UP-AND-COMING Bendigo performer Jade Cuskelly will hone her talents with professional theatre outfit Arena Theatre Company after being cast as the understudy in Robot Song.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Robot Song, which won a Helpmann Award last year, is inspired by writer-director Jolyon James' experiences parenting a child on the Autism Spectrum.
For Jade, the chance to train and complete work experience with Arena is exciting.
"It's an amazing opportunity and the fact it is with such a professional theatre company in my own town is incredible," she said.
"My favourite part of (Robot Song) is that they don't specifically say that (main character) Juniper May has autism. It's inferred and I love how it's represented."
READ MORE:
Jade, 15, will be understudy to Sophie Smyth who plays Juniper May. Both performers are on the autism spectrum. Jade said she is diagnosed with level two autism and is high functioning.
"There's two main functions - high and low functioning," she said. "A lot of people see autism as more of a physical disability or something in the way someone speaks or acts - that's more obvious if you're low functioning.
"In a lot of high-functioning people you can't notice it. The thing they have in common is that they struggle with social activities. You (tend to) excel in one specific thing and struggle with a lot of other things."
Having always had a passion for singing, Jade first auditioned for a play in grade 5 and landed the lead role of Wendy in her primary school's production of Peter Pan.
Since then she has featured in a number of shows including Nexus' Les Miserables where she play Fantine and as Red Riding Hood in this year's summer pantomime with Bendigo Theatre Company. She also sings as part of Bendigo South East College's Academy of Creative Arts program.
"Theatre is a huge passion for me," she said. "When I got the lead (in Peter Pan), it was the first time I enjoyed going to school."
Robot Song writer-director Jolyon James said it was fantastic to see Arena connecting with more and more Bendigo artists.
"It's incredibly important we (work with local) artists," he said. "Jade will have a big future. She came in to audition and totally blew us away. If we can develop those relationships early by the time they're fully professional artists. We all benefit."