Interview: Carrie Ellis
9:11am Tuesday 15th April 2008
CARRIE Ellis knew from the moment she could walk that she wanted to to make a career on the stage.
The theatre was in her blood with mum Noeleen running one of East Lancashire's best-known dance school.
Now she's touring the country in one of the best-loved musicals and has made regular appearances in the West End.
And yet, she came so close to packing it all in....
Charlotte has come a long way since her singing debut - a rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at the family Christmas dinner - and it looks likely she'll go a lot further, with her self-penned songs turning heads in the music industry.
We spoke to superstar-in-the-making.
IT all began in a small dance studio above Timpsons Shoe shop, in Church Street, Blackburn in the late 1960s.
Carlotta's School of Dance was a well-established dance school run by Carrie Ellis' mum, Noeleen Balshaw.
Carrie went along with her mum from a very young age and no sooner could she walk, did she don a pair of ballet shoes, eager to follow in her mother's dancing footsteps.
But little did she know that little girl would one day be performing to packed houses in London's West End It is no wonder Carrie felt drawn to the spotlight with a performing gene going back generations.
A great aunt was an impressionist and her mum and grandma were in a band, with granddad as manager.
"I have heard stories of how many people would tell them to 'get a proper job', but I love that this ran in my family," said Carrie.
"Performing wasn't as well thought of in those days, it wasn't seen as a career.
"I knew it was what I wanted to do and begged to go to stage school for years until I was allowed to finally go to London at 16."
The former Witton Park High School pupil added: "My teachers always tried to talk me out of it, saying it was a waste of time.
"Despite what these reality TV programmes show, it is not easy and not just anyone can do it. I'm very pleased I didn't listen to anyone."
Carrie, 48, has come a long way since her early days performing in competitions with her mum's dance school.
Her West End credits include Cats, Me and My Girl, Brigadoon and West Side Story.
She also played Peaches/Baby Jane in the controversial Jerry Springer The Opera and has appeared in countless other productions the length and breadth of the country.
But despite her stage success, taking her to the West End and beyond Carrie's ultimate goal is to be in a long-running soap, a dream she came so close to recently only to have her scene cut.
Her part was a small one but that did not matter to Carrie, because this was Coronation Street, the show all actresses imagine being part of.
Carrie, who now lives in Lytham St Annes said: "I got so excited when I was walking down the cobbled street, past the Rovers and saying hi to Ken and Gail, like I knew them.
"I was star struck. I've worked with many big names but somehow Corrie is just different.
"My scene was part of the storyline with Michelle Connor and her real biological son.
"I played a mum doing the school run, who has a chat with her.
"They ended up cutting the scene as the episode over ran.
"I got a very nice letter from the director though and I'm hoping he may feel he owes me one next time a long term part comes up. I would love that so much."
The bit part on the Street came at just the right time to save Carrie's career as she had just decided to hang up her acting hat and put on her teaching one instead.
She said: "I had decided to chose between acting and the teaching I have begun doing in various schools across the country.
"I was taking on too much, so I was going to concentrate on teaching, which I love.
"But then this part came up and I got it, it was like fate telling me it was not yet my time to stop."
And had she not changed her mind she would not have landed her current role playing one of the leads, Golde, in Fiddler on the Roof, in a major UK tour.
Until last weekend Carrie was in her home town with a sell out run at Blackpool Grand, now she is on the road for six months, playing opposite Joe McGann.
She said: "It was weird as no sooner had I said I was probably going to stop acting than Corrie and Fiddler came along.
"And they have both been so brilliant, I am so glad I changed my mind.
"I never thought I would get Fiddler I wasn't sure if I was right for the part, but after playing her for a while, there is actually quite a lot of Golde in me.
"I love my career and I'm not stopping yet."