Auditions have just been held in Canberra for the most important role an actor could get – Captain Starlight – and it’s a role coveted by NIDA graduates and Shakespearean actors.
Captain Starlight is an invite-only program run by the Starlight Children’s Foundation, employing highly-skilled, professional performers in improvisation, clowning, comedy and live performance, to help sick kids through their most challenging moments. There is no script.
In Canberra last week, 20 applicants went for the job and just 10 made it through to the judging panel. Only three made it to the interview stage.
The Captain Starlight program also offers a lifeline to struggling actors, providing flexible work rosters for artists to pursue their acting dreams (some have gone on to film careers in L.A and stand-up comedy careers). There are more than 180 Captain Starlights across Australia.
Home and Away actors need not apply – the role demands skills in performing and interacting with a live audience. There’s just one take.
Artistic director of the Captain Starlight Program, Jono Brand, said screen and TV actors would find it tough.
“They’re not interacting with an audience in the moment so it’s a lot tougher for them,” he said. “We need that ability to think on your feet. In hospitals, you go out there expecting to have a certain day and things can change in any given moment and you’ve got to adapt quickly to that.”
Similar to the well-respected Playschool, which only employ high-calibre actors (like the wonderful Justine Clark), Captain Starlight demands excellence.
Captain Starlight actors have come from the prestigious Bell Shakespeare Company, Polyglot Theatre Company in Melbourne, Dead Puppet Society in Brisbane, and the Sensorium Theatre in Perth. Those studying at NIDA and the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne have also found employment with Captain Starlight.
“We’re probably one of the largest employers of performers in Australia,” Jono said. “We’re big on supporting our team with performance leave so they can say, I’m going on a tour in August and we say, of course, go and do that. We really support that because we know that they’re going to come back with more experience as a performer and that ability to engage kids.
“Our performers are all in main stage productions with Bell Shakespeare and other big theatre companies and stand-up comedians doing really good work. Ours is a place that they always know they can come back to when the work dries up.”
Canberra actors who’ve made it through to the interview stage will now undergo comprehensive training in Sydney.
“It is a pretty comprehensive recruitment process because we need to find the right person who has that ability to read a room and know what this child needs in this moment,” Jono aid. “It takes high social intelligence, high emotional intelligence, and a high level of awareness.
“We’re sending this team into a ward cold, into highly-sensitive environments with very vulnerable people so we just need to make sure we get it absolutely right because safeguarding children and young people is so important to us at Starlight.”
For every successful applicant, about 30 applicants miss out.
One Captain Starlight from Canberra’s Centenary Hospital for Women and Children in Woden, said the children were incredible.
“It’s pretty phenomenal to find the moment where someone is struggling and be able to help them smile,” she said. “Particularly young mothers and little babies, and you can just go in and provide a beautiful moment of happiness. When you are positive and joyous, children just give it back to you a hundred-fold, which is impressive given the circumstances that the children are in.
“Sometimes you can’t always help in a moment. Being aware of what children are going for and trying to see them for where they’re at, that’s the most important thing. We just come and take everyone as they are. Not everyone is in a space to be able to take on our support and help but you just keep coming back.”
