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A love of theatre that began at Centrestage in Ōrewa has led to performing in front of thousands on the world stage for 10-year-old Asher Whitehead.
The Red Beach School student recently returned from five months in South Korea, where he played the role of Young Simba in Disney’s The Lion King.
It was an opportunity of a lifetime that began with a love of hip hop dance, and a part in a Centrestage Theatre production of Peter Pan.
It was Peter Pan, and further roles in Centrestage musicals, that inspired Asher to do more auditions and join the Northern School of Performing Arts in Whangaparāoa as well as taking lessons in singing and dance.
He says he went into auditions for The Lion King last year without particularly high hopes, although he had been in Lion King Junior at Centrestage and already knew some of the lines and songs.
To his surprise, he was selected for a year’s contract with the international cast as one of three Young Simbas.
It started with a month playing to big crowds at Auckland’s Spark Arena, which meant family and friends got to see the show.
“One night a big group of Red Beach School teachers turned up,” he says.
The cast then travelled to South Korea, underwent a 10-day Covid-19 quarantine and took the show to two big venues. Asher’s mum Lydia travelled with him.
The other two Young Simbas both got Covid-19, so there was plenty of time onstage for Asher. He says although he performed the role sometimes six days a week, and knows every line of the entire show by heart, it never got old.
“Every night was different, especially the crowd reaction,” he says. “One of the best bits was making people cry, when my father, Mufasa, dies.”
Among the other highlights of his time in Korea were flying to the top of the stage in a harness, riding giant ostrich puppets and travelling around the cities in a Lion King bus.
Schoolwork was fitted into the morning before matinee shows.
You might think after all that excitement, that returning to life on the Coast could be a bit of an anti-climax but Asher says it’s great to be back at home and at school.
He says he learned a lot about acting from the older performers, and everyone else involved with the production. He is now thinking of getting into film and TV, as well as sitting a Trinity College London musical theatre exam.
