Actress Hannah Fredericksen's latest role often sees her getting applause before she has even delivered a line.
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Fredericksen is working with the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage show as a number of characters - most notably bathroom-based ghost Moaning Myrtle.
The job sees her go through 19 costume and 12 wig changes as she takes on four characters in the play for eight performances a week.
"It's flat out. It is a massive operation," she said.
"The thing that is different about this show is the number of cast on the show is enormous.
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"The costume team works so hard and we have incredible make up and teams. Being part of something that is so well-known is incredible.
"There are so many characters so iconic to the Harry Potter universe. What you want, as soon as you arrive on stage as Moaning Myrtle, is the audience to applaud.
"I have never played a role where people applaud before I do anything."
Originally from Queensland, Fredericksen has adopted central Victoria as her home.
She was a regular in Bendigo after performing in local musical Ned in 2015 and teaching performing arts students at Bendigo South East College.
"I identify as a Victorian now. I've been here for 14 years and feel a connection here," she said.
Her connection to Bendigo started with Adam Lyon which led Fredericksen to performing in Ned at the Ulumbarra Theatre.
"Then I went on to do teaching at BSE," she said.
"The school came to see the show about a month ago and we did a Q&A after the show. It was nice to see a few old students there."
Further connecting her to the area is her efforts in buying and renovating a house in Hepburn Springs.
"I renovated it in five weeks. I don't know what possessed me to do that but the Hepburn Treehouse is up and running," she said. "I can go there when I'm not working but others can also stay there.
"I love the creative communities out there and being so busy as an actor and in a life that is so nomadic all the time, it's good to have a space to take a breath and have a kind of escape. I'm excited to see what I can offer in Hepburn as well."
People will have seen Fredericksen in major stage stage shows Dream Lover with David Campbell in Sydney and Melbourne, Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins at the Sydney Opera House, and Heathers along with a number of film and television roles.
Cursed Child debuted in 2019 with Fredericksen joining the cast in 2020. She had a month of shows before coronavirus shut down the arts sector and much of the country.
"It was really tough, it was so hard," she said.
"We all stayed in touch and did boot camps, read the show via Zoom to keep it in our minds and bodies.
"So much of it is muscle memory and I didn't want to lose that. We had to be show-fit and remember what doing because it is such a long show."
As well as dialogue, the cast is also involved in complicated set changes that involve magic and choreography.
"The set changes are as big as the scenes on stage," she said. "We all have what are called 'mud maps' - it's like the sketch of a show from a bird's eye view. Everyone has their own version of writing things out for their own special cheat sheet.
"It's quite hard learning the magic because it's so specific. There are tricks in the show that I have no idea how they happen and I don't want to know."
Moaning Myrtle was originated in the Harry Potter films by Shirley Henderson, but Fredericksen has worked hard to make the character her own.
"The director John Tiffany is amazing at working with actors to inspire our performance and give us great creative freedom," she said. "Myrtle's voice is iconic - you couldn't do the role without that sound, that's inspiring for me.
"It's physically interesting because she's suspended on an old-fashioned sink in the girl's bathroom. It's physically intense but really exciting. It's like Olympic-level acting when you're suspended like that."
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has recently been re-imagined, going from its two-show, seven-hour story to a more family-friendly three-and-a-half hour show.
"It's much more fast paced and there's more magic per minute," Fredericksen said. "None of the stuff people loved is gone, it's just condensed, which makes it much more accessible for families.
"Something like 80 per cent of our audiences are first time theatre-goers. They come because of Harry Potter - they have read the books or have grown up with it and are bringing their children.
"People also come in costume and their house colours."
The cast and crew are hoping for big crowds during the school holidays, particularly with an extra public holiday annouced.
"There's lots of tickets now we have got the long weekend with the grand final public day, the day of mourning the day before and it being school holidays," Fredericksen said.
"At this stage tickets are available until December. As long as people are coming to see us, we will be there.
"It's not moving to Sydney or anything. The theatre was renovated for $6.5 million, so it's a Melbourne show that belongs to Victoria."
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