Page 62 - MAY_2017

Courtney Clarke:

Small Town Girl

Rising To Hi-5

Stardom

By Jana Angeles

Bright and bubbly, it’s not everyday you come across a person like
Courtney Clarke. Since being selected as part of the cast for popular
children’s TV group, Hi-5, Clarke describes the job as ‘the dream’.
Coming from Lithgow, Blue Mountains NSW, she has seized every
opportunity and it’s only taken her a step closer to living the life she’s
always wanted. From her enthusiasm, it was obvious how quickly she
settled in the job because of the people she was working with.

“One of the things that really stuck out to me since we got the job is how
quickly we all connected,” she explained. “We’ve all been really lucky
we gelled quite quickly as a group and it benefits the performances
like nothing else. It just brings this amazing energy to the stage.”

Competing against 450 other applicants, it wasn’t an easy run to
gain a slot for Hi-5 stardom, but Clarke enjoyed the audition process
regardless. Meeting like-minded people similar to her eased the anxiety
and stress of being ‘the best of the best’.

“The audition process was a very full on run. It was like five or six
days and it was supposed to only be three,” she said. “Everyone at the
beginning of the audition kind of dropped off from hundreds down to
fifty, and fifty down to twenty, and then it would go back up to thirty.
It was really confusing but they had a really hard time deciding who
would be that five because they did just have a miraculous amount of
talent in the audition process. I still don’t know how they chose it.”

62 may 2017 | mychild