By Mike Thatcher

Austyn Emmanuelle, a Year 6 pupil at St Lawrence School, is currently starring as Billy in the West End production of School of Rock, alongside former Hear’Say member Noel Sullivan.

Already a seasoned performer, Austyn began street dance at BPM Dance Academy and performed in his first show when he was aged five. In December 2018 he performed in Jack at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton but the jump to West End stage is a huge achievement.

“He went for a couple of acting castings for TV and wasn’t successful,” said his mother Sarah. “School
of Rock was the first musical he went for, and he got through the various stages of the audition and got offered a six month contract!”

Austyn has been dancing locally with BPM Dance Academy from a young age. Luke and Kat from BPM first met him when he used to drop his older brother off at his dance classes. Even though he wasn’t old enough he would stand in the doorway and try to join in as much as he could. “After just a few classes,” they said, “we knew that there was something special about Austyn; he was always so eager to learn everything and would smile throughout class from start to finish. An extremely hard worker in class, he always took every bit of feedback we gave him and worked on it to perfect his moves.”
St Lawrence School is extremely supportive and provides him with extra work to take to the theatre for when he’s on standby. “Other than that,” continues Sarah, “he goes to school, gets changed, heads to London, performs in a show or is on standby and gets back home at midnight and then up for school again the next day!”

Austyn hopes this is just the start for him. “I’m really enjoying being in a West End show. I love singing, dancing and acting, and I hope I can go further into more musicals after this.” And it seems Dave and Sarah would not disagree: “We are so proud of Austyn for his hard working character, determination and his outgoing nature. Seeing him be able to thrive in something he loves is a joy to us.”

School of Rock is at the Gillian Lynne Theatre and is booking until January 2020.

Full article printed in the November issue of Hurst Life.