I’m sure each one of the students who have come to call the Big Blue Building (BBB) at the Tshwane University of Technology(TUT) home have a very unique tale of how this came to be.
My tale began as an epic battle between two vastly different fields of work – medicine (Trauma Surgery) or the performing arts (Musical Theatre). It was not that I was unsure as to what I wanted to study, I knew exactly what I wanted to do – both. “Can you not study medicine and do musical theatre on the side?” was the question many asked. “No” was promptly the answer. It was all or nothing.
Therefore, desperately undecided I attempted to keep my options open by applying for medicine at the various universities across South Africa as well as Biological Sciences with Psychology at the University of Stellenbosch and Medical Sciences at the University of Pretoria. I then also applied for drama at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Musical Theatre at TUT.
During these months I also observed in what was previously known as the Johannesburg General Hospital and Tambo Memorial Hospital as well as spoke to various doctors about the realities of their line of work. I was also in communication with the only person in the performing arts industry whom I knew, Adam du Plessis, as to his experiences.
The time came for my Musical Theatre audition at TUT. Absolutely petrified I boarded the Greyhound bus, on a Friday afternoon, from Mooi River to Johannesburg. The audition was to consist of three sections – a dance, a monologue and two songs.
The dance section of the audition was fun and not difficult, in fact my heart soared when I heard the music of “Chicago the Musical” fill the studio. It was a fun beginning but what I didn’t realize was that I was in for ‘one hell of a ride’.
That morning I, ‘so cleverly’, had decided that I didn’t really like the monologue that was already performance ready so instead I would perform an extract from the rather challenging “Shirley Valentine”; I had begun work on this piece but it was nowhere near performance ready. This proved to be a very unwise decision as my performance was awful and nowhere near the standard required.
Owing to the preceding event I was now numb with fear as I walked into the singing section of my audition. I chose to sing “Mama I’m a Big Girl Now” from “Hairspray” first, with the accompanist (for someone who had almost never sung alone with pure accompaniment this was either brave or extremely stupid). Wow! was this interesting. I spent most of the song wishing someone would stop me as the song went from bad to worse. I was now totally humiliated, unravelled and desperately looking for a way to salvage myself, to show the panel that I was not merely a talentless hopeful.
Given a moment to compose myself I tried to reign in at least some of the butterflies that were running rampage throughout my body. My next song was one I had sang in the school production of “Big Base Drum” earlier that year, “Images of Pain”. It was not difficult to conjure up emotions as slight perspiration covered my face, small pools of tears filled my eyes and desperation consumed my entire being. I hoped I had redeemed myself, even if it was only ever so little.
It was not long before I received a phone call from my mom informing me that I had not been accepted. I had not performed my best that day, in fact I had performed rather dreadfully and thus knew that it would take divine intervention for me to get accepted. Part of me had never expected to measure up to the standard that I would see that day, but part of me had hoped that just maybe someone would see something. However, despite this and all the self-focused anger, frustration and embarrassment I had left with that day, I had gained a new experience, acquaintances and a love and yearning for the place that I had just been in.
Over the months I had prayed desperately to God to show me what to do and as matric was drawing to a close my answer was close at hand.
‘Out of the blue’ I received a call from my mom to tell me that Mrs Gush (head of the TUT Dance Department) had asked if I would like to join the dance course, that I need not audition again and that it was one of the best ways into the musical theatre industry. I was so excited and grateful but a little hesitant as it had not been an initial option.
As the dead-line approached, each of the other doors closed one-by-one and it became clearer that this was the path I should take. I was not accepted anywhere for medicine, I made it through to the second round of auditions for UCT Drama but was not accepted and I only became aware of my acceptance into Biological Sciences with Psychology at the University of Stellenbosch in January, by default, as I had not received my acceptance letter.
My passion for medicine still burns in a chamber in my heart but I have no regrets as to the decision that I made. As for musical theatre, it’s better this way -I have pure, much needed, dance training, amazing voice training and hopefully next year I’ll find a means to further my acting. Perhaps, one day I can be the true triple threat I’ve always dreamed of being.
I guess we don’t always see the bigger picture at first and so we need to trust that when it is revealed it will be better than we could ever have imagined or asked for.
Each of us has a different tale to tell and this was mine.
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