Interview: THE SOUND OF MUSIC's Jacqui Dark Discusses Science, Singing And Some Incredible Mentors

BroadwayWorld Sydney had the pleasure of an interview with Jacqueline Dark, currently touring Australia with THE SOUND OF MUSIC as Mother Abbess. Wowing the crowds since the show opened in Sydney in December 2015, Ms Dark is giving musical theatre audiences a glimpse into the wonders of opera with her classically trained voice, normally found at Opera Australia where she regularly sings as a principal artist. Ms Dark gives BroadwayWorld readers a glimpse into her complex life as a former high school teacher and an award winning performer.

Whilst Ms Dark has had a love of singing since a young age she also has had a more academic side that for many years ran parallel to her singing career. After experiencing her first musical Ms Dark put aside 'half-baked' ideas of joining a band or singing in pubs in favor of school productions, choir and singing in Ballarat Light Opera Company shows although she does admit to singing in the Piano Bar of Ballarat's "Hot Gossip" nightclub. It was her mother who, whilst supporting her passion for singing, recommended that she have a 'proper' degree first which led Ms Dark down the path of completing a Bachelor of Applied Physics and a Graduate Diploma of Education which led to teaching senior mathematics and physics for many years whilst still developing a performing career at the same time.

Whilst teaching full time in Ballarat, Ms Dark was accepted into to the exclusive Opera Studio at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) which took only a handful of students each year at the time she auditioned. Whilst most would expect this would be a time for an either-or decision, the plucky young woman opted to continue to teaching full time during the day and travel over an hour (each way) three nights a week to attend classes at the VCA from 6 to 10pm. During this period of study and full time work she also managing the increased workloads of production periods for the operas VCA staged and preparing her students for the Year 11 and 12 exams. She attributes the ability to deal with this manic workload to being "young and enthusiastic and in love" with both of her careers which allowed her to "plough through the exhaustion".

Ms Dark's choice to major in Applied Physics may seem like an odd choice for a young girl but she attributes her love of science to her Year 11 Physics teacher, Lynne Kelly who instilled an "absolute love of science" in the young mind. Ms Dark has nothing but praise for the "utter genius" she considers having "one of the most extraordinary minds" she has encountered. Whilst Physics has traditionally been a male dominated field, BWW interviewer having also spent a few years attempting an Physics undergraduate course, Ms Dark was inspired to love it and saw the "male-dominated thing" as a bonus even if she did learn a little too much of the boys' colorful language. Dark's description of physics as "mind-blowing" and "conceptually bizarre" full of "time travelling particles, multiple universes, schizophrenic light that can't decide if it's a wave or a particle and ducks and weaves depending on the test you carry out, impossible particle entanglements, bendy space-time and gravity", amongst a multitude of other things, makes it clear that she really loves her chosen field.

The choice to teach rather than enter private industry highlights Dark's passion for people and society as she believes "teaching is the most important job you can do". Dark grew up in a house of educators with both parents being primary school teachers. She sees that "with education we can change the world... we can light a spark and make people think... and more importantly, think for themselves." In a society where many are content to listen to the "loudest voice" she feels that education is "more important now than ever before" as an "educated population will examine claims critically and make decisions based on evidence rather than be blindly led".

The passion for physics also paid off as during her Diploma of Education course, Ms Dark was approached to substitute for a senior Physics teacher who had fallen ill, who turned out to be the same person who had inspired her to enter the field. The stint substituting for Lynne Kelly in turn led to an offer of a permanent position upon graduation and allowed Ms Dark to work alongside her idol for many years. Her passion for teaching and encouraging young minds is also evident in the lunchtime group that she and Ms Kelly established for gifted students where the kids, often on the outskirts of normal school social groups, could build their own support networks, regardless of age, and "see their intellect as an asset that sets them apart in a positive way rather than a negative one".

Whilst Ms Dark clearly loved her time teaching, she maintained her singing throughout her teaching career. She sang from a young age, growing up with parents that had a love for music, though they were not professionals, and often being billed with her brother Andrew Dark for stage and television performances. She recounts that her father performed in high school musicals and her mother, who also has an unusual talent for turning anything into country and western, played guitar and sang with her and her brother when they were children. She attributes her work ethic, role knowledge and preparation to her first singing teacher, Halinka de Tarczynska, who, whilst being "incredibly tough and demanding" taught her the necessary discipline along with ensuring that Ms Dark's young voice was developed "cautiously and slowly" so it was trained properly.

When the focus shifted to a greater weighting towards her singing, Ms Dark dropped to part time teaching, whilst she spent a number of years establishing herself in the Opera world as well as taking on additional tutoring work to supplement her income. She has since stopped teaching, performing full time, but maintaining a connection to the education system, writing a trial exam for Year 12 Physics in Victoria each year.

Since completing her VCA studies Ms Dark went on to perform with Victorian State Opera, Opera Australia, and Vienna State Opera, to name a few of the companies she has worked with in Australia and overseas. In addition to opera, she has also been involved in a number of professional musicals but THE SOUND OF MUSIC is her first long-run professional musical. Her first professional musical was Victoria State Opera's RUDDIGORE and she went on to be part of the cast of the short lived production of CHESS and the 1998 production of JEKYLL AND HYDE that never quite made it to the stage. She also performed in many of Opera Australia's musicals including MIKADO, IOLANTHE, and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC but the 9 month, 4 city run of THE SOUND OF MUSIC is the longest production she has been involved with. The "whole different beast" of a long production has required that Ms Dark learn new strategies including pacing herself for eight shows a week and performing in a "totally different environment".

Ms Dark is very grateful to THE SOUND OF MUSIC director Gavin Mitford for his patience and encouragement as they created the wonderful "beautiful, wise, complex character" of Mother Abbess. She loves the "camaraderie, in-joking and naughtiness" of her THE SOUND OF MUSIC "family" which has grown and learnt together, supporting each other and also including Ms Dark's 3 year old son who is on tour with her, as an honorary "Do Re Mi Kid", complete with his own "little touring jacket". She gets to see a side of performing where the performers are much more readily recognized and publicized than is the case with opera, with fans waiting at the stage door for them each night and producers and publicists promoting the performers and giving them much more exposure.

In addition to her opera and musical theatre work, Ms Dark has also had success with cabaret, creating STRANGE BEDFELLOWS with "partner-in-crime", best friend and fellow Opera Australia performer Kanen Breen, and their "brilliant, beleagured" Musical Director Daryl Wallis. Compared to the musical theatre and opera roles, the cabaret allows Ms Dark and Mr Breen to express themselves more freely, putting their heart and soul into the quirky, "filthy at times" humor. Ms Dark also suggests that there may be a follow up work for STRANGE BEDFELLOWS following the success of the original that saw them take the show to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2015.

She also loves participating in a number of free events like OPERA IN THE DOMAIN and CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT and has been part of a group that, whilst singing Christmas Carols at Crown Casino on Christmas Day, were approached to sing for children in hospital. She recounts that whilst at the hospital they were asked to sing to a man in a coma, in intensive care, potentially being the last music the man would hear. After being briefed on the protocols of the Intensive Care ward the group sang the man's favorite song, Silent Night and were then expecting bad news when the man's wife came out to thank them in tears when it was revealed that the voices had triggered something that bought the man out of the coma.

Whilst Ms Dark misses watching kids come into Physics and learn to love it when the concepts fall into place, her future looks rather busy with singing with another 4 months to run for THE SOUND OF MUSIC. When THE SOUND OF MUSIC wraps up in Adelaide, she starts rehearsing Wagner's RING CYCLE for Opera Australia in Melbourne the following day and has "a couple of exciting things lined up with Opera Australia" in 2017. Along with hoping to bring another Cabaret to life, she is also keen to do more music theatre and has flagged her interest in television, particularly WENTWORTH, having had an obsession with PRISONER as a kid, hoping to step out of the nice, wise, complex, maternal role of Mother Abbess and try a bad girl role.

THE SOUND OF MUSIC
www.soundofmusictour.com.au
Twitter: @SoundofMusicAU

BRISBANE
Lyric Theatre, QPAC
From 11 March 2016
Bookings: www.soundofmusictour.com.au or 136 246

MELBOURNE
Regent Theatre
From 13 May 2016
Bookings: www.soundofmusictour.com.au or 1300 111 011

ADELAIDE
Festival Theatre
From 9 August 2016
Bookings: www.soundofmusictour.com.au or 131 246

THE RING CYCLE
Opera Australia
Arts Centre Melbourne

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

www.jacquelinedark.com

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