This week, the HP Pavilion at San Jose welcomes Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular. The groundbreaking production runs December 26 through December 30 in downtown San Jose, CA and brings the magic of the popular film How to Train Your Dragon to life, complete with live-action stunts and more than a dozen exquisite animatronic dragons.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Queenslander, Sarah McCreanor, who plays the role of the strong-minded Astrid. McCreanor spoke with me about how she got involved with the production, what part of the show is very exciting for her, and what makes the How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular stand out from other live events.
You’ve been a part of How To Train Your Dragon for over a year now; how did you get involved with the production?
Well, just like with any other show or tour, we had to audition. The audition process was pretty intense, but it was actually fun. It was like a circus workshop. And the director and the producer went around the globe twice to find what we have now, which is an international cast. It took a long time to hear back whether I had got a callback, then another couple months to find out that I actually got the part of Astrid.
Had you worked on a production like this before?
Absolutely not. This has not been done before, so I’ve never done anything to this scale. I don’t think anyone has; it’s such a huge experience. Previously, I had just been working on my own self-devised [shows], mainly comedy theatre or musical theatre, just with local companies. So, I hadn’t ever toured before. This is definitely a huge step for me.
What was training like during rehearsals for this show?
It was so fun, honestly, because everyone in the cast has such a different skill set. Everyone is so unique and diverse. Even to this day when we do warm-ups, which is every day before the show, we’re still teaching each other new tricks and new things, and still improving in our skills. The rehearsals were just a really big creative experience and workshop, where we got to try new things, experiment with things.
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