By CHERIE DONNELLAN
Geelong vocalist Georgia Van Etten knew she had to pull out all the stops when auditioning for a lead role in Geelong Lyric Theatre Society’s production of Phantom of the Opera.
With her strength in singing rather than dancing ballet, Van Etten knew that making a lasting first impression would be “so important” to winning the role of Christine in the vocal audtion.
“A lot of people tend to play down their first audition when they’re auditioning for a company who’s familiar with them,” Van Etten said.
“With (the Lyric’s) new directing team that I hadn’t worked with before, I tried really hard to be as good as I could – and thank goodness!”
Van Etten extensively researched Christine’s character, watching others play the role to understand different interpretations.
“And then I’ll find my own interpretation of her.”
But Van Etten discovered Christine could be “easily played down but she’s actually pretty strong”.
“She’s been through a lot. She lost her mother… and then her father who was very dear to her.
“She is naïve but at the same time not oblivious and she’s a real romantic, a dreamer.”
Van Etten said she was comfortable performing operatic roles.
“I’ve always loved opera and classical singing. It comes naturally to me.”
But the role of Chrstine would prevent her playing with jazz/soul/blues bands.
“For this role I have to use what I call my sing-in-my-head voice – the top soprano range.
“I’ve been exclusively singing in that.”
As well as her Phantom commitments Van Etten teaches singing privately and at Geelong Academy of Perfomring Arts and also works as a vocal director for GSODA juniors.
And that’s after she attends classes for her biomedical science degree.
“I’m very busy,” she laughed, “but I’ve got a great timetable that I’m currently staring at to make sure I do the next thing.”
The lyric theatre society’s Phantom of the Opera will be at Geelong Performing Arts Centre from 4 to 12 October.
