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Colchester actress Jasmine Triadi on her roots, awards, and hard work
Her performances as Cinderella at the Playhouse Theatre in Salisbury were deemed impressive enough for her to merit the prize – but as well as having a talent for never forgetting her lines, the 22-year-old also makes sure never to forget her roots.
Jasmine, who attended Colchester Institute and developed her talent in the early years in the city’s well known theatres, has a packed calendar ahead of her.
The current UK tour of The King and I production she is starring in is set to take her to Manchester, Glasgow, and Newcastle over the coming weeks.
But for all the cities which Jasmine gets to visit across the UK and Ireland, Colchester remains home, where everything is familiar and where her walk to the train station takes her past the Mercury, the theatre where she made her début as a seven-year-old in The Fiddler on the Roof.
In January, Jasmine will also be able to call herself a West End actress when The King and I is performed at The Dominion Theatre.
As with many successes, Jasmine’s rise has come courtesy of a bit of luck, a bit of talent and, above all else, a lot of hard work and perseverance.
Speaking from Hull, where she is currently performing in The King and I’s tour of the north of England, Jasmine explains her early days saw her show an aptitude for theatre and drama.
But it was as she reached her teens that she realised it was time to make a decision on her career – her choice, as you may as guessed, was to give her drama career everything she’s got.
She said: “I finished secondary school and you get to that point of wondering what to do with your life.
“I tried to see how I could continue theatre – I did a BTEC at Colchester Institute diploma, and after I passed all that, I thought ‘This is serious now’.
Jasmine then went to train at Evolution Foundation College, which has a campus in Colchester, to further prepare herself for a career in the performing arts industry.
A successful application to Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts followed, and with it came yet more work and more rehearsing.
“It’s 9am to 6pm every single day, and you are doing acting, dancing classes, singing classes, and then you have got revision to do, so it’s hard work.”
“You’ve got to be the right person to go through drama school – it’s hard but it’s worth it for sure.”
In the performing arts industry, one senses that half the battle is getting ahead in the early days, cramming in as much experience as early as possible so no audition feels too daunting.
Headgate Theatre, the Mercury, and the Colchester Operatic Society all offered Jasmine a chance to expand her repertoire and give her the best chance of making her acting career a success.
“I must have been doing shows with Colchester Operatic society when I was about 12,” she recalled.
“I remember I played the role of Annie, and I’ve have made some friends for life doing those shows, so the Mercury has a special place in my heart.
“The same goes for the Headgate, because I used to do one-week workshops there – you’d enrol [for a set of classes] for a week in the school holidays and then your parents would come and see what you had done at the end of the week.”
Few actors or actresses would openly admit to having “made it” – even after graduating from Itali Conti, Jasmine still had to take up what are known in the industry as ‘muggle jobs’, a term used to describe work which actors and actresses take on to pay the bills whilst they diary countless auditions in anticipation of another role.
But with her recent Barbara Windsor Award under her belt, A UK tour in The King and I and a West End début confirmed in the 2024 calendar, Jasmine is surely not far off from being able to admit, albeit privately, that she has indeed ‘made it’.
“You get so caught up in that audition cycle and all the training – you forget how hard you’ve worked.
“Unfortunately, when I come back to Colchester, it’s a fleeting visit between venues and I don’t get to go back often.
“On tour you are in new places all the time, so it’s nice to come back – and my route from home to the train station goes past the Mercury.”
It’s just one root of many in Colchester Jasmine makes sure to keep in touch with.
