24 Things I Learned from Six (Bliss) Alternate and Show Captain Nat Pilkington's Workshop/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Over-Analyzing All the Historical References in Six- “Ex Wives,” “No Way,” “Don’t Lose Your Head” “Heart of Stone” “Haus of Holbein” “Get Down”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 a dance workshop and Q&A with Natalie “Nat” Pilkington last Saturday through Theatre Fan Workshops! Nat was show captain and one of the alternates on the Bliss 1.0 production of Six from September 2019 to March 2020.

Nat taught us “Don’t Lose Your Head,” which I had learned already at Vicki Manser’s workshop, but frankly, I was bad enough at it that I was quite happy to learn it again. I feel like I’ve gotten quite a lot better at it! Particularly that weird foot thing in the beginning.

Nat has a wonderful sort of manic energy and brought that to her teaching style. When we were doing warmups, she asked her Alexa to play Dua Lipa’s “Physical” and when Alexa responded “I don’t know that one,” she just yelled “YES YOU DO.” It was hysterical.

During the dance teaching portion, she suggested that we try to act like gossiping flamingos talking about Anne Boleyn. As she said, “I’m sure some of y’all have done that before - Like ‘oh my god look at her skirt’ – like a Mean Girls vibe – but we shouldn’t do that.” She also definitely caught me dancing around with my cat at one point and laughed about it, lol.

At the end of the class, she actually went through and watched /everyone/ do the routine, specifically going from screen to screen and calling out everyone’s names. It was a little intimidating but fun to actually know she was looking at you!

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington - “I’m literally like Anne Boleyn, it’s chopping my head off”

1. On working and living on a cruise ship- It’s hard to explain - It’s kind of like being in quarantine only you can move around a little and be social with a few people. You have to be very independent and okay with your own company. You spend a lot of time alone.

2. Favorite Queen - I love them all but I really like Catherine Parr.

3. The queens she covered - Alicia went home [Alicia Corrales-Connor, who played Katherine Howard as Bliss 1.0, but she left the show a month early and was the understudy Katherine Howard on the UK Tour] and then Byrony [Duncan, another alternate on the cruise] was Howard while we were waiting for her replacement. Then Lori came in for Howard [Lori McLare, who was originally a rehearsal swing but came in in February as an understudy for Katherine Howard]. I then had the choice to do either Seymour or Howard – I chose Seymour because she’s nice, although I’ve got the hair for howard - I only had a few days to learn Seymour – but I sang more for Seymour than anyone else at the audition.

[Sidenote: Pilkington’s hair is SO GLORIOUS AND SO LONG - Like IN a ponytail it looked like it was still down to her elbows, it was insane]

4. Favorite part of the show – From a selfish ‘being on stage’ point of view – the remix. When we get out there and do “this is the remix” and you go up and you’re like “henry this is how it is.” And the megasix, there’s no better feeling than doing the megasix.

5. Origin of her accent - I am from a place called Chorley In Lancashire - Near Bolton and preston, not far from Blackpool.

6. Most challenging thing about doing a production on cruise - The audience don’t necessarily come for the shows, which sounds really sad but obviously if you’re on the West End or Broadway, people have paid specifically to come out to watch six, while with the cruises, people come on holiday and the show is just a free bit at the end of the day. Especially with Americans, and it was mainly Americans on the ship, it was us telling people how good it is and getting them to come. And still people were like ‘was this real, did this guy actually have six wives?’ YES [claps hands on either side of face].

Also, the stage on the ship is humongous. We were so tired and out of breath trying to run from one of the place – it’s so much different from on the West End.

7. Pilkington’s parents were both involved in theater growing up - How did that influence her acting?

Mum’s a dance teacher and father does sets. She teaches tap and modern at like a proper dancing school and they do acro and street dances and all that (she doesn’t teach all of that, she’s a bit old). That’s a big influence because I didn’t really get a choice, I danced since I was 2-2.5, that’s a long time.

My dad built sets and stage managing and such, never professionally as such, but more like amateur dramatics and such. It definitely had an influence on me wanting to do this because we used to spend every weekend at various show rehearsals and things so I was just always surrounded by it honest,

8. Hardest queen to play physically – Probably jane Seymour actually . Aragon and Boleyn and Cleves are so big and like ‘here I am!’ I play Cleves more like cooler. But Jane and Parr, you had to be a bit more together and bit more – can’t think what to describe it - the physicality of it. Cleves and Aragon are a bit more like my personality.

9. Audition process/how she got the part - It’s a tough tough business, let me tell you – but it’s great.

[Pearson Casting, the casting directors for Six] had never heard me sing or dance before, if they thought I was good enough –they could put me to the Six people –but they don’t want to just send you directly to the six auditions in case you can’t sing or dance. So I sang for James and Rosie [Pearson, who run Pearson Casting], than I got called down to London and sang for Lucy [Moss, one of the writers and co-director of the show] and one of the directors Jamie [Armitage]. I literally sang for one song, and they were like “thanks” and I was like “what does that mean?”

Oh there were so many rounds. I was called back to dance. We did ‘Get Down’ with Carrie-Ann Ingrouille [the choreographer] and loads of walking around and being queens. Some people got cut from that, then they gave you the specific queens they thought you’d be suitable for, and all the Aragons went in, then all the Anne Boleyns in. I was seen at first for Seymour and Howard actually, two that I wasn’t meant to cover [later after she’d been cast as an alternate]. Then after that day there was another round. I can’t even tell you how many rounds there were all together, but obviously they have to find the right people. The last week was very much a similar sort of day. We did more singing,some acting, putting different people together to see if they worked well together.

Lots of us were waiting for an awfully long time to see if we got it – That was the west end – I didn’t get that, but got called back for the cruise auditions a couple months later.

We did a dance round, then we sang. I did that whole process, than had to go back again and be like ‘it’s me, that you’ve seen loads’ – and then I sang a pop song, then a full week of singing in front of people, doing dance rounds, doing the ultimate chat of the musical – the whole bit at the beginning after ex-wives. Then I got a call like the next day, because the cruise was starting next month – and they were like, ‘Want to be a swing and a dance captain?’

10. Advice for getting into Musical Theatre: You need to eat, live, and breathe it or you’re not going to survive. It’s such a cutthroat industry. I queued up once at 9 am and got to the front of the line at 5 pm and they were like’sorry that’s it for the day.’ After queuing up all day in the freezing cold! And afterward I called my agent and was like ‘are they seeing the people that didn’t get seen today because I want to be in this.’ And that’s what you need to succeed.

11. Favorite Choreo – ‘Get Down.’ That was the first choreo I learned in my audition and I don’t think I’ll forget it til the day I die. And cleves is just so funky.

12. Costume Variations – I had three, but some of it was wearing the same parts in a different sense.

Aragon – the black alternate costume with the silver and the spiky shoulder pads, and a leotard and the black skirt. I think my skirt was a bit different than now; they’ve made a new version haven’t they? Grace [Mouat, an alternate for the West End who wore a black costume as well] and the Broadway version [they’re not using alternate costumes on Broadway, but i think she’s referring to Mallory Maedke’s alternate costume she wore for the North American tour] have a full skirt. Now they’ve made a cut from it – they keep changing it all the time which is nice.

Cleves – [this costume is] pretty much like a replica of the normal Cleves outfit but in black and silver. The shorts, chains, crop top and the jacket they whip off you.

Parr – same top as Aragon but a different leotard with black sequins. That was really nice and leggings – similar to what Parr wears but in my costume.

I actually had a Howard skirt as well but I never got to wear it. They made Bryony some leggings, and then they made a Howard costume, but measured my leggings off Bryony’s leggings. Bryony is 5’2 and I’m like 5’5’, so my leggings had a very interesting fit. At least they had stirrups so they didn’t reveal my ankles.

Seymour – I basically wore my Parr outfit but I changed my hair.

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington demonstrating the foot move at the beginning of the “Don’t Lose Your Head” chorus.

13. What’s your go to Holbein move? The hike from Fortnight or whatever [demonstrates]. I don’t know, I’m not cool like that. Or a crab like this [demonstrates].

14. Favorite place that she went on the cruise – Maybe Aruba in the Caribbean, the beach was amazing and we had lots of nice cocktails. And if anybody has a chance to go to Alaska, it’s beautiful. It’s very different to aruba because it’s freezing. We had those nice walks and trails and waterfalls.

15. Would she ever teach the Haus of Holbein dance?– It’s not really choreographed is it? A lot of it’s improvised. Plus we’re not allowed to teach Holbein.

16. What’s it like doing a show without an interval - You don’t really realize it until you’re at the end when you’re absolutely shattered and desperate for a drink and then you come off. But it’s not like a fifteen minute break, like a full hour and a half before you have to go again. I’ve worked for ships before though, so I’m used to performing without an interval.

17. How long it takes her to get ready for the show – Some girls took like 2 hours. Cleves took me a bit of time to get ready, and I have so much hair so have to deal with that, but still probably just an hour.

18. Did she audition with anyone else who’s in Six? I remember Maddie [probably Maddison Bulleymetn, UK tour Boleyn] at my West End auditions, she’s so sweet. V [**Viquichele Cross, who played Catherine Parr. Thank you to @musicalcoversUK on Instagram and L in the comments for the info!]- was in my west end and then all my cruise auditions. Bryony [Duncan, fellow Bliss 1.0 alternate] was in my west end and Caitlin [Tipping, Bliss 1.0 Seymour] and Hazel [Karooma-Brooker, Bliss 1.0 Boleyn] actually –and then they were all at the cruise auditions. Candy [probably Candace Furbert, Bliss 1.0 Aragon] I met for the cruise auditions and Sophie [Golden, Bliss 1.0 Cleves].

Sophie and I made friends straight away. And then she made me cry when she did Jane Seymour and then I had to get up after her and i was just bawling my eyes out. Shaka – I remember Shaka being at one of my auditions [Shekinah McFarlane, who was originally an alternate on the West End and then became Cleves on the second UK tour]. I remember Lauren [Byrne], who is Seymour on the tour – and the other Lauren [Drew] who plays Aragon [also on tour] and Collette [Guitart, swing on the West End]. Literally the whole world was at my auditions. You don’t necessarily speak to all of them, but you see them.

Natalie “Nat” Pilkington demonstrating one of her go-to Haus of Holbein moves.

19. What’s the difference between a dance captain vs. show captain? Because I was like the first one to do it on a ship, I think show captain is just covering everything: making people are in the right spaces and making sure they’re not changing the words, etc, and being involved with the wardrobe as well, making sure they’re not changing the way they’re doing their hair or makeup or wearing their flat shoes when thy should be wearing their high heels. Dance captain is more choreograph-y. I never thought about that, I just did it all with Alex, the musical director. She left the dancing with me because she wasn’t a dancer

20. What’s it like Dancing in the costume? The first time you do it, you’re like, ‘I can’t do this I’m never going to be able to do this.’ It’s so heavy and restrictive. But after the first few times, you don’t even think about it. You jou have to get used to it.

21. Dance teaching restrictions? – From a choreographer point of view, if you’re part of the show and it’s so successful, it’s a respect sort of thing. As a choreographer, she’d love for everyone to know all the routines but you don’t want to ruin the magic for the regular bits. [someone mentioned Aimee Atkinson teaching all the songs at this point] Aimee does workshops but she makes up her own choreo, not the actual show choreo.

22. What did she think of the Queendom video? – It was fun! I knew what the idea was, but I didn’t know what it was going to be like. I made my boyfriend film me for like a full afternoon sitting on my couch drinking a cup of tea for it. It was a nice surprise when it came out. I had Byrony texting me like “it’s amazing!” “what’s amazing” “the video, have you not seen it” and then I had to go look at it and it was brilliant.

23. What’s it like being a dance captain – It’s nice! Everybody’s so friendly and just wants to get the job done. It’s a small cast and it’s really nice and chill. I felt really honored that I’d been given the trust by the creatives to oversee that. I’m still really proud of myself for that. I had never been a dance captain before. And I was like ‘oo I could change things.’ [wicked smile] I would never do that, but I COULD.

24. Future plans - I’d like to stay on land for a while – I’ve done a few ships and I think I’d prefer to be on land now.