Laura Best is a relative newcomer to the Maltese stage, yet she has been immersed in musical theatre since age five. Alex Vella Gregory meets up with her, and it all turns into one big musical number.
Let’s start from the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start…Where are you from? What is your Malta connection?
Because of the July bombings on the London underground we ended up having sell-out shows even for the first night at the Fringe
I was born and raised in the UK, but my Malta connection goes as far back as my grandparents. My grandmother was Maltese, and married an Irishman. My mum was raised in Malta. All my family is musical; my parents were involved in various theatrical ventures, and my brother works as an actor in Canada. However, I am the only one in my family to actually go to drama school.
I enrolled at East 15 drama school in London. I was in the opening year of the Contemporary Theatre course, and after that I became involved in the London theatre scene. However, when the recession started affecting the theatre world, I decided to pack my bags and come to Malta.
What was your involvement in theatre after East 15?
Well, I did a lot of stuff involving theatre, music and film. Perhaps the best venture was joining a theatre company called Bad Penny. It was basically made up of East 15 alumni, and we did lots of exciting things together. The best was maybe a little musical we penned called Terrorist!
Terrorist! was based on the September 2011 attacks on the Twin Towers, and we were planning the show for the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe. When we started off working on it, it was going to be just another musical.
Then the July bombings on the London underground suddenly made the musical a topical subject. We ended up having sell-out shows even from the first night, something extremely unusual for the Fringe.
Have you got rhythm? Have you got dancing? Tell us about life in musical theatre and theatre life in Malta.
I was born and bred on musical theatre. By the age of five I had seen Cats nine times. My father fed me a steady diet of musicals, especially musicals from the 1940s and 1950s, and jazz. It was with some sadness that I had decided to give it all up and come to Malta, thinking I would not find anything to do here. Luckily, I was very wrong.
I entered the theatre scene in Malta by pure chance. I was working with Nathan Brimmer at the time, and I bumped into him in the office kitchen.
He was panicking over a cup of coffee about how he was never going to find someone to play Olivia in MADC’s Twelfth Night.
To which I replied, “You do know I have a degree in acting?” Well the rest is, as they say, history, and since then I’ve done not only that but also The Bacchae (MADC), and now I have a part for Female of the Species with Unifaun.
Why can’t a woman be more like a man? Tell us a bit more about Female of the Species.
The play is a fast and witty comedy based on the real-life figure of the feminist writer Germaine Greer. I play Tess, daughter of the feminist writer Margot. Contrary to my mother’s expectations, I marry and have a family. I am also dying of boredom, until one day I walk out on my family and go to my mother’s house, only to find a young woman threatening her at gunpoint. It’s a great play, and I’m lucky to be working with a stellar cast.
I hate men... feminism. Your thoughts.
I come from a long line of strong Maltese women, and proud to have inherited that tradition. However, there is also a lady-like side to me. Although I would certainly never bow down to a man, I do enjoy being treated with respect. If there is one thing I cannot stand, it’s bad manners.
So, as contradictory as it may sound, I think feminism cannot replace that feeling you get when someone treats you like a lady. Ultimately, men and women are two different species who must learn to co-exist.
Whenever I feel afraid I whistle a happy tune. Stage fright?
Fortunately I do not suffer from stagefright. I am usually a bit edgy before a peroformance, but once I’m on stage I am fine.
Although once I did walk out on stage at the wrong time in a production of Bugsy Malone, with a telephone in hand.
Luckily, I managed to bluff it off and disappear backstage again. Other than that…only afraid of spiders!
Angel of music hide no longer! Who are the people who inspire you?
My greatest inspiration comes from my family, especially my father and my late grandmother. My grandmother passed away the day I got chosen for Twelfth Night, my first ever Maltese production. So you can imagine how special that role is for me.
Other than that, I look up to all the great jazz divas like Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James (God bless her soul) and Nina Simone.
Popular, you’re gonna be popular. Which are the roles you are dying to play…or would even kill for.
Christine! I desperately want to do Christine from The Phantom of the Opera.
It is a role which I have always felt was ‘mine’. It is the reason why I studied musical theatre.
Other than that, Laurie from Oklahoma, and Velma Kelly from Chicago.
Where do you go from here? Is this where you intended to be? The future…
Well, now I have my roots firmly planted in Malta, and certainly do not intend to move from here. I have a stable job and my own place, and I have even bought a car . So, I am currently braving the Maltese roads and experiencing typical Maltese driving.
I am also very happy to have found a thriving theatre scene in Malta, and to havebeen welcomed so readily into it. My next upcoming project is another comedy with Masquerade called Becky Shaw.
I was happy to have been offered the part, rather than having to audition for it. I think it is great to get a part just on reputation alone.
But before I start working on that, I will concentrate on Female of the Species. Who would have thought that coming to Malta and ‘giving up’ theatre would actually lead me to all this?
Unifaun Theatre’s Female of the Species opens at St James Cavalier, Valletta on February 24 and runs until March 11. Visit www.sjcav.org for more information.