Scrooge

After getting so close to playing the part of Tiny Tim in Scrooge at The Palladium I was excited when the auditions came to Oxford as I knew I had a good chance .. and then my Mum measured me. I was nearly 2 inches over the height limit. I was auditioned for various parts, but only really suited the character of Tiny Tim, although I was too tall. At the end of the audition almost all of us were asked to come back the next day as no decision had been made. I was delighted to be chosen, along with a boy called George, and rehearsals started straight away.

The rehearsals went well, but the director, David Steadman, was not happy as George and I were both too tall, but the understudy Ethan, was only 6 and had not been in a show before. He overturned the casting and asked for a DVD to be made showing all of the cast, and then George, Ethan and I went to a recording studio to have a recording of each of us singing the Tiny Tim solo "On a Beautiful Day" so that Mr Steadman could see the DVD, listen to the recordings and then choose between the three of us and a boy in Solihull who was currently playing the part. I was really upset, and it was a very long 2 weeks while we waited as David Steadman went off for the Christmas break without making a decision. It felt like forever. Just before I went on stage for the last performance of Wizard of Oz Maya got the news. Ethan and I were in, with George as an understudy. Even though I was about to go on stage I cried as I was so happy.

I loved playing the part, although it was a bit scary standing on one leg on the table with my crutch, singing "On a Beautiful Day". On my first night Julia reminded me that Tim is meant to be ill so it wouldn't matter if my voice wobbled, and she and my mum watched from the wings. I think they were more nervous than me so they watched David Steadman's face on the monitor and when he smiled they knew it was alright!

I was really lucky as I did Opening Night and Press Night. Ethan got so nervous that he was sick so I did some of his performances too, but Maya was great and organised an extra rehearsal on stage so he was more confident in what he was doing. He ended up loving it.

Some of the cast were lovely and came up to our dressing room, but some of them were a bit grumpy. Apparently it was because it was so cramped backstage and we kept getting in their way, so we spent a lot of time hiding behind scenery to keep out of their way. My mum taught the boys sign language so they had something to do. We all learnt how to sign "Bog off Bob" for whenever Bob Cratchit walked past. Shane Richie played Scrooge, and we didn't really get to see him off stage. After the last performance he shook my hand and said "It was nice working with you mate", but he probably didn't even know my name.