Carly Jordan's Experience with Whistle Down the Wind

Hey guys! My name is Carly Jordan and I am in the adult ensemble of Whistle Down the Wind. This is my second KOB show, my first being A Man of No Importance last year. That show was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had, so I was very excited when I got the opportunity to be a part of this one.

So far, the show is going really well! We’re well into the third week of rehearsals, and everyone’s excited to move into the theatre on Monday. It’s so hard to believe that we’re starting tech rehearsals next week! It feels like two days ago that we started the rehearsal process. Some of us actually hadn’t met before, but we weren’t strangers for long. Our director, Julio Matos, had us do exercises on that first day for character development: those of us in the ensemble chose family names, decided what our role in the village was, who our family members were, etc. (For example, I am Mrs. Bennett, a town gossip, and my children are Jenny and Stephen). We also did “viewpoints” exercises, which helps raise our awareness of each other on stage. Since then, this cast has become incredibly close and I think that that will come through on stage and make for an even stronger piece.

As I write this, we’re doing what’s called a “designer run”, which is a run of the show performed for all the lighting designers, sound technicians, costumers, etc. It’s their first chance to see the show in its completed form before they have to start setting everything up in the theatre. It’s a really exciting day for the cast, because this is the first time we’re getting an audience other than our stage management, Julio, our musical director Nancy Whelan, and our dialect coach Christine Hunter.

That’s another fun part about this show: it takes place in Lancashire in the north of England, so we all have to do the specific accent native to that part of Britain. There’s no way we could have perfected it by ourselves, so we are very fortunate to have Christine’s help. She is a perfectionist, which is really helpful. She goes through lines word by word to help us get the sound right, to make sure we’re moving our mouths correctly. Doing a dialect correctly is a lot harder than most people would think, but we practice in and out of the rehearsal hall so hopefully we’ll sound authentic during the run of the show.

It’s almost time for me to go back on for the finale, so I’d better sign off. We open a week from yesterday!! The show runs through next Sunday, the 21st, so come see it! I speak on behalf of everyone involved when I say it’s an experience you won’t want to miss. J

Best wishes,
Carly