Dreams are free and they can come true
There comes a time when I need to be put in my place. It happened a few years back when I caught up with a former student at Wintec. I’d met him several years before on his first night on campus at a first year enrolment evening.
I always enjoyed meeting new students. Their dreams for the future and aspirations for world fame were always uplifting to hear, even if their world view was somewhat naive.
On this night a student came up to the table bright eyed and bushy tailed, excited about tertiary study.
‘‘I want to work in the movies Max,’’ he said.
It was getting late and I heard my internal dialogue go off.’’ . . yep and I wanted to play for Liverpool F.C. — dreams are free son.’’
So I said what any academic staff member would say: ‘‘Hold on to your dreams and plan for the future. It sounds like moving image is where you should go. Enjoy your film study . . . ’’
And so off he went to complete his degree in moving image/film work at Wintec and dream of working in films.
I drove home thinking of the goals I would have scored at Anfield if they had signed me instead of that useless football legend Kenny Dalglish . . . and I wondered if my upbeat film student would end up making his celluloid dreams come true.
I saw the smiling face of that cinematic student on campus in the years that followed and then like all the students they are soon gone to make their way in the world, never to be heard from again.
By chance several years later I ran into him in town. He came up to me remembered my name and thanked me for the advice I’d given him to hold on to his dream of working in the movies.
So I was curious and asked him what he was doing now. ‘‘I’ve just got back from working on King Kong with Peter Jackson . . .’’ he said.
Yup, in place put. Thankfully he’d only heard what I said out loud and not my internal dialogue all those years before.
The exchange left a lasting impression as it schooled me in the nature of the ever changing world we live in. Today the dream of working in film, dance, music and theatre is not so far fetched and whatever cynicism parents might bring to modern career aspirations, there are opportunities now that didn’t exist 10 years ago.
And so I had to temper myself once again upon reading about Wintec’s newly launched degree in the creative sector. It’s designed to put students on stage and in touch with their dreams of being involved in theatre and live performance and production.
My first response . . . well that’s just what the country needs, more unemployed media arts graduates with big dreams and no career.
And then the second thought kicked in, remember King Kong.
The lesson given to me freely by that young Wintec film student years earlier was to take hold once again.
Wintec’s new Bachelor of Music and Performing Arts degree includes theatre, audio production, composition and performance. It is part of a revamp of the institution’s media arts programme and is under the guidance of Wintec music team manager and theatre director David Sidwell.
If anyone can make the new programme work it is Sidwell. He is a local performing arts hero, a champion for theatre and he lets his work and achievements on the local stage do the talking.
Every academic institution needs a David Sidwell and if Wintec didn’t have him they would have to have invented him.
The man oozes talent, academic insight and artistic humility.
Fascinating to talk to and always it seems with a new theatre project on the go he is a Hamilton institution and is admired by his peers for his nurturing of up and coming talent and directing prowess. Sidwell’s projects include directing Mary Poppins, Miss Saigon and Sister Act – The Musical.
Wintec will become the only tertiary institution in the North Island to offer a specialist degree that covers acting, singing, and dancing and it is fitting that Sidwell gets the chance to lead the charge.
Polytechnic teaching should always focus on real-world learning, and keeping with this academic philosophy, Wintec’s new degree will be taught on the stage – not the classroom.
The theatre students’ classroom will be at Hamilton’s Meteor Theatre in the first year, the second year will be spent learning at Clarence Street Theatre. Third year students will call the new Waikato Regional Theatre home.
Sidwell says one of the academic points of difference is students will be taught in a theatre environment.
‘‘Students will not be in a classroom, they will be on stage.’’
In what seems like a throwback to early 80s TV show Fame, the students will be surrounded by like-minded creative types all seeking to make their way in the creative world, here and abroad.
As times change and new academic programmes are launched that reflect the way we see ourselves I remind myself to drop the cynicism that age brings and applaud the steps needed to modernise tertiary study in the performing arts.
Many parents and taxpayers may find it difficult to accept acting, singing, and dancing are legitimate areas for study. But if the arts are to come alive it is the David Sidwells of Hamilton that will make it so.
So if you’re a doubter and not a believer, I’ve got two words for you: King Kong.
David Sidwell, above, oozes talent, academic insight and artistic humility.