by Priscilla

Jun.04, 2010, under Cast Blog

The thing that everyone associates with the divas is the flying. The flying at first was really scary and then you get used to it. It is not the most comfortable thing either, as there are wires, harnesses and hooks attached to you and then you have to sing. Heights aren’t a real problem for us. The cockatoo perches were the most daunting though as you are attached to the perch, which is suspended by wires, as opposed to us being suspended by the wires ourselves. It is just a little waist harness, so you don’t have any of the wires to hold onto. You begin to have to change your approach to singing when flying, which takes a while to get used to. In the first year of the show we wore corsets under our dresses, which was more restricting, but this year we don’t have them. Although we have waist harnesses, we have leg stirrups that take our weight, which were designed specifically so that you can sing.

Charlotte Riby

The diva’s outfits have been modified again this year, but they are fantastic to wear. I think there are 52 metres of lace in the dresses. The wardrobe department have a nightmare maintaining them. We are usually one of the first cast members into the theatre, because we have to put our make up on before warm up. Our hair is then put in pigtails for us. We then get into all our undergarments, tights, padded flying knickers and costumes. Then the wigs are put on, before we have to go downstairs to get into our harnesses and rigged

The divas sing the majority of the songs in the show. If you hear female voices, that will be us along with the other female actresses in the show. So even when we are not on stage we are singing. Our offstage plot is just as busy, with singing, changing costumes, getting into the rigging or onto the lifts. We use a lift backstage to get up and down the necessary floors in time.

Macarthur Park is one of our favourite parts of the show. The audience reaction is incredible. It is like a rock concert. Down Town is great for Emma. Opening the show on Press night was terrifying. I Will Survive is also great for Charlotte as it is a real climax before the interval.

Emma Lindars

One of the hardest aspects is the very quick change into the Aria. We have to run upstairs from Broken Hill get changed and then drop down next to Oliver when he’s on the shoe. There is a cut off point that we have to be in our harnesses by or we won’t make it. That is one of the most difficult things, because there is so little room for error and occasionally we haven’t made it.

The great thing about being a diva in Priscilla is there is nothing that you don’t get to do, you fly, you stand on top of a bus and you get these amazing costumes and wigs.

Emma, “I’ve been in the show from the beginning and I was really worrying about the cast change, but it has been great. I’ve been lucky to work with four great people now. I think the transition has been smooth, and the atmosphere in the cast is great. I left college and went into The Sound of Music, so I went from being a nun to a diva. I heard the music of Priscilla and some of my Australian friends were telling me about it, so it was great to get it.”

Charlotte, “I left college did a UK tour of Me and My Girl, I then went into the original cast of Hairspray and played the alternate Tracy for 2 years. Then I had a 2 month break before coming into Priscilla.”

Priscilla is a fun, glamorous, feel good show. Everyone loves it. Everyone knows all the songs, but they are in great new arrangements, which you can’t help but sing along to.