University of Southern Queensland graduate Emily Burton put her acting skills to the ultimate test when she was announced as the winner of Best Female Actor in a Leading Role at the prestigious Matilda Awards — and didn’t have an acceptance speech.
Thankfully, the surprised young actress managed to bluff her way through an improvised acceptance speech and none were the wiser.
“It was a huge surprise when they announced my name,” Mrs Burton said.
“I was genuinely unprepared for it; people told me to prepare an acceptance speech just in case and I just laughed at the idea.”
The Matilda Awards are an annual event that celebrates the achievements of the Brisbane theatre industry and Mrs Burton was named Best Female Actor in a Leading Role for her work in the comical play
A Tribute of Sorts.
“
A Tribute of Sorts was a lot of fun; it’s awesome to be able to make people laugh every night as your job,” she said.
“We held the opening night in October last year which was naturally a nerve-wrenching experience but it ended up being a fantastic season.”
Mrs Burton graduated from a Bachelor of Theatre Arts (Acting) from the University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba in 2010 and moved to Brisbane in mid-2011.
She’ll be returning to her old home town very soon as she prepares to star in the Empire Theatre’s production of
Oh The Humanity next week.
“It’s a brilliant play of contemporary absurdism,” Mrs Burton said.
“One of the characters I play is the Universe … it’s times like that where training and study very much comes in handy.
“USQ really helped prepare me to be adaptive to a lot of aspects of the theatre and I very much appreciate my time there.
“Toowoomba will always be very close to my heart.”
Oh The Humanity will run from March 21 to March 23. More information is available at www.empiretheatre.com.au.
Media contact:
Callum Johnson, email: callum.johnson@usq.edu.au, Phone: 07 4631 1856
Jim Campbell, email: jim.campbell@usq.edu.au, Phone: 07 4631 2977.
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