PATRICK Howlett describes preparing to perform in The Cost of Wishes as similar to waiting for Christmas.
Patrick, 18, is participating for the seventh year in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Schools Office's creative and performing arts program, Aspire, which culminates each year in an original production.
The Cost of Wishes will be the first performed in front of a live audience since 2019, after COVID-19 led to the 2020 production being filmed and screened and the 2021 production being cancelled.
Patrick said the cast enjoyed "feeding on what the audience is thinking and feeling".
"I've been looking forward to getting back on the stage in front of a live audience for a very long time, I feel so giddy, it's like Christmas, honestly," Patrick said.
"It is the biggest rush and everyone is looking at you and waiting for you to deliver your next line, it's a really fulfilling feeling when you know that everybody is coming to see what you have to say and what the show has to offer."
He juggled rehearsals with his year 12 studies at St Mary's Catholic College Gateshead.
"It was an absolute essential," he said.
"Being on stage it kind of numbs everything else and you're so in the moment that despite what you have going on and despite how stressed you are you can still provide something to someone else, which fulfils you."
The production follows friends who find a well and make a wish, waking the Well Dwellers.
Patrick said it took an hour in the makeup chair to transform into the mythical Mimir The Wise.
The first of five shows at the Civic Theatre is on Wednesday.
