Ambitious actor selected for serious scholarship

ONE of Ballarat’s brightest young acting talents is heading to Sydney next year as part of a small studying troupe.

For one week in January, actor Joe Appleton will train with the Bell Shakespeare theatre company as one of four nationwide winners of the John Bell scholarship.

Appleton has been acting since kinder, and after eight years at the Ballarat Centre of Music and the Arts he’s excited to step up his studies.

“I’m so honoured to be selected and be a part of it,” he said.

“To be able to go behind the scenes of one of the biggest Shakespearean companies in Australia is incredible.

“I’ll get to do masterclasses, workshops, look at rehearsals for their 2023 season of Macbeth and I’ll get to perform my monologue for John Bell and the cast, crew and staff of Bell Shakespeare.

“My monologue will be from As You Like It, Phoebe’s monologue from that.”

Appleton’s recent performances include playing Danny Zuko in Ballarat Grammar’s production of Grease and taking part BLOC’s production of Rent.

He said he hopes his greatest takeaway from the scholarship is in improving his Shakespearean delivery.

“I was lucky enough to go to England to watch All’s Well That Ends Well at the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon,” he said.

“Sitting there and listening to it, I couldn’t quite understand what they were saying. Shakespeare uses so much metaphoric language.

“I’m really looking forward to looking into the deeper meanings of it and trying to portray that through the acting.”