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Port Macquarie resident Rylee Parry has been presented with the Roma Liggins Perpetual Scholarship after competing in the Taree and District Eisteddfod.
The 17-year-old entered the speech and drama category of the event.
The scholarship is valued at $1500 and Rylee plans to put the fund towards furthering her study in drama.
The announcement was made at the grand concert on June 17 and followed Rylee’s performance of Big Brother which was a monologue from the book Cooking with Hamlet.
She was presented with her award by speech and drama coordinator Rhonda Evans.
“For the past 10 years Rylee has won many first places as well as numerous encouragement awards as a promising speech and drama competitor,” she said.
Earlier this year Rylee was awarded the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) Scholarship which will enable her to spend a week studying an aspect of drama which interests her.
“The dream is to go to NIDA to further my tuition and eventually to become a working actress wherever it happens to be in Hollywood or Australia,” she said.
“After all that glitz and glamour I would really like to be a drama teacher to educate young children.”
Rylee said being involved in drama helps to improve confidence, is great for meeting people and assists with public speaking in school.
Rylee has been taking drama lessons since she was in kindergarten.
“It just kind of stuck and I’ve been doing it ever since,” she said.
Rylee said she does get nervous before certain performances.
Her best advice to avoid stage fright is to take up the ‘superhero pose’.
“If you stand back stage in the trade mark superhero stance it opens up your airways, helps you breath and calm down,” she said.
Rylee said as a teenager she could relate to the emotions of the male character she embodied in the performance of Big Brother.
“It has been difficult to play that role because the majority of the performance is him reminiscing about happy times but then there is a quick change at the end where he is really sad about his sister,” she said.
During the performance Rylee cried on stage.
“If you’re really into the character at that moment then it’s easy to cry because you believe you are that character,” she said.