We began our rehearsal process with a week learning all of the singing repertoire for the show, during which an opportunity to become vocal captain for the show presented itself. I was keen to take on this role and so submitted myself for consideration. I’m pleased to reveal that I was chosen to be the vocal captain for the show and my work began immediately; unfortunately, one of the cast had tested positive for Covid the day before we began, therefore as vocal captain I was responsible to record all of their harmony and solo lines alongside my own, I would then send them all of the days recordings on the evening once we were finished with bar numbers of where each section started and ended on the sheet music so they could follow along and learn everything with more ease.  

The following week we began blocking with Alistair; in order to ensure we understood our characters, we each had to prepare research to present to the group. As I had two characters (when I was not playing Barbara I was playing a factory worker), I opted to create profiles for both of them. Barbara Castle was a politician whom was truly before her time, and advanced our institution tremendously throughout her long career in Parliament, including introducing the breathalyser and the 70mph speed limit on motorways; she was also responsible for the success of the Equal Pay Act in 1970. Researching Barbara was extremely interesting and inspiring and it left me feeling extremely privileged to be playing such a wonderful person. My other research was where I allowed myself to be creative and have fun. As she was not named, she was a blank canvas for me to create, and so I created Valerie McGrath.