In my final year of high school I decided to leave with #noregrets and I joined the Musical Theatre Club to perform The Lion King at the end of the year. My first step was auditioning for a role. I went for the role of the main hyena, Shenzi, due to the lack of singing on my own. I suck at auditioning because I just lose my cool. When I audition it’s like I’ve never been on stage. Once I’ve secured the part though, I nail that part. This time I actually got the part and I was a bit shook. I was going to have to be pretty committed and I knew it would be tough with exams and such. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

The other (less boss) hyena is Banzai and he was played by my good mate Jock. Then there was our sidekick Ed, played by my bff Alana. All you need to know about Alana is that she is Ed in real life. They have the same personality. Completely wacko and I love her for it. Because of that the rehearsals were a bucket load of fun and we obviously worked well together. Ol’ mate Jock was a couple years below us but we talked a lot from past Musical Theatre productions and we knew he had a similar personality to us, so we couldn’t be more thrilled that he was Banzai.

Wouldn’t you know it though, I missed two of the performances because my body hates me and decided to Flu things up a bit. I got it on the day of the matinee and first performance but just did it anyway. I was left completely drained and couldn’t perform the other two performances. I was absolutely gutted. Someone filled in for me and apparently did an amazing job. She learnt the routine in just one day. What a champ. Luckily, one of the performances was filmed and it was me performing which I was relieved about.

Musical Theatre was a massive part of school for me and was an amazing way of finishing things there. I was having issues with bullies and people not particularly liking me, but the club made me feel special and loved. The people there were absolute gems and weren’t the normal, drama type people that always have to be the main event. Everyone was just so caring and it was a joy and an honour to be a part of it. Thank you Musical Theatre Club!