Top acts back in the spotlight

YOUNG Ballarat talent treaded the boards of the Arts Centre Melbourne’s Playhouse last week.

Damascus College student Megan O’Beirne, and 2021 graduate Maya Tolliday, were selected to perform in the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s Top Class drama and theatre studies showcase, spotlighting the state’s top VCE performing arts students.

Tolliday took to the stage with a seven-minute solo performance she developed during her year 12 studies last year, mainly playing the character of Thunderbirds’ Alan Tracy.

“I had to do so much research to know about the character, his background, and his passions so I could play him well, and because the Thunderbirds were puppets, I had to demonstrate my physicality to be a puppet,” she said.

“That was really something different for me, and a challenge, but I was able to show my strong physical theatre skills, and my background in dance.”

Drama and performing has been, and remains, a passion and outlet for Tolliday. She relished the chance to step back on stage, now studying biomedical science.

“It was incredible. I was thinking to myself, this will probably be the one and only time I’ll get to perform in this theatre. You just never know.

“This time last year, I went and saw Top Class, and sitting in the audience I knew I wanted to be on that stage this year, so this is experience is something I am so extremely grateful to have been given,” she said.

“To be back in my spotlight in a theatre with an audience was a really good feeling.”