Former Stratford schoolgirl Rosie Wyatt tells of her journey to RSC stage
THE Box of Delights has cast at least one real magic spell, helping a schoolgirl’s dream of acting on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage come true.
Now a cast member in the RSC’s festive Christmas production, Rosie Wyatt grew up Banbury and went to sixth-form in Stratford.
It was during her formative years at Stratford Girls’ Grammar School that she set her sights on an acting career.
She told the Herald: “At Shottery there was an amazing extracurricular programme that all the girls wanted to be a part of. Before I started in sixth-form there was an audition at KES for a play, called Unman, Wittering and Zigo. I auditioned and found out in the summer. It meant that when I started in September I had this identity as an actor.
“I hadn’t done a play before – I did choirs and dancing and I played the violin in orchestras, so a lot of my life had an element of performance, but I hadn’t done drama at GCSE.”
Landing the role in the play set Rosie down a different path.
She explained: “I thought of myself of an academic person but then I got to the grammar school and was like ‘ooh, wow!’ I decided to do theatre studies A-level. Then the most pivotal thing was that I started going to see plays at the RSC.”
Rosie, now in her 30s, explained: “This was 2005 to 2007, around the time of the Complete Works Festival. It was a really amazing time to be a student in Stratford because you got £3 tickets to any show at the RSC, which you could pick up on the day. There was so much on that I could go to see.”
Of all the great actor she saw at the RSC during that time, one stands out in particular.
“Harriet Walter as Cleopatra in the Swan,” explained Rosie with enthusiasm. “I couldn’t take my eyes off her for the whole three hours. Whenever she was on the stage there was something so electric about her performance.
“Perry Mills, the drama teacher at KES, lent me a copy of her book [1999’s Other People’s Shoes] and after I read it, I sent her a letter and she sent me a postcard back.”
It was director Rupert Goold’s 2006 production of The Tempest with Patrick Stewart as Prospero that further galvanised Rosie’s acting aspirations.
“We did The Tempest at English A-level but I was really struggling with it, because the way it was taught at Shottery there was an assumed knowledge about Shakespeare and the play that I didn’t have. Then we went to go see the production at the RSC – I was amazed at the way they brought it to life. I don’t think I would have been able to get the grades that I did if it weren’t for seeing that. I was enthralled by the magic of seeing it on stage here. I thought I want to do that.”
Although her family were supportive, getting to drama school wasn’t all plain sailing.
“I started auditioning when I was 17 and I was very naive to it all,” explained Rosie. “My dad was an accountant and my mum at the time was training to become a midwife so she graduated just before I went off to drama school. She focused on having kids first. I was really inspired by her and being at her graduation. That gave me the belief that you can go after the job that is in your heart to do.
“But I didn’t have any real practical connections to the industry. I actually Googled ‘drama school audition coach’ and found a woman and would get the train to London and spent the money I earned working in a clothes shop in the Castle Key Shopping Centre, in Banbury, to pay her. She guided me through what speeches to choose and coached me.”
After joining the National Youth Theatre, Rosie decided she wanted to go to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama after seeing students perform in Stratford.
Rosie explained: “There was a drama school festival and Royal Welsh did a production of The Comedy of Errors in the Swan Theatre which our sixth-form drama group went to. I thought it was such an exceptionally high standard that I thought that’s the drama school that I want to go to. If I haven’t been at school here with easy access to those productions I don’t think I would have auditioned for Royal Welsh at all. And luckily I got in the first time of trying.”
That production of Comedy of Errors has a nice connection with being cast in The Box of Delights.
Rosie explained: “It was directed by Elizabeth Freestone, who directed The Tempest here at the start of 2023. She directed me in The Wind in the Willows last Christmas at Wilton’s Music Hall – it was written by Piers Torday who adapted The Box of Delights, and which was first performed at Wilton’s.”
Rosie is playing a number of smaller roles in The Box of Delights, as well as being part of the ensemble she plays the papergirl and the Duchess of Musborough.
She’s thrilled to at last be performing professionally in Stratford.
“Being here in Stratford and being with the company for me is an important part of doing the play,” explained Rosie. “It’s a place that you always imagine you don’t come here just to work but to improve as an actor and get other opportunities and meet people. The whole cast are definitely all throwing our spirits into being here.”
Like most actors, Rosie supplements her income with other opportunities, including working with children with disabilities as a playworker.
Now she’s had a taste of acting in Stratford, though, she’s keen to return. “I would love to come back and do a Shakespeare. My dream role is Beatrice in Much Ado.”
The Box of Delights is on until Sunday, 7th January.
