Ashley Meliki Shoup graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School in 2005. She’s got a Bachelor of Arts in music, and she’s got a Masters of Musical Theatre from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Ashley is a musical director at pianist and a conductor. She’s been in local community theatre in national tours and on cruise ships making theatre all around the world. Her show credits include School of Rock, big fish on the West End, nine to five Wizard of Oz and next year she’ll be musical director of Theatrical’s Little Women.
Actually, what sparked your interest in musical theatre?
I’ve been going to music theatre since I can remember my my Nana took me to my first production When I was five, it was Jesus Christ Superstar. I don’t remember any of it. I was a little young but I loved it so much. I got the CD and listen to it up until this day. The first ones I really remember, we’re going to see the joint English productions of Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado with my parents, which yet again, loved I had an opportunity to watch some of the community theatre that was happening when Frankston Art Centre opened. And we went and saw a production of sleeping beauty. And I believe Luke Hunter, who is currently the MD for Come From Away the Australian tour. He was playing the prince. He was an MD and he was playing the prince and then we kept going to shows at Frankston Art Centre and one of them in The programme, there was an advertisement for a singing school. And I think it had mentioned in some of the bios of some of the cast members that they had attended this same school. So I’ve done some things before with acting and dancing and so decided to go to the singing school. And then I kind of fell in with panorama Theatre Company down in Mornington. Because that’s where the association was. So I’ve always been interested in theatre. I’ve always loved those art forms.
Why should the arts be important in our community?
We define history by the art of the time. If you if you pick any period in history, everyone’s going to kind of have some idea about some artistic form that existed during the time be writing the architecture, art music some dents depending on how far you want to go back. And it’s because it’s easy to remember those things. The clothing, clothing, it’s art, fashion is art. And so art is a link to our history. And also what would we have been doing the past couple of months in lockdown if it hadn’t been for us? It’s been all over Facebook, you know, if you don’t think the answer important, stop watching Netflix for a day. When they did, they did a poll in the United Kingdom. And they had little infographics about what they thought was important and not important and that’s been floating around Facebook. Do you think that the infographics an artist, it’s it’s not just and it’s not just a connection to our history, it’s also a connection to how we feel different different people associate with different art forms, but they’re always for us to communicate. That can mean so much more than just speaking.
What role do you think community theatre and Community Arts has in this whole arts sphere?
It’s developing young artists. We’ve got so much access to community theatre in in Melbourne, to community programmes. And I loved being involved in community theatre because it gave me an opportunity to develop and experience everything from Rodgers and Hammerstein right up to remember being in the band for fame. You get to experience so many different types of art and music theatre throughout the ages. You get to work on your singing, you’re dancing, your patience, because you’re sitting in rehearsals for a long time not necessarily doing anything and you need to be quiet so that other people could get on with That stuff. And it’s also an outlet for mature people who don’t necessarily have the time to dedicate to becoming professionals. There are so many people who might be good enough to be professional, but they don’t want to have to be away from home. Because let’s face it, being a professional is generally a touring life. You don’t get to be home a lot. So it’s a good outlet for those people who enjoy performing but don’t necessarily want the stress, the disappointment, all of those kind of things that come with being professional. It’s also incredibly social. And I know so many people who are like, Oh, I don’t really socialise much outside of rehearsals and and they make out like, it’s because rehearsals take up all the time, but some people just are a little introverted like that and, and that’s their social time. I remember I didn’t do I did socialising kind of at school and then I did socialising outside of school generally with my out of school bands or out of school theatre. And that was kind of my social outlets. And it’s also skill building.
Community theatre is is a way to practice things that you you don’t get a chance to, even when I’m, you know, I work in the professional circuit, but even when I’m when I’m not there, I like to use community theatre as a way to keep my skills up. And, you know, I sometimes go in and just be a rehearsal pianist just so that I’m getting to play and getting to do something new or, you know, with with little women, as you said, my professional life it’s been a lot of rock shows. So this is a nice departure for me to get to do some Something a little more lush, a little more orchestral, and that side. So that’s working on a skill that I have, but I don’t always get to use and it’s a good opportunity practice.
Do you attribute your success in professional theatre, to the training and the experiences and the opportunities that you got in community theatre?
Some of it, yes. The encouragement that I received from, from people on committees when I was younger, you know, people who had faith in me and when Hang on, she might be very young, but she’s talented and we need to give her a shot because community theatre is about developing these people and I know so many music directors who’ve come out of especially that Mornington Peninsula area, community theatre scene.
And I don’t think success is is can ever be attributed to one specific moment. But I think you can see it, uh, yeah, that that encouragement that passion was definitely developed in the community theatre scene. I knew when I started doing community theatre that I wanted to be a musician that had come from a band that I did outside of school with a guy named Gil lasky, who was a very famous Motown arranger back in the day. But then when I joined community theatre that was kind of like, Oh, this is this is another side of music that I could do professionally. And then the training that you get is it’s it’s on the job training. So of course You then go to school and develop those later as well.
It sounds like you’ve had some awesome experiences in professional theatre you’ve. You’ve been on the West End you’ve been on cruise ships. And is it true that you taught Dr Frasier crane how to sing?
I did not teach him how to sing but he was preparing for his role in Big Fish on the West End.
[Just to be clear, this is Kelsey Grammer the person not Fraser Kramer character]
Yes, yes…and Kelsey was on board the ship I was on. I was working. I was working on how many of the C’s on Greece the musical. And they had Seth Rogen and Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer come on to film a movie for Netflix. And they emailed a little while before forehand saying he’s preparing for this role. Do you have someone on board that can help him? And I was the music director on board. So of course, they were like, yes, we’ve got someone and so I ended up doing a few sessions with him helping him learn his parts for big fish on West End. Yeah. So I didn’t teach him how to sing but I did help him learn his platform.
With all that you’ve done all over the world, in professional theatre and professional music, what brings you back to community theatre in Melbourne?
It’s nice to be home for starters, and it’s just nice to be able to, to work with people who are doing it for passion, who want to build something new, who want to kind of bring out the best in the people that they’re working with. Not that that doesn’t happen in professional work.
Actually, what would you say to someone who’s watching us right now, and thinking about maybe getting involved in community theatre?
I’d say do it audition, what’s the worst that can happen, you can dislike it and don’t want to come back. That’s that’s really the worst thing that could happen. I think that it’s it’s a great experience, you get to meet people that you never thought you’d get to meet. I mean, the amount of people that I’ve met from all over the world, from just random people in high school to people who’ve won numerous awards and been in movies and things like that. And it’s just such a fabulous opportunity. And then you you develop a great group of friends, you develop great skills, as well. And quite often, especially for younger people, it’s it’s great to be around adults who aren’t necessarily family or your friends, parents and things like that. And it’s a good opportunity to get those social skills as well. So I would say just do it, audition and get involved.