I’m Maximus Mawle. I played the role of Albert Breech in NYMT’s new musical of the 2024 summer season: Catastrophe Bay, by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan.
I am 19, and I am heading into my second year of drama school at Mountview, London!
I began my involvement in theatre doing theatre Saturday school since I was 11. I realised my true passion for the art form when I began full time musical theatre education during college.
I was fortunate enough to find success during my first year of auditions for drama school. And after my first year of training, NYMT was the perfect professional environment to apply the skills I had learned.
Although I’m not new to theatre itself, and have been involved in various productions of full musicals, I have not done anything like NYMT before.
It is such a unique and fulfilling experience, that really does push you.
It is an impressive feat, that year after year, young companies and the professional creatives are able to put on such polished and well-executed productions, with only 2 weeks of rehearsal total, and a couple days of technical rehearsal. But it is only possible with the immense effort that each and every person puts in. And that’s what I found was the best part of NYMT: the people I worked with.
I didn’t know any of the cast or creatives of the various shows when I first started rehearsal, but the boarding experience, and spending such long hours with the same people - all passionate and working towards the same goal - meant we all glued together so quickly and got along so well. I can confidently say I have found friends for life at NYMT.
The show I was part of, Catastrophe Bay, is a brave and unique musical, and there really is not anything like it out there.
The show is set in 1839, and is about a tight-knit, isolated Cornish village with a secret to protect, and the shady employee of a big corporation tasked with discovering it - but he has secrets of his own.
It is a raucous, characterful and heartbreaking experience, and I sincerely hope it has a life past NYMT’s production of it.
Catastrophe Bay was a show which had the space for the use of instruments being played as part of the world. Nearly all the music is diagetic (meaning the characters can hear it as well), which allowed us to incorporate actor-musicianship into the piece.
I am also a self-taught guitarist, and I began my learning in November of 2021. I began doing solo gigs in my hometown in York, but I never had the opportunity to play guitar as part of a theatrical performance.
I used my guitar throughout the rehearsals in various numbers, which was so incredibly fun. As someone so used to playing solo, having to adapt to a big band setting was such a great challenge. The hardest part about actor-musicianship for me, was having to speak dialogue whilst playing; it was rubbing your belly and tapping your head taken to the extreme. The entire acting element adds a million more things to think about whilst playing, and was a challenge I was grateful to have, as it’s not something I would face within my Musical Theatre training.
I am so glad that I chose to audition for NYMT for the 2024 season, and was fortunate to be chosen for my role in Catastrophe Bay.
To anyone who is on the fence about auditioning, I’d say: just go for it. I can promise that you will have no regrets.
With 2 more years left in my training, I am certain I will be re-auditioning for the 2025 season!
