Musical Theatre Workshop with Cahir O’Neill

Article brought to you by Ruby from the Student Editorial Team.

Some lucky girls in my year got to go an exciting,  fun and informative workshop about musical theatre, lead by Cahir O’Neill!

For those of you who don’t know a couple of important facts here:

Fact 1 - Cahir O’Neill plays Grover, one of the lead roles in the The lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical which is based on Rick Riordan’s beloved Percy Jackson book series, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! The musical recently finished a West End run in London, and is continuing a nationwide tour, including here in Liverpool.

Fact 2 - I jumped at the chance to cover this story for the student editors as I have an unhealthy obsession with Percy Jackson! I have been a fan for a long time, I have read all the books and actually had tickets to see the Musical the same evening as this workshop took place, so meeting the person who brought one of my favourite characters to life was so surreal!

The workshop kicked off with an energetic warm up, to get everyone in the zone. Then Cahir got straight to teaching them some dance choreography direct from from the Percy Jackson Musical. This was such an amazing  experience for those taking part but also for me, getting a glimpse at the amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes, it made me really appreciate the evenings show that much more.

After lunch they read over an actual scene script and read aloud. They were then split into small groups to act out the scene in their own way. I loved seeing all the different ways everyone interpreted the same scene. There were some really funny moments during this part, and it was clear everyone was having a great time. 

To wrap the workshop up they did some signing solos, with Cahir offering 1-2-1 critiques and advice to encourage them and help them develop their already impressive skills. What a great opportunity for them! It was a perfect way to end the workshop. 

I was lucky enough to have a chat with Cahir after the workshop and throw some quick fire questions at him before he had to shoot off to get ready for his evening performance:

Quick Fire Questions	Answer
Favourite Greek God\Goddess	= Athena
Camp half blood or Hogwarts	= Camp half blood
Funniest moment on set	= The actor who plays Dionysis [one of the Greek gods] spilt his slushy all over the stage and they tried to clean it but it just got worse - spreading the drink all over the stage.
If Annabeth, Percy, and Grover spent the day in Liverpool who would be the first to get lost?	= Percy would get lost and Annabeth and Grover would survive.
Favourite song from the musical	= Drive
If you could have any superpower what would it be?	= Teleportation
One word to describe performing on stage in front of a live audience?	= Intense!

This will go down as one of my best days ever! It was a great opportunity to see Cahir in action and see how much work goes into each song, dance and all the lines they have to learn - then going to see him on the big stage at the Empire Theatre performing in my favourite show!

Thanks to Cahir for his time and energy he brought to Bosco and the stage!