From a young age, Melissa knew her passion would be for the performing arts. Growing up she trained in drama and voice and after attaining her Bachelor's degree, majoring in Drama, and her ATCL Diploma in Speech and Drama (Teaching), Melissa has been fortunate enough to have worked at a number of Schools on the Gold Coast and Northern NSW, teaching Speech and Drama and Musical Theatre (Acting/Singing) for the past 16 years.
An enthusiastic performer herself, Melissa has been a part of many productions at Spotlight Community Theatre over the past decades. The last few years, Melissa has taken a step back from being onstage, to focus more on directing and writing. She has had several plays entered in the Gold Coast Secondary School Dramafest competition, with great success throughout the years. Melissa's passion and experience in Musical Theatre and Drama is something she is excited to be able to share with students, along with her love of acting and learning the art of telling stories through character, song, and dance.
Melissa is thrilled to be returning to the Spotlight Youth Theatre team this year.
Lucy has been a part of the performing arts industry all her life, spending time as a full-time pre-professional ballerina in her teenage years, she then went on to gain her qualifications as a dance, drama and musical theatre teacher with now over 15 years experience and is also a qualified Vocational Educator, delivering industry specific qualifications.
Lucy is a regular performer in various musicals interstate and around the Gold Coast, with credits including We Will Rock You, Grease, Be More Chill and High School Musical.
She has also done works for Spotlight Theatre as a Choreographer of Cinderella The Pantomime and our Sophomore Show from last year, We Will Rock You High School Edition. She was also the Kids Director of the widely-acclaimed Main Stage show The Sound Of Music, and will be making her Directional Debut with Peter Pan -The Pantomime later this year.
Ethan Speight is the head drama teacher at Spotlight Youth Theatre this year. He started as a student in 2017 in Youth Theatre and continued on, ending with a final year of Young Adults in 2020. He started a Bachelor of Education in 2021 focussing on secondary teaching (High School), with Drama and English as his main teaching focus.
His journey as a teacher began with being a Trainee teacher under Mitch Walsh in 2022, and quickly moved up to head drama teacher from there. In 2023 he had taken over the secondary sector of drama and began to build not only his skills and those of his students, but also the classroom environment to a safe and secure standing in which we all knew each other and the space to be a safe space to practice drama.
Throughout 2023 he was under the mentorship of Hannah Crowther who taught and instilled in him the skills to teach and handle primary schoolers, leading to now being the lead teacher of Juniors all the way to Seniors. He aims to ensure that the Drama class is always a safe space to experience and explore what it means to be human and to grow into the world of today.
A major focus of his is to instil, shore up and cultivate adequate social and necessary 21st century skills to provide students the tools they need to succeed in today's world
Alana has an avid love for everything Performing Arts. In 2022 she completed her Diploma of Musical Theatre at the Queensland College of Dance, where she was taught by some of Queensland’s most reputable teachers.
Alana has been in theatre for a large portion of her life, being in productions such as The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Beautiful - the Carole King Musical, 42nd Street, All Shook Up and FAME just to name a few.
She has a strong passion for all areas of acting, singing and dancing, and instilling in others a confidence in themselves to achieve their goals and dreams. As a Spotlight Youth Alumni herself, Alana is beyond excited to teach the next generation what she has learnt. She spent the last year year teaching the Freshman Musical Theatre students here at Spotlight, and is thrilled to add the Senior and Intermediate Musical Theatre classes to her year as well!
A dedicated High School Performing Arts Teacher with a decade of experience working within local schools, particularly within their excellence programs, Jackson's passion for nurturing talent is evident in his role as a teacher, where he has dedicated himself to guiding aspiring performers after completing his Bachelor of Education in Drama.
Jackson has worked on multiple shows at Spotlight Theatre as Choreographer. These include Kinky Boots, The Bodyguard, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Gypsy and The Sound of Music. His approach to choreography is marked by a thoughtful blend of creativity and technical precision.
Jackson has worked professionally on many stages, from the iconic Fortitude Valley Music Hall, The Pink Flamingo, and Dreamworld, to more intimate spaces like bars and corporate events. He's looking forward to working with the students within the program and preparing them for their bright futures.
Sarah has been involved in theatre since she was young - and has been learning ever since. After earning her ATCL in 2017 she gained a passion for teaching youth theatre (which has now led her to pursue Education at University), helping students learn not only acting skills but valuable social skills as well.
She has credits on-stage and off-stage, from performing lead roles and being a vibrant ensemble member to calling cues, lighting our heroes on stage and painting sets to look like a book. Sarah also participated in a variety of school workshops (NIDA, Shake & Stir), enabling her to perform twice at QPAC.
Bringing her skills to our primary-aged students is an exciting journey this year and she cannot wait to see them grow and gain life-long skills!
Liv graduated from the Spotlight Youth Drama and Musical Theatre classes in 2021 and is extremely excited to come back to teach.
Since graduating, she has featured in hit Spotlight Theatre productions such as 42nd Street, Urinetown, 13! The Musical and Cinderella The Pantomime.
Liv has been accredited with the 2021 Drama Festival Adjudicators award for directing Lockdown and is also a recipient of the Gold Coast Limelight Award for her Outstanding Profile in the Arts.
Since joining Spotlight Youth Theatre in 2015, Georgia has discovered her passion for performing and cannot wait to broaden her knowledge by learning to teach what she loves most.
She has performed in a myriad of productions including musical theatre, opera, plays and holiday pantomimes across a multitude of theatres. Georgia has achieved a High Distinction for AMEB Grade 8 Classical Singing, Grade 5 Music Theory with Honours and is currently preparing for her Grade 8 Flute and Grade 8 Musical Theatre (ASCA) exams.
In her final year of schooling last year she received 1st places for Vocalfest and Theatrefest, an Outstanding Actors Award at Dramafest and was the recipient of the Performing Arts Award. Georgia is excited to have commenced her tertiary studies at the Queensland Conservatorium with a Bachelor of Music for classical singing. This year will be a year of further learning and Georgia is ready for the challenge.
She is incredibly excited to return as a teacher to Spotlight’s youth program, as it helped develop her into the performer and person she is today.