IT WAS a favour for a friend that led Kate Ward into the world of Swan Hill’s local theatre scene three years ago.
Picking up the role of Margaret Mudcake in Andrew Kelly’s The Great Flood, the primary school teacher found herself on a journey that would lead to central roles in some of the town’s biggest theatrical hits.
Now, as tickets start to go on sale for Mr Kelly’s next production, The Whistleblower, Ms Ward has been reflecting on the unusual variety of parts she has played in the intervening years since the unprecedented success of The Great Flood.
When she took up the role, she was relatively new to Swan Hill and saw it as an opportunity to meet people. She was right, of course, quickly becoming part of the Swan Hill Theatre Company family.
The daughter of an artist, Ms Ward has always loved the arts and early on became passionate about promoting the causes of young people.
As a Year 10 student in her home town of Murwillumbah, she realised how acute the problem was for her bored fellow teenagers for whom there was little to do.
“I’ve always been interested in working with children,” Ms Ward says.
“Even when I was a child it was my main interest, engaging with young people.”
Her campaigning was heard, and a youth council was established in the community.
It was a huge success and spawned other youth councils in surrounding towns looking for the right formula to engage their disaffected teenagers.
“As a result of the [youth council] we got things like a skate park, a youth centre, a youth hang out,” she says.
“It was really important because we had a large number of people in a low socioeconomic bracket.”
Unable to find the funds to work her way through a university degree, the 18-year-old moved to Sydney and took up employment as a paralegal.
Without a legal background she tackled the legal jargon and was tasked with promoting massive corporate reform across the legal and tax sector.
“My job was to sell it,” she says.
After two years she was ready to start studying, first enrolling in a degree in Arts Education.
There is a strong link between both roles — the need to communicate ideas.
“I was about education when I worked for [the Australian Securities and Investments Commission] and I’m pretty much about the same thing now, helping people learn new things,” she says.
“Even though you wouldn’t think they were the same they actually are… and they both involve a certain amount of showmanship.”
As a prep teacher and prep coordinator at Swan Hill Primary School, putting on a show is a familiar role for Ms Ward. Perhaps that’s why acting came so easily when the opportunity presented itself.
After a year of university, she realised she wanted to transfer out of the degree — in which she majored in English and History — to primary education.
“Whilst I love those subjects it takes me away from my strong point, which is working with young children, building relationships, having a varied day… those are the things that are really appealing to me,” she says.
Prep is a crucial and often emotional time for the students and their parents, as she has become all too aware in her eight years of teaching.
“They don’t know what school’s all about yet,” she says.
“There’s a lot of expectations and a lot of build up. It’s unlike any other environment they’ve been in before in their early childhood education.”
She encourages the students to question established ideas.
“I encourage the kids to challenge the teacher,” she says.
Ms Ward focuses on a commitment to lifelong learning. Whenever a question arises for which she has no ready answer, she sets about helping the students find out.
“I grew up with that idea that teachers know everything, but that was quickly dashed because my dad’s a teacher,” she laughs.
Compared to the rigours of the classroom and dealing with a group of inquisitive young students, facing the audience when The Whistleblower launches early next month will no doubt be a smooth transition.
With a cast of just seven, the play is different to those seen on the Swan Hill stage in recent years.
Ms Ward plays one of the few women in a story about football, masculinity and a small-town community. The Whistleblower is a comedy with a lot of big characters known to anyone who’s played footy in a country town.
“With a cast of seven every role is quite important,” she says.
Describing it as “kind of a yarn”, she says the play sounds like something you’d overhear one bloke telling another at the corner of the bar.
“I really enjoy it, the humour is original, it’s localised and it suits where we are,” she says.
“I’ve got to say it’s great having someone like Andrew around who writes these sorts of plays. He’s got people into this play who have never performed before… you can see there’s a character behind the character.”
It’s a big time for the leading lady, who is taking on another brand new challenge next month, tackling a half marathon of 21km.
“I didn’t think I could run. But then friends of mine started running and I thought, ‘if they can do it, so can I’”.
Tickets go on sale for The Whistleblower later this week.
