One of the students, 16-year-old Gabriel Inns, said he was amazed by the parallels of being a football player and a performer. He said: “I did not expect football and theatre to be so similar. It has been impressive seeing how hard the performers work and how difficult it can be to keep a career up and running on the stage. A lot of hard work and training goes into both.”
Fellow student Owen Woodhouse, 18, added: “One of the things I learned was that minor setbacks can lead to major comebacks. Some of the performers have been to auditions and things have not gone their way but things have worked out for them in the end. It is the same in football. Sometimes we have gone to places looking for the next step in our career and it has not worked out so you learn to never give up and just try again.”
Richard Gauntlett, who plays the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella as well as writing and directing the show, said it was a fascinating experience for cast-members to get an insight into the footballing world too. He said: “It is so similar to what we do. You try out for clubs and hopefully get to do a job you have always wanted which is just like the cast on this show.”