The bright lights, footlights and limelight beckon Jessie

Jessie O’Connor is leaving Whanganui to study performing arts in Melbourne. Photo / Paul Brooks

After making her mark on various stages in Whanganui, Jessie O’Connor leaves us for Melbourne.

“I’m going to APO Performing Arts Academy,” she says. “It’s a musical theatre-based programme.” She’s doing a one-year course with the option to audition to continue. She says it’s small enough so there’s no room to hide.

Whanganui people will have seen her sing and act as the lead in Whanganui High School’s production of Mamma Mia! at the Opera House, as well as Into the Woods at Amdram in which she played The Witch. Both performances received high praise and attracted attention from community members willing to help her achieve her goal to further her studies in Australia.

A lot of that support came from Graeme Prince, proprietor of Riverside Motels where the O’Connor family lived for some months after arriving from Australia. Graeme is the local assistant Rotary governor and he went to see her performance in Mamma Mia! after hearing her sing at the motel.

“I took a group of Rotarians with me and got Rotary interested. I thought then, this girl is going somewhere,” he says. “I decided I was going to search around and get [financial] support for her, originally from Rotary, but then I started searching elsewhere as well.”

Because of that, she is getting support from the Rotary network as well as from other local interested parties. Graeme is also sponsoring her through the motel.

“I’ve loved musicals since I was a little kid,” says Jessie. She was born in New Zealand, moved to Western Australia, then to NSW and, later, back to New Zealand.

In a primary school show in Perth she was an ant dressed up as Michael Jackson — “I remember coming out on stage for the first time and all of these people were looking at me and pointing.”

She loved it: the performing and the attention.

“It wasn’t until later when I did my first actual musical, Into the Woods, in Year 7, after I had just arrived in NSW.

“I was the only Year 7 in the whole show and I absolutely loved it.”

She also plays violin.

“I love drama and I love music as well, playing violin and everything. So every time I was in a production I’d just go into hyper-crazy mode where I would listen to all the songs and learn all the lyrics ... it brought out something different in me and I wasn’t sure why.

“It wasn’t until I had to move from Australia back to New Zealand I realised it was something I wanted to try and do with my life.” No matter what, Jessie wanted to give it a go.

“I was lucky to be able to do Mamma Mia! at Whanganui High School. It was the biggest audience I had ever performed in front of, an amazing set, amazing actors to be across from, and then being up there singing Winner Takes It All in front of everyone ...”

That was the feeling she wanted to have, as often as possible.

“Okay, game plan: let’s figure out how to do this properly, while also being realistic about the whole thing. It’s not an easy path to go down and not everyone is successful, but I at least want to give it a go.”

After high school, Jessie took a gap year, got a job at New Vista Rest Home, took singing lessons and read 60 books.

“It was nice to feel settled for a year and figure out what I want.

“Now, I’m excited and ready to work.

“I want to thank Whanganui and all the amazing people who have helped me.”

Her friends, teachers, mentors and everyone who knows her are right behind this talented young woman. Graeme Prince is right: Jessie O’Connor is going places.