Braidwood Central school (BCS) offers a huge range of experiences for the varied interests of students. In the performing arts our school offers loads of opportunities for students to perform, create, direct and design. I have been a part of four productions at this school in the short time that I have been here from 2014 – 2016. In year 10 I was a part of the ensemble in ‘Frankenstein’ and played Twitchnose in ‘The Nutcracker’. This year I played Chutney Wyndham in our hit production of ‘Legally Blonde Jr’ and on August 17 I will be playing the lead role of Queen Hecabe in our production of Women of Troy at the BCS Senior Performance Night.
I have been incredibly lucky to have been offered these opportunities. Last year I was fortunate enough to receive the BCS Drama Scholarship, enabling me to freely attend a week long acting workshop at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney. This scholarship was sponsored by the community’s support of our year 9/10 Drama production of ‘The Nutcracker’. I am incredibly grateful to have been given this opportunity to enhance my skills. Whilst at the workshop in the recent holiday break I studied the Stanislavski System, exploring how to use action verbs, character motivation and objectives to develop my acting skills. I worked solo and with others. We also explored Anne Bogart’s ‘Viewpoints’ and Laban’s ‘8 Efforts’. This workshop experience showed me ways to make my performances more meaningful and interesting through theory and performance techniques. I really value determination and passion of the other performing artists I was able to meet and found them incredibly inspiring.
This week my friend Jessie Kay and I received an incredible piece of news. We have been accepted into the ‘State Drama Ensemble’ run by the NSW DET Arts Unit. There were over 70 applicants from all over the state and only 24 places. In order to receive a place we had to record a 2 – 3 minute monologue demonstrating our performance skills and enter these videos for assessment by a panel. We are incredibly humbled by this new opportunity and look forward to working with a new ensemble and performing at the Sydney, Seymour Centre on October 20 and 21.
I feel that the incredible opportunities and support of our town has been what has helped students like Jessie and I achieve opportunities like this. I want to say thank you to our community for always supporting the performing arts at Braidwood Central School because when we support our local school and students they strive and amazing things can happen.
