It’s a privilege to able to share a short chronicle of my progression within the arts, starting at WHS, all the way through to conservatoire training and the start of another ‘New Adventure’ in the acting industry. In keeping the alumni family connected and engaged each year, fond memories of school resurface amid a busy world, and I am reminded of how lucky I was to be able to foster my love for the dramatic arts during my time here. It goes without saying that each journey through education is unique, and WHS, through its endless extracurricular offerings, led me to theatre and music. This wonderful school and its phenomenal teachers are to thank for that, so, thank you.
Having just completed drama school in London a year ago, I maintained to my peers throughout that my locus of love for theatre belongs to the first play I ever performed in; The Wizard of Oz. It was Year 3, and I can categorically say, I had no clue what I was doing. At seven years old, I was awestruck by the colours of our set in the Hall, the costumes, the face paint and that towering proscenium, under which a very small me felt both lost and enchanted by an imaginary world. I was grateful in my role as The Cowardly Lion to be able to hide behind a tree for the first half of my opening scene. Between an adrenalising stage fright, the blinding heat of stage lights, and the magic of suspended belief, I became hooked on theatre. It contained all life. The cast and crew became family, related by a love for entertainment, and a strong valuation of the maxims, lessons, heartbreak and laughter found in cherished tales, old and new. The fear The Cowardly Lion had to overcome, in order that he might redeem himself, was a fear that I also shared as I stood behind that tree. Looking back 17 years ago, that lesson has been the bedrock of my belief in the value of the theatrical arts; an imagination suspended is an imagination alive.
