Sowing seeds on stage
Images courtesy of JPRO
By Heather Barker Vermeer Industry Reporter
I must’ve only been about six years old. I remember I ripped up my best party dress to look like Cinders! My mum wasn’t happy!”
Chatting to Michael Keaton outside a café on Santa Monica Boulevard, meeting Gary Oldman on set, being snapped up by Hollywood agent… If you’d have told a young Julie Collis this is what life would look like for her in her mid-60s, she’d likely have laughed out loud. But the former Westlake Girls’ teacher found herself in all these crazy-good scenarios for real. And her acting career, as many others, started with a flame that was lit in her school production. Kiwi theatregoers may recognise Julie; she’s trod the boards in New Zealand productions for years and is a familiar face beyond theatre, due to
Term 2, 2022 | schoolnews.co.nz
Julie Collis
Photo: Heather Barker Vermeer
commercials and television appearances, including the local acting staple, Shortland Street. Not hailing from an acting family, she developed a love of the art at primary school in Banbury, England, where she grew up. “I was always in the school productions. My first show was Cinderella at primary school,
The former teacher has also engaged in many in-school productions, workshops and theatre trainings and recognises the value of theatre in schools as an incursion experience. She has been part of touring production companies that work with schools not only to perform but to include schoolchildren in immersive incursion experiences. On a broader, global stage, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stratospheric success started small, when as a young boy he would put on family ‘productions’ with his Aunt Viola in his toy theatre (which he built at his Aunt Viola's suggestion). His aunt Viola was an actress who took
TEACHING RESOURCES
him to see many of her shows and through the stage door into the world of the theatre. The power of exposure to a passion in childhood is limitless. Creating a platform for dramatic, comedic, or musical theatre is to open a treasure box of potential for all involved, not only for those keen for the limelight. The technical, audio, lighting, wardrobe, makeup, set design, props and musician requirements of a production allow for a range of students and staff to pull together to create an unforgettable experience. There is rarely a stage production that does not run into challenges and the collective overcoming of adversity and ‘show must go on’ spirit imbues lessons and memories that transcend show week.
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