Boy from Oz performer gives back to aspiring theatre students
Published on 12 June, 2012
Two CQUniversity students are furthering their development in music and theatre thanks to mentor and internationally renowned stage performer Dale Pengelly.
William Hinze, who is studying in Mackay and Elissa Finn, who is at the Rockhampton campus have recently been awarded the Dale Pengelly Prize for Most Promising Student in Theatre Performance and Music Performance respectively.
The $500 prizes are awarded to second year students in the Bachelor of Theatre and Bachelor of Music programs who exhibit exceptional promise as a theatre or music performer in their first year of study.
CQUniversity's Elissa Finn has been awarded a musical prize.Winner Elissa Finn said she was extremely thankful to have won the award.
"I met Dale on the Sunshine Coast through doing a Performing Arts course and got to work with him leading up to exams," she said.
"To win the award is really encouraging and just makes me want to keep practising what I love doing."
CQUni Mackay's William Hinze was awarded a prize for theatre performance. Initially open for students studying at the Gladstone campus, this year Dale has extended it to include other campuses across CQUniversity.
"In 2005 I wrote a show about what I've been doing since 1979 and that show raised $5,500 which I put into prizes at the Rockhampton campus and it has since been spread to Mackay."
Dale began his exceptional stage career from humble beginnings at Gladstone's Danzenergy studios prior to being accepted into the prestigious Australian Ballet School in Melbourne.
However Dale said his family could not afford the fees or the airfares to get him there.
"The concept for giving back was born in 1979 when the dance school and theatre groups of Gladstone organised a benefit concert to send me off to the Australian Ballet School to commence full time studies in the art form," he said.
"I have never forgotten the encouragement I received from my home town and the fact that they allowed me to follow my dreams."
Dale has studied with Australian greats such as Steven Heathcote, Paul Mercurio and David Macallister.
Most recently, Dale has performed the role of Enoch Snow in Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel, the lead role of Johnny O'Keefe in Shout!, stepped back into The Boy from Oz, this time as Peter Allen, and performed as Don Lockwood in Singing In the Rain.