Call goes out to help Connie achieve her dream

UP-and-coming Darley performer Connie Degnen has been presented with the opportunity of a lifetime – but she and her family need help to make it happen.

The talented 16-year-old has just received news that she has won a place at the prestigious American Musical and Dramatic Academy, along with an annual scholarship to help pay for it.

But the US$25,000 scholarship only goes some of the way towards paying for the annual US$70,000 cost of the four-year course.

So Connie and her family are beginning the search for a sponsor or sponsors willing to contribute to making the dream a reality – and gaining some high-level exposure along the way.

The year 11 Bacchus Marsh Grammar student already has a long list of theatre, television, film and modelling credits to her name.

She hopes to pursue a performing career and prepared a song and a monologue for submission to the academy’s auditions in Melbourne earlier this month, mainly for the experience and feedback.

Connie was not necessarily expecting to be offered a place at the institution, which has campuses in New York and Los Angeles, but within days had received the offer of a spot in the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre course starting in 2027.

To say she’s excited is an understatement.

“I just wanted to give it a shot to get some feedback and some experience of what it would be like,” Connie said.

 

“America seems like so far away, and when I got this email saying that I’d got in it was just huge.

“It was like all the work that I’ve done, it must be doing something.”

Connie has been singing, dancing and acting “any chance I get” from an early age.

“I naturally gravitated to it when I was very young; it’s just developed into kind of my whole life,” she said.

“It’s definitely what I want to go ahead with after school. Probably musical theatre because that has the singing and acting and dancing all in one.”

If she is able to take her place at the academy, she will be among some of America’s finest young talent – performers such as Tyne Daly, Jason Derulo (most recently seen as a judge on The Voice Australia), Erik Estrada, Gretchen Mol, Paul Sorvino and Asia Kate Dillon are among its graduates.

Connie’s mother, Lisa Degnen, agreed that having her daughter relocate so far away for four years would be a big move. “You only get one life to live, so we’d support her in whatever she wanted to do,” she said.

Mrs Degnen said the family was now investigating opportunities to attract support for the trip.

She said businesses or companies may want to sponsor Connie, for example, with an option of her acting as a brand ambassador or something similar.

“Anything’s worth a try right now,” she said. “We’re 18 months away and we don’t know what’s going to happen.

“If we try and we don’t succeed, then at least we’ve tried.”

Potential supporters or sponsors can email the Degnens at [email protected] .