To be or not to be... a theatre performer

Issue 19 | May 2007

Kathryn Tohill (BPA(Hons) 2003) enjoys the creativity that comes with performing as actor with the Australian Shakespeare Company (ASC) since 2003.

When considering her career, Kathryn felt a natural inclination to teach. Her mother is a sixth generation teacher and Kathryn thought she was destined to be a drama teacher. She enrolled in a Bachelor of Performing Arts (BPA) because a Bachelor of Education did not appeal to her. She planned to complete a Diploma of Education following her bachelor degree.

Kathryn now knows that completing the BPA was the right direction to take.

"What I love about acting is the sense of self that I feel when performing, despite the fact that performing arts is a ridiculously competitive industry. It can be slow to make headway and you get a lot of knocks," Kathryn said.

Kathryn enjoys working with the ASC because, although she is restricted to Shakespeare's plays, the company puts on a variety of shows.

"Every show you do is different. One year, for example, we did Much Ado: The Musical a Shakespearean rock musical adapted by Glenn Elston with music by Paul Norton - and that was completely different to A Midsummer Night's Dream. The ASC do a fantastic job at keeping Shakespeare relevant to a modern audience and remaining true to the text," she said.

Her audiences also vary. "We've been to rural and regional towns including Katherine, Darwin , Cairns , Thursday Island , Weipa and Gove (Nhulunbuy). We've had amazing experiences with each community we've visited as they don't have access to the theatre that we have here in Melbourne ," she said.