CONNOR Pratchett has been a key member of both CO2 and Mad Hatter for the last couple of years.

Next week, he'll be in the Mad Hatter cast for Urinetown at the Headgate Theatre, Colchester, from July 6 to 8, and then in September he's in Carousel for CO2 at the Mercury Theatre.

Tickets for Urinetown are available on 01206 366000 and for Carousel call 01206 573948.

What or who got you interested theatre? Did you take part in any productions at school?

When I was around seven years old, my sister joined a theatre group in Harwich, which met on Saturday mornings. I think it was just an idea to get me out of the house so I didn’t play my PlayStation, but they suggested that I went along too. Little did they know that in a few years I would decide that I wanted to make a career out of it. I went on to take drama at school, however they only started doing shows in my final year.

Are or were any members of your immediate family involved in the theatre?

Other than my sister going to the theatre group, none of my family have been involved with theatre. My dad used to paint the sets for the shows we did and also help out with sound but that’s about as far as it went. My sister’s interest stopped after leaving the group so actually I have forced most of their interest in musicals upon them.

Who is the most inspiring person you’ve worked with and why?

I can’t just pick the one person, so I am going to pick four. Harry Totham, Will Mugford, Barney Fritz and Wade Ablitt. These guys are incredibly talented and they have inspired me to become a better performer over the past few years and I couldn’t thank them enough.

What formal training have you done?

I finished the two-year Level 3 Extended Diploma Musical Theatre in 2015, which I think helped me drastically improve not just vocally, but in dance and acting too. This September I will be going off to Bird College to continue my professional training studying the BA (Hons) Professional Dance and Musical Theatre degree and I am extremely excited for it to start.

Do you have any specialist skills – anything from stilt walking to dress-making – which you work into your repertoire?

When I played the role of Robert Martin in Mad Hatters production of The Drowsy Chaperone I had to learn how to roller skate. Luckily it didn’t matter if I was bad at it or not (because I was terrible). Also, if you’ve seen me in Sister Act, A Chorus Line or Urinetown you’ll know that I can do the splits, which now seems to be becoming my little party trick.

Which experience/role do you regard as the highlight of your career to date?

In the past year or so I have had the opportunity to play some amazing parts, TJ in Sister Act and Leon Czolgosz in Assassins to name a couple. However I think it is between Grease where I got to perform as the T-Birds with my best friends or my first show with CO2, Guys and Dolls in 2012. It was my first time performing at the Mercury Theatre and I was just a bit overwhelmed by it all. Walking on stage during the opening for the first time is a moment I will never forget.

What has been your most embarrassing moment on stage?

I actually think I have been very lucky to not having any seriously embarrassing moments on stage other than the odd voice crack here and there. It can only mean I will have several to come in the future.

Which actor (s) performer (s) do you most admire and why?

When doing research into the musical Cabaret, I discovered that I had an admiration for Alan Cumming who has played Emcee in London and Broadway amongst a variety of other things. The way he played the part was just perfect and I tried to incorporate as much of what he did into my performance as possible. Samantha Barks and Jeremy Secomb are two others I greatly admire.

What role would you most like to play and why?

Rod in Avenue Q and Emcee in Cabaret are parts that I would consider dream roles. I had wanted to play them a long time before I got the opportunity too and I feel very fortunate to have done so already. In the future though, I would love to play Elder McKinley in The Book of Mormon. When I went to see the show in London I thought the part was hilarious and I loved the tap dance in the middle of the song ‘Turn It Off’.

Ever corpsed on stage? What happened?

Since I‘ve started doing shows in Colchester, I don’t think a show has gone by where I haven’t corpsed. I am one of the easiest people to make laugh on stage and in real life. A recent one was during Sister Act, at the beginning of the song me, Jonathan Davis and Will Mugford performed. Jonathan was slowly and ‘seductively’ unbuttoning his shirt and on opening night the audience laughter just got to me.

Any big plans for the future?

I am heading off to Drama School this September so that’s the next three years of my life sorted, but hopefully I will be able to have a successful career performing once I’ve left Bird.

Any tricks for remembering your lines or other useful tips to pass on to other actors/directors?

It sounds bad but I never really spend any time sitting down and reading over scripts to learn lines. I somehow manage to learn my lines purely from being at rehearsals and one day I find that I don’t need the script anymore. However a trick I have previously used is going over lines in the bath. As strange as it seems, the relaxing environment with no distractions worked very well.