USQ student makes it to the big screen
SHE has dated ‘Batman’, but it seems Tammy Sarah Linde’s first love will always be theatre.
Ms Linde, the creator and star of the award-winning cabaret I Dated Batman, has made her movie debut in the Australian film The Butterfly Tree.
Directed by Priscilla Cameron and featuring Melissa George and Ed Oxenbould, The Butterfly Tree made its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival last month and is expected to open in Australian cinemas later this year.
Ms Linde, who plays a TAFE student named Sarah in the film, said she was thrilled to have worked on the movie.
“It was a great opportunity to work with Priscilla Cameron and being on-set for the day at Mt Tamborine was very exciting,” she said.
“I was proud of my work, especially being my first professional film.
“It was such an honour and a really rewarding experience.”
Ms Linde went to high school at Ipswich Girls’ Grammar before studying a Bachelor of Creative Arts, majoring in Theatre, at USQ Toowoomba.
During her final year of training at USQ in 2013, she started developing I Dated Batman which made its world premiere at last year’s Anywhere Festival where it won an award for people’s choice.
“The techniques I learnt during my time at USQ gave me the grounding and ability to go further in my acting career and become a better actor and a better mentor,” she said.
“I am very fortunate I still have strong relationships with people at USQ who I turn to for guidance and experience.”
Since 2013, Ms Linde has won business from several Australian and International voiceover clients, appeared in two short films entered in Tropfest, performed in several festivals around Brisbane and made her directing debut with Sondheim’s classic Sunday in the Park with George with the Ipswich Musical Theatre Company.
On the back of this success, Ms Linde has returned to the director’s chair with Phoenix Ensemble for the musical production Big Fish, which premieres in April 2018.
Ms Linde is determined to make a name for herself in the entertainment industry, but she’s also delighted she can make a positive impact on communities using the arts.
“If The Butterfly Tree role leads to other professional film opportunities that would be fantastic, but if it doesn’t then I won’t be devastated because I enjoy what I’m doing right now,” she said.
“As well as Big Fish, I’m still working on I Dated Batman to make it into a travelling show that I can take around Australia to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Melbourne Cabaret Festival and possibly Edinburgh.”
To learn more about studying Theatre at USQ, visit www.usq.edu.au/study /degrees/bachelor-ofcreative-arts.