By CASEY NEILL
NOBLE Park teen Daniel Agar is a step closer to realising his dream of a career on stage and screen.
The 17-year-old Carwatha College student will star in Camp Rock: The Musical at Randall Theatre in South Yarra from 17 to 27 October.
The fast-paced story set to music features more than a dozen songs and is based on Disney Channel movies Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.
“My drama teacher showed up to school one day and said ‘hey there’s this thing going on, it’s a musical, but the auditions are tomorrow’,” Daniel said.
“I hope people come and see it because it’s better playing in front of a full audience.”
Daniel said Camp Rock would give him a good taste of what it would be like to work in the industry.
“I know you have to put in the effort to make something decent,” he said.
“I put in the effort.
“My dream is to get paid for doing what I love.
“I like standing up and performing in front of lots of people.
“I like not being myself in front of people. Playing characters is something I do all the time.
“I love all forms of acting.
“Pretty much any opportunity in that kind of field I would jump at the chance.”
He performed with the Australian Shakespeare Company earlier this year.
“We did Much Ado About Nothing,” he said.
“I played Dogberry primarily and we did an understudy run of Claudio.
“It had rock songs in it with Shakespearean lyrics and Dogberry was changed from a constable to a security officer at a stage.”
Performing a role in the music scene suited Daniel just fine – he’s in a band with friends. He’s also studying Year 11 Drama.
“It’s the first VCE drama class at our school for about 10 or 11 years,” he said.
“I pushed to make that happen – and by me, I mean my drama teacher.
“The schools are usually more centred around sports-oriented things or science.
“The drama and entertainment departments they need to have more work on.”
Later in the year he’ll complete a NIDA course to work on monologues “which is going to help me get better auditions”.
For now he’s practicing for Camp Rock.
“Doing lots of dance moves to get them drilled into my head,” he said.
“I like having this opportunity to refine those skills.
“You get your weaker skills stronger by working more on them.
“We get pushed a lot, but I love it. I just loved being pushed to the limit to become better.”
