​Hey! I'm Claire and I'm a 21-year-old emerging creative from Brisbane, Australia!

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Growing up, I was fascinated and in love with everything theater and dramatic:

Some of my inspirations was High School Musical (which was repeatedly watched and set me up to be disappointed when I got to high school at aged 11), and Hannah Montana (from the age of 9 or 10 I begged my parents to move to America so I could be on Disney and be just like Hannah, singing to heaps of people). 

By the time I was 12, in 2016, I realised I didn't want to just sing, I wanted to perform, and I discovered live theatre through Hamilton (when it was just some songs on youtube, before it even got popular) and it was pure dopamine. Since then, it hasn't been anything but working towards the dream of performing in musicals on the big stage one day.

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My high school was not a theatre school. It had a small drama program and we had only ever performed small play/skits throughout my years there. There wasn't really any community theatres near where I lived either, and being young without a way to get to theatres further away, left not many options. My parents did find a small community theatre where I partook in one show there in 2019 called 1000 paper cranes (see ACHIVES for some pictures).

At school, I became drama leader in year 10 (2018), drama captain in year 11 (2019) and then performing arts captain (2020), I ran theater activities with the younger students, learning backstage jobs such as lighting, sound and sets from the older students and fell in love with not just the glitz and glam of performance, but also the hard work no one will ever notice behind the scenes, which lead me to where I decided to do work exerience. 

In 2018 I was an assistant teacher in a music classroom at a primary school, and while I had no wish of being a teacher, I found a love of teaching people the arts. In year 11 (2019) I did my work experience at QPAC, and within that short week I realised that it was never about what I did, it was the feeling of being in a theatre, and as cliche as it sounds, for me, being in a theatre, any theatre, felt like magic oozing from the walls, and I knew then that it didnt matter how many "normal" jobs I had to work in order for me to be able to live my career.

In year 12 (2020) my wish had seemed to have been granted, as I became Performing Arts captain, and I wished to put on a musical, the ideas and planning were off the ground and started working, then Covid-19 happened and it was postponed to 2021... The first year of me being out of school.

 

During my final year of high school, while we never got our final theatre performance or dance competitions, I will look back on the year with many memories (how I had 4 practical subjects with assignments needing to be done (Drama, Dance, Music, Photograhy) which, despite what the educational system seemed to think, couldn't be done online). I also learnt how little mainstream education valued the arts, especially as careers. And the amount of teachers who took my wish to do The Arts seriously, tried their best to support me, and not suggest a 'normal job' such as theatre teacher instead, I could count on one hand. I navigated all the auditions and applications (after never doing either before) almost entirely by myself which was a difficult time, especially in year 12 and covid times.

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I failed a lot of uni auditions. And when I was stuck and didn't know what to do, I met the tafe guy named Craig who had come to my high school. He told me he worked at TAFE QLD which is partnered with the University of Canberra, and they have later auditions in January, 2 weeks away. So I spent the next 2 weeks preparing for my audition for the Bachelor of Acting. I got an email a little later that I didnt pass the auditon. however, they have a brand new drama degree that's so far only got 1 year level in it, and they wanted to offer me a spot.

At first, I was upset. This wasn't what I wanted. But I figured I will do it for a year until I could reaudition for the Griffith Musical theatre degree. The year came and went, and I didnt audition. I fell in love with my degree and I appreciated the lectuers I had and I realised this is what I needed - something where I could experiment with all the creative sub-categories I loved doing, where I could recieve feedback and better myself in all aspects.

 

I remember our first class at uni, we had a big class full of people from all different art degrees, and the lecturer asked us if we had ever been told to have a backup plan in 'a real job' - most of us put up our hands - and she told us to forget all of that, because artists don't need 'a normal job', they can get jobs in their craft, they just need to know where to look. And I felt so validated and seen, I had always told everyone if I wasn't an actor then I'd be a writer, or I'd direct or do lighting or anything else. I think even more so after covid, people see a little clearer how important the arts are since all any one did in lockdown was watch movies or play games or read books. The Arts will always be essential.

 

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When I was 12 (2015), I read the Harry Potter series for the first time. It inspired me, it changed me. I realised I wanted that. When I was 13, I wrote a short story in my English class. I started turning that into a book series (one where at 21, I'm still writing it). Since reading Harry Potter and falling in love with writing, I added "publish books" into my bucketlist. Throughout the following years in junior high school, I had three short stories published in youth writing competitions. And in year 10 (2018), I created an Instagram account where i post my poems, quotes or any other thoughts I have. It was something like a journal to me, something that I could do to deal with my emotions, a comfort.

 

In classes, I mixed all my knowledge together to learn new concepts, one of which being in a class where we were learning about acting as different characters and not throwing too much in where you emotionally damage yourself; 
"Imagine, you are a theater light and your character is a coloured filter. You do not become the character, you simply shine your own light through."​

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I only started really doing shows as an adult. Once i got my own car and license. I started "late" in comparison to a lot of performers, but I'm making up for lost time and I've accomplished a lot throughout my short 3 years at university/being an adult.

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Stick around to see where I go next.