The next interview in our stagey chat series is with Sam Liu, who's currently playing Sam Wu in Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Ghosts at the Polka Theatre. The production is running until 18th August 2024.

Hi Sam, how are you? Thanks so much for chatting to Stage to Page today! Would you mind introducing yourself and telling our readers how you first got into acting?

Hello! I’m really well thanks, we just had a wonderful weekend with our press performance on Saturday, so I’m still buzzing from that!

So my name is Sam - I graduated from drama school a couple of years ago & am now working as an actor (when I can!). I’ve been acting since I was a kid - originally in after-school drama club, then I carried on throughout my teens. I went to uni before I went to drama school and did lots of plays there. It was at the end of uni, when I was trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do with my life, and I was doing a show in Edinburgh at the time, and it hit me that if I stopped acting now & went and did something else then this would be my last time on stage. And that thought HORRIFIED me! So then I decided I would apply for drama school and see what happened.

You're currently playing Sam Wu in Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Ghosts. Can you tell us about the story and the character you play?

Sam Wu is an incredible, energetic, passionate and slightly bonkers young boy who LOVES: space, his friends, his hero Spaceman Jack, and DOES NOT LOVE: Ralph Philip Zinkerman the Third, people calling him a scaredy-cat, his sister’s cat Butterbutt (although he does secretly have a bit of soft spot for Butterbutt - don’t tell anyone). The story is about Sam’s mission to prove he’s brave. It’s colourful, crazy, so much fun, so full of heart, and an absolute BLAST.

The show is based on the best-selling book by Katie and Kevin Tsang. How did you go about bringing the character from the page to the stage?

Well, first of all Katie and Kevin’s glorious book was adapted into an equally glorious script by Julie Tsang, and then we spent about fours weeks in the rehearsal room and in the theatre having WAY too much fun putting it on its feet, playing around, discovering the relationships at the heart of the story. Massive props of course to our endlessly brilliant director, Emily, and to Kudz, Yuki and Ed who bring the characters to life so gorgeously. It’s been amazing to watch all the elements of the process come together - music, movement, lighting, design - to create this world which is so big and bright. On stage it feels like being inside a cartoon - I hope that’s how audiences feel too!

If you could play any role, regardless of age or gender, who would it be and why?

This might sound funny but literally for as long as I can remember I have always been so in love with fabulous, strong, often magical and sometimes villainous female characters. The Witches, Mary Poppins, Hocus Pocus, Cruella De Vil - I was absolutely obsessed with them as a kid (still am!). Honestly, those are my dream roles - if age, gender etc aren’t factors. I suppose the terribly mature and sophisticated version of that would be playing someone like Blanche du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire, or Arkardina in The Seagull. If any imaginative casting directors are reading this - hit me up!!

A question I ask everyone we chat to - my blog is called Stage to Page. But if you could turn any book, from page to stage, what would it be and why?

What a fab question! Some of my favourite books growing up were a series called The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver. The story is set 6,000 years ago in Stone Age Europe, and it’s full of magic, mystery, wolves, clans, spirits and all sorts of brilliant things which I think would be so exciting to see on-stage.

And finally, why should anyone reading this book tickets to see Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Ghosts?

Like the very best kids show we really try to make this a show for everyone - regardless of age. We will be doing our absolute best - running around, dancing, jumping, getting in and out of Astro Blasters, hunting ghosts around the auditorium, paying tribute to 80s sci-fi and celebrating British East Asian culture - to make this an hour at the theatre you will never forget. Come join the madness - you know you want to!

You can book tickets to Sam Wu is NOT Afraid of Ghosts, here.

**photo credit: Steve Gregson**