behind the scenes with summer strallen

From The Dog in the Pond to the hills of Austria, we caught up with the new Maria in her dressing room!

Summer Strallen has come a long way in the last couple of months...

First appearing on our screens as Summer Shaw in Hollyoaks in a dramatic storyline where she had to audition for Andrew Lloyd Webber (who made a guest appearance) he then went on to cast Summer as the new Maria in The Sound of Music.

Summer as Summer Shaw in Hollyoaks

We caught up with Summer to see how the move from the silver screen to the West End went and found out some saucy other stuff on the way!

Summer is sitting in her dressing room an hour before her show is about to start, she has an air of confidence about her and looks glam in a cute Topshop dress, black tights and high heels, she has done her own make up and apart from her wig is all set to transform into Maria.

Watch a video of Summer here going through her Maria wardrobe >>>

The interview:

What happened in your audition – when did you find out about Hollyoaks?
I found out about Maria in July of last year, basically I did two auditions and at the first one Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber was there which was a bit odd, I thought that it was a bit weird but I just got on with it, so I had the first audition then I had the second one and then they told me that I was going to be in Hollyoaks and I was going to be taking over from Connie in March!

It felt wonderful because I wanted the experience in television anyway so I was pleased to be able to put the two together.

You had to keep your role as Maria a secret, how did you cope with that?
It was really hard because I kept forgetting what lie I’d told who, if I wasn’t a good liar I am now. It was really hard, I couldn’t tell my parents or my family for a long time so yeah it was really difficult.

Summer as Maria

How did you manage to rehearse for both?
I finished Hollyoaks before I started rehearsing for this, thankfully I wasn’t doubling up and fortunately I had 3 and half weeks to rehearse purely doing this.

Has anything embarrassing happened on stage yet?
Oh, I forget my lines all the time, I think that’s part of the skill to be able to make things up that’s to do with the story, I’m sure I’ve fallen over a few times. The other day Simon (Captain Von Trapp) couldn’t get my veil over my head that was quite embarrassing.

What are your favourite things?
My favourite things are walking my dog he’s gorgeous, generally relaxing with my friends and having fun, normal things watching TV with my friends.

Now we make Summer choose between Hollyoaks and The Sound of Music...

The Dog or the Von Trapp house?
I think the Von Trapp house because you can’t see anyone there. Where as The Dog everyone you can see straight in front of you where as here there’s 2100 and you cant see any of them, if their pulling a funny face you cant see it.

The Dog in the Pond

Student at HCC or Nun at a convent?
Oh gosh! Probably a student HCC!

Juice bar or the hills?
I’d have to say the hills.

OB or Captain Von Trapp?
Ooooh, that’s a difficult one! He’s gonna’ laugh at me. I think probably OB actually because there’s a bit of normality to him. With Captian Von Trapp - well we’re being followed by the Nazis.

Maria with Captain Von Trapp and the children

Summer Shaw or Maria?
That’s a difficult one too! I think probably Summer Shaw. I like Summer Shaw, shes crazy she just does things because she wants to.

Now for some fun questions!

Where is your favourite place in the world?
Bed, I love my bed and sleep!

What’s the most played song on your ipod?
Probably at the moment its an Adele song called Crazy For You off her new album 19.

What’s your most worn item of clothing?
Black tights, I wear black tights all the time.

Who or what is the first thing you think about when you wake up in the morning?
Bambam, my dog. He sleeps in my bed so he always wakes me up!

Have you ever seen a ghost?
Yes, I saw one in a house in Birmingham when I was doing Cats on tour it was known for being haunted; I saw one there it was all up the wall it was just lights, it was weird.

Have you ever been chatted up by another celeb?
Erm… yes but I don’t want to say, I cant say, there’s been a few, not very famous, oh okay... Anton Du Beck from Strictly Come Dancing, that was the funniest one!

When was the last time you were star struck?
I get star struck all the time, the most star struck I’ve been was when I saw Daniel Radcliffe at the Whats On Stage Awards!

Which celebs would you like to be friends with? Dead or alive?
I'd like to be friends with people like J.F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie O, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepurn, they are my idols.

Would you prefer to have no hair or no teeth?
Oh god! That’s hard, because I love my hair and I’m having my teeth done, I like teeth I have a thing about teeth, if someone's got horrible teeth I get funny about it... I think no teeth because I love my hair.

You can see Summer as Maria in The Sound of Music at the London Palladium now!!