THIS week we chat with triple-threat actor, singer and dancer Conor Cunningham.<\/p>\n
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What initially motivated you to become a performer?<\/strong><\/p>\n As a young teenager growing up in Ireland, a family friend established a youth theatre group, the first of its kind in our little town, and encouraged me to join.<\/p>\n Initially I was a bit disinterested but, through my involvement with this group, I discovered my love for the performing arts and tried to be involved in as many productions as possible – my first being Joseph & his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat<\/em>.<\/p>\n This love for the performing arts has remained with me ever since and I have taken it with me wherever I have travelled.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What would you say are your best performance attributes? <\/strong><\/p>\n I enjoy portraying character actor roles, because they are unusual and interesting roles and I love the challenge of developing them into something that is unique to me.<\/p>\n I particularly love character roles in comedy, because there is no better feeling than the sound of a live audience laughing – that\u2019s when I know I\u2019ve got it right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What else do you do to make ends meet?<\/strong><\/p>\n I am fortunate enough to be involved in performing purely as a hobby, and don\u2019t have to rely on it as a way of making a living.<\/p>\n By profession, I am a designer, and work for Arts Centre Melbourne, which allows me to blend my love of architecture and the performing arts into a job that I love.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n How did you become involved with the Bendigo Theatre Company?<\/strong><\/p>\n Since leaving home, wherever I found myself in the world, I would always seek out the local theatre company.<\/p>\n This was always a sure way of helping me to find like-minded people and no different when I moved to Bendigo ten years ago.<\/p>\n The first thing I did was to seek out local theatre groups and happened upon Bendigo Theatre Company.<\/p>\n Although my background was purely in acting, and BTC is predominantly a musical theatre company, I felt at home there.<\/p>\n This involvement encouraged me to start learning to sing and to dance and, suddenly, I found myself getting involved in musical theatre again, something I hadn\u2019t done since performing in Joseph<\/em> all those years ago.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n