In September 2022 Rae completed her 6-month contract with Live Business on Brittany Ferries performing and managing the entertainment on their largest two ships, the Bretagne and Pont Aven.
On Christmas Eve she finished her month-long tour as a swing actor in Aladdin for Chaplin’s Pantomimes travelling to Scotland, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Kent and London performing to hundreds of adults and children.
Scroll down to read more about Rae and see video and images.
Full Bio
Rae (Rachel) Lewis was born in Ascot, Berkshire in the same hospital used 26 years earlier in the film Carry On Matron! Fortunately by the time Rae was born, the name had firmly changed back from “Finisham Maternity” to “Heatherwood Hospital”, but perhaps this early connection with the entertainment industry sealed her destiny?
As a child she enjoyed a good family singsong and was soon on her way to the local Stagecoach where her interest was peaked, particularly in singing. A move to Berkshire Maestros led to selection for the junior, then senior Berkshire County Choirs providing an excellent training environment for performances in Disneyland Paris, and The Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
A change of music interest saw her leave the county choir and join a number of musical theatre clubs and schools learning more performance based skills including dance and tap. Rae also appeared on stage in several local theatre productions including Sweeney Todd in Bracknell, Berkshire.
After her GCSE’s Rae studied at Guildford College and then Chichester University. To pay her way she sang in care homes and day centres for the elderly and volunteered for a dementia charity. She graduated in 2019 with a first-class degree in Music & Musical Theatre. Her dissertation was a short musical play based on her experiences with people living with dementia and it earned extremely high praise.
After securing an agent, an opportunity to travel then arose and Rae took off to China in late 2019 as a musical theatre tutor for “The Next Stage” where she remained for the next 6 months. Her stay included performing as a soloist in the Guangzhou Jazz Festival at the famous Xinghai Concert Hall.
Unfortunately, her time there was cut short when she was evacuated back to the UK at the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic. During lockdown she worked as an entertainment assistant for Sunrise Senior Living as well as continuing tutoring youngsters in China, USA and the UK over Zoom.
Once the world started to return to normal, Rae took a contract in summer 2021 providing entertainment for Park Dean Resorts singing a mixture of popular and jazz music. During the spring & summer of 2022 Rae worked under contract to Brittany Ferries and was promoted to entertainment manager on their largest two ships, the Bretagne and Pont Aven. She received excellent reviews during both assignments.
Click below to view the video on YouTube
Rae, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey with her partner Alex says, “We were all full of enthusiasm when we graduated and the lockdown really stopped everything. Throughout I always made sure that any job I took was connected to the future I want, even if it meant busking to make ends meet. It would’ve been easy to compromise and take a steady job, but I haven’t stopped performing since I was 5 years old and will keep going until I reach the success I am looking for.”
Image Gallery
