Early Theatre Memories

[jo]

[jo]

The Season at Sarsaparilla, 1994

[jo]

Thark by Ben Travers, WAAPA

[jo]

From an article re AUSTRALIA --

After studying communications and journalism at Sydney’s University of Technology, Jackman switched to acting in 1991, turning down a role on Neighbours to study at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth. Those three years were 'probably one of the happiest times of my life,’ he says. 'We’d do Shakespeare, then circus skills and singing and dancing. It is a quality that seems to tap into my surname, Jack of all trades.’

[jo]

Sorry, this was how Gus Worland posted this --




1985 -- he was still with Knox. MY FAIR LADY was a co-production with a girls school.


Jo

[jo]

At Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) Hugh played many and various roles including Romeo in Romeo and Juliet directed by Wayne Harrison, Abette in Tonight We Improvise, Maxim Gorky in Barbarians and Hugh in Translations.

I can now appreciate why Hugh seems to be drawn most of the time to new OR unknown work. Maybe he finds the challenge more inspiring?


Jo

[mamaleh]

Great idea for a thread, Jo. I'm assuming it features only school and amateur productions and not early professional jobs like BAtB and SUNSET BLVD.

Ellen

[jo]

I could not find a photo from ROMEO AND JULIET ( yet). We did see a clip from that production from that docu re SUNSET BOULEVARD. Also, he did that Vaclav Havel ( political activist/writer who became president of his country in eastern Europe) play called THE MEMORANDUM. Wasn't that the theatre experience which set him on an acting career?

Yes, Ellen -- I wanted to explore what kind of theatrical exposure he had before he became a professional actor. It could give us a clue as to how he choses his theatre roles

What we don't know about were the roles he must have played when he did that one-year drama course in Sydney (Actors' Centre?). He is now a current patron of that theatrical group.

In his final year of university, he took a drama course to make up additional credits. The class did Václav Havel's The Memorandum with Jackman as the lead.[9] He later commented, "In that week I felt more at home with those people than I did in the entire three years [at university]".[17]
After obtaining his BA, Jackman completed the one-year course "The Journey" at the Actors' Centre in Sydney.[9] About studying acting full-time, he stated, "It wasn't until I was 22 that I ever thought about my hobby being something I could make a living out of. As a boy, I'd always had an interest in theatre. But the idea at my school was that drama and music were to round out the man. It wasn't what one did for a living. I got over that. I found the courage to stand up and say, 'I want to do it'."[18] After completing "The Journey", he was offered a role on the popular soap opera Neighbours but turned it down[19] to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, from which he graduated in 1994.[20]

Oops -- I know he once shared a throwback-Thursday photo when he was a kid and was wearing a crown... I am not sure if that was for his first experience performing -- in a musical called CAMELOT. Although many decades later, we would see him sing parts of the title song from Camelot in that cameo for NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM.


Jo

[njr]

[jo]

There he is -- young Romeo!

Fast forward to 5'28" --

[jo]

Honoring his acting teacher, with the help of MasterCard --

[jo]

It's interesting that what eventually solidified his love for the theatre was not just his Sydney background and experience ( while studying at UTS and at the Actors Centre)and his 3-year stint with WAAPA -- but that during the times he visited his Mum in England, that he went to see theatrical shows. He also went to England for his gap year and was at Uppingham. That must have been in the mid-to-late 80's ?

I wonder if he had seen LES MISERABLES and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA which opened during that time period in London? One show was adapted to film, with him in the lead... while for the other show, he was also considered for the film adaptation.

At some point, will he be able to cross off a bucket list wish -- to do a Shakespeare play ?


Jo

[jo]

When he was welcomed back to WAAPA, where he inaugurated the Jackman/Furness Foundation which would support WAAPA programs, Hugh found himself posing with his photo from his schooldays at the institution --

www.ecudaily.com.au/7529/news/hugh-jackman-gives-back-to-waapa/