From then on I played at the local badminton club, until about primary six, when the club stopped running. However it didn't stop my enthusiasm to play. I had an audition and was picked to play on the under twelve’s Perth and Kinross district squad. I got a lot of coaching and improved my game to a much higher standard than before. At the end of Primary School I quit the squad, I started to get bored of it. I didn't play again till High School in PE. Playing at school helped bring me back into the sport and since then I’ve been playing at Kinross Badminton Club were we are coached by Karen Hogg.
Playing Badminton again has helped my fitness and passion for the sport, I love watching it on TV and I enjoy it even more when I’m playing. I really love to play doubles, rather than singles, its so fast and takes a lot of talent to be able to use your reflexes quickly. When I play badminton a whole different person shines through. I’m a lot more competitive and when I’m playing I feel away from everything and don't have any worries, the only thing I’m concentrating on is the match.
One of my other childhood activities was drama. I loved to act, I still do! A few friends and I started attending an acting school, every Saturday when we were about eleven. At the end of every term we had a parents open day, when we would perform a few mini-scripts and some voice techniques. We would follow that by a small production at the end of the year. It was good experience and helped me build my confidence and learn a lot about drama.
Being part of this drama grouped helped me move on to new things and areas of drama. When I started High School I also started a local musical theatre group called MTKY (Musical Theatre for Kinross Youth). Our first performance was a concert, filled with a variety of showstoppers from a wide range of musicals, including Memory: Cats, Do You Hear the People Sing?: Les Miserables, and I Know Him So Well: Chess. I remember the first song we sang was Greased Lightning, and the feeling as the music started and the curtains drew back was a mixture of nerves and excitement - mainly nerves! The show went down a treat.
Since then, MTKY have presented three other musicals :- Calamity Jane, Guys and Dolls and Fame, in all of which I have had principal parts. Fame was our first production; I played Joe Vegas, a Puerto Rican, comedian who lived in the Bronx, down town New York. In the opening song there are three solos at the start, one of them sang by Joe. On the whole three nights that the show was on, the only time nerves haunted me was when I had to stand down stage right and sing my solo. The opening night I was shaking that much I’m sure my voice sounded as if I had seen a ghost. Luckily the show was a big smash with the audience.
The other two musicals were just as good and thankfully my nerves weren’t as bad.
My final main activity is music. I love music! I believe a world without music would be a world without life! I think music brings people together and cheers everyone up. If we didn't have music, the world would be so boring I personally would not feel the point in living! I like all types of music, and I mean all - from classical to punk, to opera to jazz, but my favourite kind of music is musicals, showstoppers etc. I’m a huge musical theatre lover and whenever I’m listening or watching a musical I feel happy and excited and (depending on the show or song) sad. I’ve seen lots of musicals, such as Grease, Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard, West Side Story and many more.
The best show I’ve seen is Cats. In April 2002, for my Birthday, I travelled to London's West End to see the musical Cats. It is indescribable how good it was. Words can not be spoken when you try and explain how brilliant the show was. It is an experience like no other which I may never experience again. The actors were so believable. When you looked onto the stage you didn't see 20 people in costumes with a little bit of make-up on, you saw Cats, you forget that these actors are humans, you really do believe that there are Cats on the stage entertaining you. They were never out of character for a single moment and there movement was outstanding, as was the choreography. They dance so closely together, yet they never touch one another. The set-design was splendid. The whole theatre is a Junkyard. The actors use the whole theatre as their playground. They run, slide, jump, scamper, leap, and crawl all around you. You feel as if your part of the musical. It was fantastic and a “Memory” I will never forget.
Although I rate Cats very highly, its my second favourite musical. My favourite musical is Andrew Lloyd Webbers’s “The Phantom of the Opera”. I find the music tremendous and simply breathtaking. My favourite song from the show is “ The Music of the Night”, the lyrics are amazing and I get goose bumps every time I hear the song. I have never seen the show, but I have the soundtrack which is the closest to seeing the show I can get. If the CD is that good I just dream of how good the show would be live. “The Phantom of the Opera” inspires me in theatrical ways and musical ways, it inspires me to write my own musical, which one day I hope I will!!!
So, who says “Young people are not doing enough activities”? My opinion, HA!
Michael Shearer
