The Railway Children: Usher’s ticket to stage glory after working front of house for 2 years

Julie Gilby started work at the purpose-built 1,000-seat King’s Cross Theatre when it opened for The Railway Children in 2014. Next month she will make her debut as part of the ensemble cast
“Inspiration”: former usher Julie Gilby
Nigel Howard
Robert Dex @RobDexES27 April 2016

A former usher has been hailed as a “front of house inspiration” for landing a role in The Railway Children after two years of collecting tickets and selling ice creams in the theatre where it is performed.

Julie Gilby started work at the purpose-built 1,000-seat King’s Cross Theatre when it opened for the show in 2014. Next month she will make her debut as part of the ensemble cast.

Gilby, 31, from Crouch End, trained at Drama Centre London. She said: “I don’t actually have an agent at the moment so that’s been a bit of a struggle. I just happened to overhear some people talking at work that they were holding auditions and struggling to fill this role and I thought I could probably do it.

“So I made enquiries to see if they would audition me and they did and I managed to get it. I had a lovely leaving card from my front of house team and one of them put in it, ‘You’re a front of house inspiration’ which was really lovely.”

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The show, based on the novel by Edith Nesbit which was made into a 1970 film starring Jenny Agutter, has been a huge hit and is running until next January.

Gilby will also be the understudy to two of the actresses playing the main roles. She said that she did not know all the lines off by heart when she was asked to audition — but she had “a good head start”.

“I think it gives me a different perspective on it and also I get to hear a lot of feedback from the audience when they’re leaving, what they think and what they enjoyed and see how much of an impact it has,” she added.

“Obviously children love it but there is an older generation who remember the book and the film from when they were young.

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