Another Article for SENine

The Royal Albert Hall finds its Star in Eltham

6 year old Ben Salter of St Mary’s Primary School in Eltham, has landed himself a part as Sorrow in the Royal Albert Hall’s take on the most famous of Opera’s; Madame Butterfly. After an intense audition process and many long rehearsals, Ben was finally chosen to be one of the three boys playing the part over a two week period in March.

It is clear on first meeting Ben that he is a natural performer; when asked what his favourite part about acting at the Royal Albert Hall was, Ben replied “When everybody cheers me at the end!” Bubbly and full of beans, he can barely sit still and throughout our interview leaps up on a regular basis to show me his dance moves. His mother Holly, half trying to calm him down, half laughing along with him, says “I’m so proud of him, I can’t tell you”.

Ben got the part in Madame Butterfly through his Friday night classes at All the Arts Theatre School in New Eltham, a class that has the children up dancing, singing and doing drama exercises. After signing him up at their agency, Ben secured an acting part in the George ‘Back to School’ adverts as well as promotion for CBeeBee’s. “We can’t believe it really” laughs Holly “we signed him up not really expecting anything, and now he’s got jobs in adverts as well the Royal Albert Hall!” Yet performing in front of a 3000 strong audience doesn’t seem to faze Ben, who claims on his first performance he was nervous, but now after 3 shows, he is “not frightened at all”. Holly was actually surprised when she first saw him on stage;”he is usually so lively and animated, but on stage he was really playing the part, really acting, it was like he was a different child”.
However, unlike many child actors, Ben doesn’t seem to have let any of it effect him, telling me that as well as his All the Arts classes he also loves swimming, drawing and “visiting Nan”, and like many other 6 year olds, he claims his favourite subject at school is ‘playtime’. It is clear his parents are hugely proud of him, and Holly can’t bring herself to miss even one of his shows, “every time is more magical then the last, he always gets the biggest applause and I just want to tell everyone ‘he’s mine!’”. Finally, I ask Ben if there is anything else he would like to say; “Finish everything with ‘I’m a star’!” I’m sure the audience members of Madame Butterfly agree.