Let's stick together, share the love and get through this as a community!
Sean Parkins is currently in the London company of The Book of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre. His other credits include C.C White in Dreamgirls (Savoy Theatre) in which he was also Resident Choreographer, Assistant Director, swing and understudied the role of Jimmy Early; Assistant Dance Captain/swing in The Book of Mormon (Prince of Wales); Dance Captain, swing and understudy Dr Dillamond in Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre); On The Town (ENO); Dick Whittington (Barbican); William in Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre); Tribe Member in Hair (Gate Theatre); Mereb in Aida (Germany) and Fame (Aldwych Theatre).
On Monday 16th March 2020, The Society of London Theatre announced the closure of all Theatres in London. This followed suit with regional venues. Where were you when you found out and what was your initial reaction?
I’m currently a Swing/Dance Captain on The Book of Mormon in London and we were just about to commence warm-up when our company manager came to stage, along with numerous people from different departments, to give us an official closure. As a company, we were all quite aware of the critically fragile state our industry, as well as the world was in, so, I think we were expecting action to be enforced for health and safety reasons at some point in that week.
Can you tell us anything productive you’ve been doing?
Living alone, I’ve had so much time to focus on myself which, I’ve found to be super productive. It's very rare that we have this much time to channel our energy in a specific way. Self-care has meant I have time for a full-body yoga/workout session in the morning, which I’ve found brilliant for the body and soul.
I’ve also been teaching theatre school students from various colleges via Zoom, which has been truly awe-inspiring. Seeing students doing full out routines in their gardens, living rooms, garages and BEDROOMS with so much passion and drive for performing has given me a lot of hope for the future.
