Why We Teach and Create
We often get asked the question; why do you facilitate young people? Why aren’t you just an actor or a director? As a facilitator, you get to wear lots of hats. You’re a teacher, a co-playwright, a director, a mentor, co-actor… you name it, we do it. But most importantly, your job is to inspire the young people around you to express their creativity, themselves and to feel comfortable living their creative lives.
All passions start with with a spark. Here’s what some of our Youth Drama Studio facilitators had to say about that ‘spark’ and how it led them to get into drama and become a facilitator.
Jessica Miller - Early and Upper Primary Facilitator.
My very first experience with drama came at a time when I was growing up with severe social anxiety. Speaking up was incredibly hard for me, but I found joy and comfort in watching movie musicals like High School Musical, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid. Whilst also pretending I was in them.
When I started high school, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to study drama. I chose it as a subject and was lucky enough to have the most amazing drama teacher. She was someone who made me feel truly seen, encouraged me to be myself, and showed me that it was okay to be loud, quiet, or anything in between.
By Year 8, I loved drama so much that I searched online for an after-school acting program, something very similar to Play on Stage. I begged my parents to let me join, and once I stepped onto that stage, I never looked back. Performing and playing drama games made me feel so happy and was always the one thing I looked forward to every week.
Now, as a facilitator, I’m passionate about sharing that same joy and magic of drama with young people. Every time I work children in the drama world, I think about making my younger self proud, the girl who never imagined she’d find this kind of confidence. I hope to inspire young people who may struggle with anxiety the way I did and inspire them the way my drama teachers inspired me.
Pictured: Jess in action, jumping in to an improvisation game with our Thursday Upper Primary students.
Jack Barrett - Early and Upper Primary Facilitator.
I got into theatre relatively late in life, not doing my first drama classes until I was 16. This was not of my own choosing, but unfortunately, options for drama classes for teens is something that is more rare than it should be. I wish all the time that I could have started out earlier in life. I think that’s really something that influences how I facilitate our classes.
It’s so, so important to me that young people have a positive experience with drama because it’s just so valuable to our development as people. That my facilitating is more impacted by my lack of exposure at a young age more so than anything I actually WAS able to do is all the more example of that. When I first did drama, I loved it, and I want that for everyone I teach at Play On Stage as well.
Pictured: Jack in action, working with some of or early primary students on their creating their cut-out puppets for their plays.
Stevie Beeston - Early and Upper Primary Facilitator
When I was younger and my life was falling apart for maybe the third time, reading my Terry Pratchett books really helped me. Around that time I came across a flyer for auditions for the stage play of one of his books. It was part of my healing process that I convinced myself auditioning would be a good thing for me even though there was no way I would be cast.
And then I was cast and the rest, as they say, is history
Virag Dombay - Facilitator of Early Primary, Upper Primary and Teen Acting Ensemble
I wish I could tell you the first moment I set foot in a theatre. My Mum has always said that it was between the ages of 1-2; watching a children’s pantomime. I was very lucky that I had a parent who nurtured my creativity from a young age. I started drama classes at aged six and I remember feeling this sense of coming home, an environment where I could be who I wanted to be. Where I wasn’t the girl whose name no one could pronounce, where no one cared that I was cross-eyed or that I was loud. A place where I was encouraged to dream big and come up with out of this world ideas. A place where I could be playing Zeus one day, a wicked Witch or Baloo from the Jungle Book the next. A place where my imagination and soul was nourished.
I was very fortunate to have had brilliant drama teachers, acting coaches and directors growing up - all of whom inspired and expanded my artistry. Facilitating I think, is the best job - as you get to where lots of different hats. It allows me to explore all areas of my artistry while educating and nurturing the next generation of inquisitive performers. And that brings me so much joy!
Pictured: Virag in action, facilitating a check in circle with our early primary holiday program participants.
Harry Fritsch - Playwrighting Coordinator
As cliché as it sounds, I truly believe writing found me more than the other way around. Here was this outlet where I could let my imagination soar, where I could breathe life to the impossible and escape through stories of my own making. My favourite memories of Primary School were those all too rare creative writing sessions where the teacher would sit us down in front of an empty piece of paper and ask us to create.
I want every child to feel that same rush of excitement as I did when building a story. Writing doesn’t mean you have to have the best handwriting or spelling or grammar. All it asks of you is to follow a thought, an idea, a memory, or an instinct, and see where it takes you. Usually, it’s some place magical.
Pictured: Harry in action with our Playwrighting Project participants, MC-ing one of their script readings, when Play on Stage was known as Room to Play Kids.
Want your child to explore their creativity under the support and guidance of the experienced and friendly Play on Stage team? Find out more by visiting our Primary Acting Classes page.