More fresh faces to be seen at Rep
Lauren Karl (left), Ben Power (WHS student) and Björn Walczak all have a role in the up-coming show Red Riding Hood to be played at the Repertory Theatre in Wanganui.
PHOTO courtesy of Harmony May.
Lauren Karl's first audition at Repertory Theatre was when she was only five years old, hoping for a role in The Sound of Music. She wasn't successful that time but now she's rehearsing the role of Wolf in Red Riding Hood and making us all smile.
Despite her youth [18 ] Lauren has notched up a considerable amount of experience acting and singing in Cinderella, Hecuba, Bugsy Malone, The Wind in the Willows, and Nixon in China, which was performed in Auckland.
Many of the singers in Nixon were in the Lexus singing competition, something Lauren also aspires to. Next month Lauren will audition for the New Zealand Youth Choir in Auckland and in January 2017 Lauren will be attending the Napier Singing School before she begins a course of study in music performance at the University of Waikato. Her ultimate goal? Lauren wants to be an opera singer.
"I am very excited to be a part of Repertory's upcoming show because it will be my last show in Wanganui with extremely talented friends before going to university," Lauren says.
Stalking Wolf is Lance, the man from DoC, aka Björn Walczak. Björn's earlier stage experience mainly consisted of playing music. He's been composing and playing his own songs for years as well as representing his secondary school in Rockquest. He also helped his mother make marionettes for her film when she was working on her Masters in Film through the Wanganui School of Computer Graphic Design. Playing Lance is Björn's first acting role.
Providing musical accompaniment for the cast is talented teenage pianist and composer Ben Power. He's learned the musical score in an amazingly short time, calmly and confidently helping both the trained singers and the 'newbies' to learn their numbers.
A little bird told me that Ben was honoured with two awards at Whanganui High School's Cultural Awards evening recently. Well done Ben!
Lauren and Björn complement each other's acting styles, with Björn playing the part of the sensitive conservationist, Lance, while Lauren is the rather appealing, not very scary wolf. Pianist Ben assists Wolf and Lance to create an harmonious co-existence.
Rep talk with Nadine Rayner
Wanganui Midweek 26/10/16