WHY I STARTED DARE DRAMA, AND MY VISION FOR A TRIANGLE ARMY THAT WOULD TAKE OVER THE WORLD.
Be yoursef.
Trust your voice.
Speak your truth… YAWN!
I much prefer… Fly your weirdo flag high, so other weirdos can find you!
That is exactly what I decided to do. Fly my colourful, slightly wonky, triangled shaped weirdo flag as high as I could, and as a result I managed to successfully navigate an incredibly important transition in business and in my life.
In June 2019, the beginning of what was to be a long, cold Melbourne winter, I took the leap of faith to break free and go it alone to start a Melbourne drama group. A local drama group where I could bring together my love of theatre and improvisation, with my vision of empowering young people (and people of all ages) to believe in themselves and have the confidence to trust their own voices. And of course, where I got to call ALL the shots!
Pushing all my doubts and insecurities aside, I took my own advice of just trusting myself and thought… “What’s the worst that can happen?” [2020 Edit: A pandemic can happen.]
Bringing together improvisational theatre sports to help students learn to trust their creative impulses and laugh at their mistakes, public speaking techniques to teach kids how to give confident presentations speaking with pride and purpose, and mindfulness to help kids slow down, manage their emotions, and aleviate their anxiety, I hoped to equip students with the courage to grab opportunities that are presented to them in life, without the fear of failure or worries about what other people think.
Dare Drama was created as a place to bring all the weirdos together to dare to be themselves and have fun in a non competitive theatre environment.
After having decided on the name (a story for another time), I knew that I wanted a logo that was both playful and serious, simple but striking, bold yet approachable, uncomplicated but full of meaning. I also wanted to be able to curtail the full logo to a symbol that the kids and cohorts could wear on a shirt. A simple symbol that encompassed the individuality, strength, courage and confidence that I was trying to instil in my students – an easy brief for agraphic designer, right?! Lucky for me, the universe threw an extremely talented and patient graphic designer at me (at the very last minute), and together we came up with the sexiest, most versatile logo I’ve ever seen. And no, I’m not being biased.
The Dare Drama logo has its focal point on the letter ‘A’ which presents as a triangle bursting out of the box containing the other letters. The triangle, which is the star of the logo and which has become the symbol of our little Melbourne drama group, is the strongest of all of the shapes. Similarly to what I’m encouraging my students to become, it doesn’t fold under external pressure (it’s resilient), it has a strong base, a solid foundation (it knows who it is and is ok with that), and it points upwards (believing in itself and in what it can achieve).
And so it begins… the Triangle army that is going to take over the world kindness, empathy, and resilience… and loads fo fun!
Come and be a Triangle with us!