Drama: Daniel Enright

Hi to all you future Stormers!

My name is Daniel Enright, and I was lucky enough to participate in, and win the Drama category at the National Grand final of Storm the Stage 2007. Storm the Stage for me was an utterly inspiring experience. From the very first heat I knew that Storm the Stage was going to be a very memorable and special event for me and many other young and talented performers alike. It gave us all the opportunity to showcase out talents to the community and it also built our confidence immensely. It doesn’t matter if you have never performed for an audience before or if you are seasoned pro, everyone should have a go and try their best. I had previously entered Storm the Stage three years in a row, and I had never made it through to the semi finals, let alone the grand final, so I was truly amazed at how far I could go when I really put my mind to it and truly believed in myself.

Storm the Stage not only offers young 16 to 19 year olds the opportunity to perform, it gives you the confidence to extend what you have gained from the Storm the Stage into every aspect of your life and to meet other young people like yourself from all around the country.

Now, along with my memories and the confidence I gained from Storm the Stage, I am continuing to pursue my personal performing arts goals and will soon be on my way to attend an amazing performing Arts school in New York City in June 2008. So if you have ever had a dream, or have ever even considered entering Storm the Stage in the past, make this year your year, give it your everything, and most of all have fun! And from that you can only reap the awesome rewards that the Storm the Stage experience has to offer!

Best of luck!

Daniel Enright.

Music Theatre: Nelson Gardiner

To my fellow young and talented musical theatre performers!

I'll start with a bit of advice...

The best thing you can think of is the very competition name itself.

'Storm' the stage!

Don't just tickle it.

If you have a good idea, go with it! Don't let laziness get in the way. If you want to bring in an elaborate costume, even if you have to make it yourself, just do it! Get started as early as possible and don't give up any rehearsal time if you can avoid it. Above all, enjoy yourselves!

It really won't be a stressful experience as long as you keep confident and just have some fun with it. If you rehearse your piece until you get completely sick of it, you'll find that you'll start to have more ideas flooding in about what you can do to improve it. My piece was constantly changing right up until the final performance (don't change it too much), which gave me a real fresh point of view on things, so I was always enjoying my own performance. If you don't like your own performance, then don't expect anyone else to!