brilliant. Well, so lovely to speak to you, George. Have a fantastic time on that stage.

02:29 So really looking forward to seeing you and thank you for your time. Good luck with it

02:33 all. Thank you.

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