Lachlan O’Brien

Across the world the theatres have gone dark the only thing burning brightly on these empty stages is a single floor light known as a Ghost Light. These lights are glowing waiting for the actors, orchestras, technicians, front of house staff and stage crews to come back and fill the dress circles and stalls once again with sounds of live performances and clapping and cheers of the ever-appreciative audiences.

The impact that the current Global Pandemic has had to the theatre world has been harsh with all shows on Broadway and The West End closed some will never come back, leaving many thousands of people unemployed.

While the professional world has taken a blow so has the armature theatre community, many society’s having to cancel or postpone productions from their 2020 seasons. Noteable Theatre Company was not immune to this, like many others, it had to cancel its production of Disney’s Alice In Wonderland Jr, which had bumped into the Zenith Theatre preparing for opening night when NSW had to close down.

This brings us to the first performer in our Ghost Light Concert, Jessica Laffan, who was playing The White Rabbit in that production. In this performance Jessica sings “Waiting for Life” from the musical Once On This Island, composed by Stephen Flaherty.

Jessica says “I like this song because there is a positivity and anticipation of something amazing about to happen. I like this up-tempo song and the clever lyrics, and catchy chorus with a great key change in the middle! I think this song is perfect for me right now and everyone in the middle of this world – wide pandemic”.

Jessica was very sad at the news that Alice in Wonderland had to be cancelled along with activities like dance, choir, music camp, Schools Spectacular etc. In this down time during lockdown to put her creative energy in song writing. Jessica wrote a few of her own original songs she even learnt how use GarageBand to create backing tracks for them. Jessica also continued attending her regular dance classes via Zoom

Jessica’s past stage performances have included; The Narrator in Aladdin Jnr, Children’s Ensemble for Willoughby Theatre Company’s Mary Poppins. She was also a Featured Vocalist as a youngest member in 2019 NSW Schools Spectacular and has sang solo at the Sydney Opera House for the Arts Alive Choral Concert in the same year. She recently sang as Guy Sebastian’s virtual backing singer on Channel 7. Jessica thinks that her favourite role would have been The White Rabbit because it had a solo singing part and included tap dancing

When asked what parts she would like to do in the future she says “I would love to play Tomika in School of Rock, Annie in Annie, Young Cosette in Les Mis (but I am now too big for this!), Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, Ariel in Little Mermaid, and  my the list goes on…”

The Ghost Light Concert features 14 performers and 5 musicians recorded as live on the stage of the Zenith Theatre, Chatswood. This concert is raw and untapped, to provide our audiences and people missing live performances the feeling of being in the theatre once again. This concert has been made possible because of Willoughby City Council and The Zenith Theatres commitment to ensuring the performing arts community is preserved and accommodated during these difficult times until we can welcome everyone back into the theatre once again.