SAM Welsh is just one Port Macquarie teen who sat his HSC this year for whom the future looks extremely bright – with a career in musical theatre beckoning.
While many HSC students were waiting for their results yesterday to see if they could make it into the tertiary course of their choice, Sam was among those who secured early entry, having already been accepted to do a Bachelor of Musical Theatre at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).
“It’s a three-year course studying music, acting and dance,” a delighted Sam said.
“People like Hugh Jackman and Tim Minturn have studied there so I’m so excited to be going through the same place as two idols of mine.”
Born and raised in Port Macquarie, Sam, now 19, did his HSC at MacKillop Senior College and has been learning dance and musical theatre at the Wauchope and Port Macquarie Performing Arts (WPMPA) under Stacey Morgan.
“In the local area I have been in The Sound of Music playing Rolf at the Players Theatre and recently just performed a production of Fame the Musical at WPMPA playing Nick Piazza,” Sam said.
“I haven’t been in many local plays, but my passion for theatre has developed immensely just under the influences of my teachers, especially from the experiences I’ve had at WPMPA. I’m heading to Perth to study at WAAPA and I’ll leave early February.“
My overall long-term goals would be to perform in a professional musical in Australia and maybe somewhere overseas after that if everything goes well.”
Sam said he was over the moon when he found out he had been accepted by WAAPA.
“Throughout Australia, they take only 10 boys and 10 girls nationwide for the course,” he said.
“The audition process was quite challenging as I had to sing two musical theatre pieces, one contemporary and one prior-1960s, along with an acting monologue and a two-hour dance component, which made for a very long day.
“I got a call from the head of the musical theatre department a couple of weeks ago saying I had been accepted and I was speechless for the entire day because I was so overwhelmed – both nervous and excited.
“I had also been accepted in to the same course at the Ballarat Academy of Performing Arts in Victoria, but I decided to take this course due to its more developed course, Ballarat being quite a new course that has arisen as of late.
“This course is extremely hard to find in Australia so it was amazing to be accepted into this course for 2014.”
