Our Press Officer Steve Pratt caught up with actress Freya Parks who will be playing Jo March in our upcoming production of Little Women.
Playing Jo, the eldest of the March sisters in a new stage version of Little Women, is “a complete gift” for a woman says Freya Parks, talking excitedly about her role in York Theatre Royal’s production based on Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel.
“She’s forthright and bold, really inspiring for any woman whatever her age. I love that. Despite the times she is completely her own woman but still striving for more,” says Freya, currently on screen in two BBC series This Town and Here We Go as well as The School For Good and Evil on Netflix.
She was not like Jo growing up. “I was quite a quiet child. I was not a Jo. My parents are both actors and they could plonk me down in the rehearsal room and I wouldn’t make a sound, I’d just observe and I found it magic,” she says.
With actor parents – Sam Parks and Hilary Tones – there was little doubt that she’d go into the ‘family business” and act because that’s what her parents did. The idea confirmed at the age of 10 when she won a role as Charles Darwin’s daughter in the film Creation with Paul Bethany and American actress Jennifer Connelly.
“They wanted a Victorian looking child, a doleful, sad-looking child. I sent off my photograph to the casting people thinking nothing would come of it. There was a big open casting call and a lengthy audition process, and I was still thinking nothing will happen,” she recalls.
Something did come out if it – Freya got the part and “ended up having an amazing time” working on a movie shot all over England. That was my first professional job and I totally fell in love with acting. The director Jon Amiel treated the young actors like adults, like the professional actors,” she says.
“My mum and dad didn’t push me into acting at all but were just there and able to support me.”
Music too played a big part of growing up and continues with Freya playing in all female band Warpaint and other bands. Cello, piano and guitar are among the instrument she plays. She began playing bass at school where she was in a band. After graduating from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, her first job was in a production of a play with music.
She regards one of her recent TV projects This Town – the new BBC series by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight about the formation of an 80s new wave band – as “a dream job” for its mix of drama and music.
“It was one of those jobs you couldn’t quite believe how good it was. The music producer is a bit of a legend and his approach was to learn the instruments and songs and perform them live. Other people would have had you miming to pre-recorded songs which can come over quite badly,” Freya explains.
She’s currently waiting to hear if there will be a second series, remaining as excited about the prospect of that as she does for playing Jo in Little Women. “I’ve been wanting to do theatre like this for a long time but nothing has come my way. I love film and TV but it doesn’t compare to the joy of theatre and getting to tell a story chronologically every night, something that doesn’t happen with film and TV.
Little Women, the book, was not part of Freya’s childhood. “I knew of it and read parts of it at school but didn’t study it although I remember seeing various film versions,” she says.
The costumes and corsets don’t worry her. Quite the opposite. Her career began in Creation which was set in Victorian times. “I just love the dressing up because it’s a huge part of why I am an actor,” she says.
“With parents who are actors I’m aware of the realities of being an actor. How you don’t work all the time, and that the highs are really high and the lows can be awful. That’s just the reality. I learned to take an opportunity when it comes to you.”
Little Women: York Theatre Royal, 21 September to 12 October.
Box office 01904 623568 | yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
