Networks Blog Stories Nr. 18: Alba Ballesta

Alba Ballesta is the subject of Networks Blog Stories Number 18! Having done more or less 14 shows (who´s counting these things anyway?! ;) we can safely call her a Networks Theatre veteran. Alba performed many memorable parts, but we will perhaps especially remember her as The Scarecrow Girl...


1. What’s your name? Alba Ballesta.

2. Do you have a Networks name? Hannah. There’s a little story about my Networks name. On my first day at Networks, when I entered the class, Nick told me I had to choose an English name. He gave me a piece of paper with plenty of names I had never heard of. I looked at him and pointed at the first one I saw, Laura. There was another Laura in the class, so he made me pick a different one. I was a bag of nerves when I came into class and now it was getting worse. So I waited for Nick to answer. “Hannah is a nice name” he said. I smiled and mumbled “ok”.

3. How many shows have you appeared in? 14? Numbers is not my strong point. N.B Well, we´ll just have to assume you´re right then! ;)

4. Name them! Flight, Dracula, Peter Pan, Romeo and Juliet, The Prince and the Pauper, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Kindertransport, Robin Hood and the ABBA Silver Disk, Robin Hood: The Prince Strikes Back, Cinderella, Odysseus, Remembrance and The Scarecrow Girl.

5. What was your first show? Flight.

6. What are your earliest memories of the shows? I remember me trying to remember where I should go when I finished my lines, whether it was the office or the small room. And if it was the small room I wondered how I was going to manage to find a place there with twenty more children.

7. What is your earliest/favourite/scariest memory of Nick? I love the image of Nick on stage holding a bunch of flowers with a big smile and almost crying in “Kindertransport”.

8. What has been your favourite show to date? I couldn’t choose one. I keep a special memory from each one, each show is meaningful. It’s like being asked which of my children I love most; I just don’t know what to say (in the second case it’s because, obviously, I’m not a mother, and in the first one I’ve already explained it).

9. Do you have a favourite moment in a show or memorable moment in rehearsal? I love the butterflies in your stomach when you are waiting to go on stage.

10. What is your favourite photograph of any production? Any group photo. N.B. I´ve attached the group photo of The Scarecrow Girl (of course :)

11. Are there any ideas you’d like to give Nick when he’s planning productions. Stories or subjects that you think might make good shows? I could suggest making a certain show, but.. each to his own. Nick knows what the perfect ingredients of a show are.

12. Finally can you sum up Networks Theatre in just one word? Endearment.