Drama Biog Blog

As virtually an only child, often left to my own devices, I revelled in pretending-games around the farm. When my dad and brother built me a cubby house for Christmas they even put in a blackboard for me (how did they know?) and it turned out my toys were quite bright (excellent at subtraction).  Most days I would prance around the house or garden being the hero, or the princess, sometimes the one who got killed off (and mourned for decades), and even occasionally the villain, resiliently believing that no-one could hear me re-enact The Princess Bride behind closed doors.

My private high school had an excellent drama teacher – Anne Holt – who generated excellent school plays and was beyond the appreciation of year 7s and 8s, but she was poached before I hit the senior years.  She was a classic tie-dye hippy, regularly having to wake students from the relaxation ‘warm up’.  I fondly remember the oral exercises Red Leather Yellow Leather and, the classic, “Please Sir, can you tell me where to park my car?” “Yes Sir. Here, Sir, where all the parked cars are.”

I wasn’t a popular person during school, and I found that when on stage everyone had to be quiet and listen.  The empowerment was addictive and I intended to be an excellent actress (or a director, if desperate) so that I could command that attention on cue.  Performing arts weren’t offered beyond year 10, so I left for a larger state school.  There I found that I could branch out, becoming a stage manager and assistant director for school musicals as well as performing roles.  In these jobs I was given responsibilities and authority like never before, and again felt much empowered and very important.

Even though I applied to lots of courses, including teaching degrees, I got into Rusden by an audition-only process and took it as a sign that I should go on with a course that included acting.  Unfortunately it was very rare that I was proud of my acting efforts, but I was proud of my production tasks and dance work.  In acting I was even given pivotal, risky or challenging roles (only once did I get to play someone who was both my age and gender) and still I dropped the ball by not committing to any ideas I had: I was too gutless.

I haven’t attempted any drama since uni, and certainly haven’t been paid for any acting work.  I may be a confirmed extrovert and a comfortable public speaker, but,as far as drama and acting go, I’m petrified of being found out as a fraud.  Nevertheless I still have faith in drama as a crucial element of education. My greatest hope is that I will be able to use drama and theatre for

• fun and creativity,
• teaching areas like English, history and personal & social skills and
• helping people in the ways so many other forms of expression can’t fulfil.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 11:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.