Taking a Shine to Acting
 

Lewis-born singer and actress ALYTH McCORMACK is set for a busy couple of months on the road, firstly in Dogstar Theatre’s revival of Seven Ages, and then with the band Shine, in a joint tour with The Passion. Alyth tells the Arts Journal about her dual career in the performing arts
 

Matthew Zajac and Alyth McCormack in Seven Ages © Euan Miles

Arts Journal: Alyth, you performed in the original production of Seven Ages at the Highland Festival in 2001 with Hamish MacDonald – is that the case again this time?

Alyth McCormack: No, it’s actually going to be me and Matthew Zajac, who directed the show last time, who will be onstage. Hamish is directing – they have swapped round this time! And of course, Hamish is also the writer.
 

AJ: It looked a very demanding role, or rather, series of roles, since the play is in seven different sections, each with different characters.

AM: It is demanding, yes. There are seven different stories, and within them we play about nine different characters each, so you have to change very quickly from one character to the next, and work out how to give yourself enough time to establish that character each time. We have a wee bit more time to rehearse and prepare than we did the last time, which will let us look at the characters in more depth, and I think the stories are stronger this time as well. Hamish has rewritten a couple of them to make them a wee bit more topical. I don’t want to give too much away, but you’ll see what I mean!
 

AJ: It seemed to be a very physically demanding play as well.

AM: Very. Even down to things like having to find a different kind of walk or a different kind of stance for each of the different characters. The physical effort in keeping the energy up through all the changes is very important, and what is going on with these characters does absorb a lot of physical energy. I love the fact that it uses so much energy, though. It’s a different kind of performing to singing, although that uses energy as well, but in a different way. It’s quite intense, but very enjoyable.
 

AJ: Many people will think of you more as a singer – how did you get into acting?

AM: I did some when I was younger, and some more at college, where you had to do drama if you were singer, but in fact it was really through singing that I got involved in acting, and that was in Hamish’s first play, The Captain’s Collection. Hamish had written the play so that he would play one character, and was looking for somebody else he could bounce ideas off, and that was my role. It developed into about six different characters as we worked on it.
 

  Next Page | Previous Page                  Page 1 | 2 | 3