Music is My First Love
A young performer recounts the extraordinary journey she’s taken to get on stage at the Stables.
My name is Alaska Hilton, I am 20 years old and was born and raised in South Africa and now live in East Sussex. I trained from the age of eight in classical music and then later, in pretty much every other musical genre. So you might think that playing a duckling, a goose and a froglet in Honk – a musical adaptation of The Ugly Duckling at the Stables Theatre – would be something of a comedown – but not a bit of it! Rehearsals have been absolutely amazing. Everyone has worked so hard even under stressful circumstances. The director Chris Lacey has been super supportive of everyone and always provides helpful feedback.
It’s such a contrast to the awful experience I had at Uni studying Musical Theatre. The teachers quite literally made us terrified of them. We were not allowed to have any opinions; we were told we were useless and needed to lose weight. I remember a principal stating that he didn’t want to see any girls in sports bras if they didn’t have a six pack. We were told there was no such thing as mental health, and if we had any physical disabilities we would never make it in the industry.
Because of my group being “untalented” and “unfit” we were made to do more exercise classes than scheduled. We were told many times that we shouldn’t even be here and asked how we even got into the university since our skills were so severely lacking.
Honk Cast – Alaska middle front; Alaska Hilton
Without wanting to appear boastful, I represented South Africa in Talent America, winning first place in my age group for singing, dancing and acting. Plus I’ve now appeared in professional productions including: Sister Act; Cinderella; Annie; Matilda; Les Miserables; Aladdin; Tribute to Disney; Writing On the wall; Unplugged; Barflies and Queens of the Opera. So I’m not sure the university teachers got it quite right!
Leaving South Africa really broke my heart. My family reluctantly took the decision due to the ever-rising violent crime. Everyday we lived in fear of being raped, hijacked or murdered for simply walking down the street. Life was like a prison. Unfortunately, we had to leave my sister and nephew there and it’s been awful not having them here. Leaving my home could be compared to the death of a loved one. People don’t understand how dangerous South Africa is because it’s rarely shared in the news about all the wrongs that happen there. It’s a beautiful but murderous country.
Although I have been here for four years now, I still struggle to settle in this extremely different culture. However, I have found that my heart always goes back to music and my passion comes back 10 times stronger. Not only am I putting myself out there again with shows, I am also teaching Performing Arts and honestly that was the best decision that I made in a long time. My bad experience at Uni has shown me that I never want to create a toxic environment like that for my own students.
I have thoroughly enjoyed being involved and performing in Honk at the Stables. It’s the first musical show I will have performed in for three years. The story is truly special and teaches the life lessons of being kind to every person, even though they may be different. The cast and team have been a pleasure to work with and it really feels like a big family. I can’t wait to continue and further my career in the UK and I appreciate every opportunity I have been given by those who have supported and believed in me.
• Honk is at the Stables Theatre from 15-23 December (except 19 December) stablestheatre.co.uk/honk
• You can follow Alaska on Instagram: @alaska_hilton_music
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