12 Things I Learned From Six UK Tour Alternate Jen Caldwell's Workshop and Q&A

All My Six Posts!
Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”
The Tudor Crown Inspiration in Six’s Logo; The Tudor Fashion Elements of the Costumes in Six (with Painting References)
Six the Musical Wives 1-3: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations; Six the Musical Wives 4-6: Historical and Modern Costume Inspirations
The Ladies in Waiting of Six: Historical Inspirations and Costumes; Details from Six Costumer Gabriella Slade’s Instagram Takeover
The Early Costumes of Six the Musical: From Edinburgh to Cambridge to London
Updated Six the Musical Costumes for Broadway!; The Shoes of Six the Musical
The Alternate Costumes of Six the Musical; How the Six Alternates Change Their Styling for Each Queen
Virtual Dance Workshops and Q&As with Different Six Cast Members!

I did another workshop this morning, this time with Six UK Tour alternate Jen Caldwell through Theatre Fan Workshops! It was only at 7 AM EST, where I live, so I got to sleep…slightly later than I have the last few weekends? Lol. Jen’s a swing on the 2019-2020 UK tour of Six the Musical and also serves as their social media captain. She temporarily served as a swing in the West End production after performing as Anna of Cleves for several shows as an emergency cover.

Jen taught us some of the moves to the “I Don’t Need Your Love (remix),” which was pretty difficult and fast. I’d put it at perhaps #2 in difficulty in the Six dances I’ve done so far? At least for me personally. I was able to get only some of the moves but I wasn’t as laughably terrible as I was during “No Way.”

5. Six (taught by Harriet Watson)
4. Sorry not sorry (taught by Vicki Manser)
3. Get Down (taught by Harriet Watson)
2. I Don’t Need Your Love (Remix) (taught by Jen Caldwell)
1. No Way (taught by Collette Guitart)

Jen has this wonderful sense of humor that kept coming out as she was teaching the class. I copied down so many wonderful one-liners from her. She also was super cool and recognized a number of people on the call, specifically noting who she’s met at various performances and such.

Joking about what’ll happen to anyone who’s late and misses the warm-up: “THEY WON’T BE WARM.”

Later: “Everyone get on your goddamn feet!” “You’re all getting it, I’m not seeing anyone who’s upsetting me.” "

On teaching via Zoom: “It’s a goddamn nightmare!”

“Guys, I belieeevvveeeeee in youuuu” /sings/

Discussing one specific section of the dance: “Do whatever you want to do - /feel your oats/” [american accent]

referring to her wooden spoon: “I’m talking into this like a microphone and i need to stop.”

“Holyyy molyyyyy” [sings]

“and then we all imagine that we have friends. singgg with allll your imaginary friendssss”

“sing into the camera like I’m henry and you HATE ME”

She joked about how people can post clips of the class but “not the whole bit. We got an email about it.”

Standard disclaimer that I did the best I could to transcribe Jen’s answers all accurately but of course I might have gotten a few words wrong here or there.

Training: She did a one year course at LSMT (London School of Musical Theatre) and did a degree “Somewhere in Carlisle.” She joked: “don’t go there guys – I learned nothing.”
Audition Tips: “Just be yourself. They really want someone that they want to work with. Someone who’s moldable and malleable, someone’s who pleasant. You can have someone who’s the most talented person in the world, but if they’re a douchebag, you’d be like /ugh/ - it’d be amazing if everyone was talented and lovely – but mm, there are some REALLY talented douchebags. You must bring /yourself/ and show off what you can bring to a company and what you can bring to a course or a role. That’s what I would say - Be you!”
On her Costume: “I remember my first costume fitting, where they said you’re getting the teal, and i was like, ‘well that’s really turquoise,’ and ‘you’ve got a skirt! ‘Oh great, that’s cute!’ [makes face] And they showed the mockup of the skirt….And I was like ‘mmmm, that’s really short,” and there’s a big panel like, ‘hiiii everyone, have a look at my inner thighs, everyone look at the part of my body i hate the most.’ But now I love it. As soon as you’re on stage you forget about the bits of yourself that are showing.”

3. Favorite Queen to play: “My favorite changes all the time. I DO love Cleves. I also love Howard because she’s funny and a little bit bitchy.”

4. Least favorite Queen to play: “Toss up between Parr and Aragon. Aragon is a lot of pressure. You have to lead [the show] and she’s ALWAYS talking….and you have to sing and belt and riff and it’s very hard and not me. Parr - I’m not her. She’s very calm and I’m not particularly calm. I like singing the song but I find Parr a bit of a stretch for me. She’s hard.”

5. Funniest mistake she’s seen on stage: Apparently at one point Lauren [she just said “lauren” and didn’t specify which one, so this could be referring to Lauren Drew who plays Aragon or Lauren Byrne who plays Seymour] forgot her lines and was just “saying words” and looking around desperately at the other girls for help. “And Shaka’s [Shekinah McFarlane, who plays Cleves] got no peripheral vision, so she’s just looking around having a good time – and laruen’s looking at her like ‘HELP ME.’ Jodie came in and was like [spits out very fast patter in a great imitation of Jodie Steele, who plays Howard]”

6. Favorite part of her job: “Making some wonderful friends! God I love them so much. Not just the girls, everyone on that job is just insane. Being able to work with people that are that talented every day is insane.”

7. Advice during a gap year: “If you have the money, go to as many classes as you can - dancing and singing.” She also suggested doing amateur theater - “I always learn by doing…you learn how shows come together. You’re never too good to learn from other people.”

8. Dream role: “Miss Honey [from Matilda]. I’ve got like three that go with my age. Right now I think I’m like Miss Honey age. In 10 years, I want to go be Donna in Mamma Mia. I say 10 years, maybe 5 years [squints at wrinkles on her face, which are NON-EXISTENT by the way]. 10 years after that, I want to be Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.”

9. Harriet mentioned in her workshop a few weeks ago that Jen really helped her learn how to be a swing with her swing bible; I asked Jen how she put that together and how she learned how to be a swing. “Everyone does things differently. Cassie [Cassandra Lee, another alternate on the UK tour] tried to do a swing bible and that didn’t work for her – she learns from videos and mirrors and stuff. My first experience as swing on American Idiot; me and the dance captain made it together. I have a stage map and everyone’s got color coded dots and arrows when they move and where they move… Harriet tried to do it and was like ‘I can’t, it doesn’t work for me, can I just use yours?’ And I was like, ‘yes, yes, that’s fine.’ For me, once I’ve drawn the swing map, it like cements it in my brain. Once I draw the swing bible, I don’t need it. so I just gave it to Harriet.”

10. Differences between performing on tour and in the West End: “The house in London is smaller than the houses we play on tour. It’s a very different kind of energy. In town you can afford to do a lot less but the result is still the same amount of energy. If you’re projecting as much as you do if you’re playing the Edinburgh festival,which is like 1800 seats, if you give that much in a theater that only seats 350, you’re going to look ridiculous and people are gonna be like ‘calm down.’ Also every show that you do is different because of all the swings stepping in, which I love.”

11. Favorite show you’ve ever done: “I love all of them and I can’t say a favorite. I will not. [laughs]”

12. Did you get time to rehearse on the London stage before you went on? “About an hour? I did some rehearsals with Franny [associate director Franny Anne Rafferty]. THat was when Sophie Isaacs [who plays Howard] was rehearsing as well, so I had like an hour. She was running some Howard, so I was just running some Cleves stuff with her, which helped.”