“Keep being lame. Keep doing the thing that’s uncool. It’s a future investment.”

Please enjoy this exclusive bonus interview with Burnie’s wonder-flash, star of the stage Erica Wild! Erica is currently on tour with Rocky Horror Picture Show in the UK. They are a remarkable professional who responded to our prompts generously. We were intrigued by tales of teenage Erica’s daily 6am vocal strengthening regime.

Debut understudying Columbia - The Rocky Horror Show, The Adelaide Festival Centre, 2023

Coming out of Burnie High school I was at a pretty low point mentally and so I threw myself into academia to cope. Hellyer College was a needed scene change. It meant I had a positive two years of growing and rediscovering myself. I really believe there is something special at Hellyer College. It was really important in my growth into a young adult and prepared me for the changes of the future.

My focus on academia continued throughout college with the goal of getting a high ATAR – hoping that it would prove I was a “good” student. In year eleven, I studied English Literature, Maths Methods, Music and Drama and in year twelve, Maths Specialised, Accounting (I genuinely thought accountant might be my only option for a career), the UTAS music course, and Theatre Studies. I didn’t believe I could go on to study performing arts, which is why I kept committing to academic subjects so I had “real” options for university and hoped they would outweigh the “bludge subjects” that were drama and music. After all, you don’t get a high ATAR for anything in the arts!

Music was famously regarded as a subject that did not offer good points, so I figured I had no option but to try and ace the subject as much as I could for the little points it would give. Part of the music exam was an aural test which involved transposing melodies, recognising musical motifs and notating rhythms. I was terrible at the start of the year, but I practiced every day and, maybe I’m blowing my own trumpet to convince myself those 6am wake ups were worth it but, I became really good.

I still have the habits I learned in that class in terms of committing to training regularly. I maintained early morning practice before classes at university and now I’m in professional theatre I make sure I am physically exercising and singing regularly. Repetition and regularity are vital for me in terms of staying fit for my job and they also play a huge part in my ability to regulate my nerves.

There is always two games at play in performing: one being the physical effort of it and the other being the mental game of not freaking out. I find when I watch the Olympics I feel for the athletes and can imagine our worlds as strangely similar.

Performing often feels like a sprint race – you prepare at start line (the wings), wait for the gun to go off (the show begins) and know your only option is forward onto stage and across the finish line (bows). To bastardise this comparison even further, one of my physios on Rocky said it’s strange that performers are not treated as athletes, despite the physical demands on us being so similar.

By year twelve I felt like I was waking up and rediscovering myself again. I felt more confident in choosing to continue studying drama, where I had Amanda Muruste as my Theatre Studies teacher. She was integral in helping me prepare my audition pieces for universities. I still chose to study some “failsafe” options to make myself feel better that I was taking such a risk on performing. Initially in year twelve I was doing five subjects, including the school musical (Downtown! The Mod Musical) where I had one of the lead roles. I was fearful it would take away time from my subjects that would contribute to my ATAR, so I dropped it. It was a sad decision to make, but I ended up being involved in the production working backstage filming the show, which softened the blow.

I had Michael Bousfield as a music teacher in year eleven and the class was fundamental in me getting the confidence to perform. At this point I hadn’t sung much publicly as whilst I loved singing with my teacher Helen Jones, I felt ashamed to sing in front of my peers. Plot twist: classical music is somehow not the cool genre of music amongst the kids? It took a lot of guts to start singing stuff in Italian and German, but it got easier with time and Michael’s encouragement.

I auditioned for unis whilst balancing year twelve exams and got an offer from VCA for their musical theatre course. My exam results came out and I got the high ATAR I’d been killing myself for. Irony is, you don’t need an ATAR to get into drama school - turns out the “bludge” subjects are actually a bit useful after all.