In the early hours of a Sunday morning, 43 young theatre enthusiasts are preparing for their junior musical show just four short weeks away — some will be taking the stage for the very first time in their lives, while others are saying goodbye to a world they grew up in.
In early April, junior performing arts members from the ages of eight to eighteen will be taking part in a production of Disney’s Newsies.
Directed by Berwick local Victoria Hosburgh, the musical follows a 60 minute performance set in 1899 and is based on the New York City newsboys strike.
With themes of friendship, courage and loyalty at its core, main character Jack Kelly and his peers form a union, leading to a strike when a publisher raises prices.
Director Victoria is a theatre veteran herself, with her career in performing arts beginning in high school and extending to her tertiary studies.
Since 2009, Victoria has been involved in every Players Theatre production — the community musical production company based in Oakleigh East.
Under her belt, are much loved musicals, including Madagascar junior, Aladdin jr, Wizard of Oz jr and Frozen.
“I’ve always loved musicals,” Victoria said.
“My mum took me to musicals when I was a little kid and we would do that together.
“I started doing drama in high school and loved it and I ended up doing a degree in drama at Deakin and went down that path.”
Nearly two decades later, she’s directed and produced countless junior productions, gained the title of 2025 Aussie Broadway Junior Ambassador, and is the secretary at Player’s Theatre.
Her work also spans to teaching — with nearly 20 years of experience in teaching drama and performing arts to both primary and secondary year levels.
Based on the 1992 Disney Film, the Berwick director says that Newsies jr is her favorite to see come together.
“Newsies is my passion,” she said.
With Newsies as an already established and successful musical, Victoria first encountered the junior version in 2018 at the Junior Theatre Festival in Newcastle during a pilot production,
“They workshop the different junior shows to see what works, what doesn’t, things like, is the dance break too long? Is it too short? Do the harmonies work? Does the joke fall right?…they performed it and I watched and I went, ‘this is amazing’,” she said.
“I love the grit behind the story.
“It’s got a mix of everything. It’s got drama, it’s got comedy, it’s got beautiful themes of friendship and being brave and standing up for what you believe in.”
Casey based students, Kaleb, Grace and Tyler all started with Players when they were in primary school and now, Newsies jr, will be their last production with the theatre company.
Kaleb was the first to join the theatre company, taking part in Victoria’s second-year junior production of Mulan.
Later, he also convinced his peers from school, Grace and Tyler, to join the company.
Grace is now taking up an acting degree at the Victoria College Of the Arts.
With the new wave of kids starting off at Players, the three are preparing to say goodbye to the environment that helped raise them, prompting Kaleb to reminisce on his early years.
“For me, it sort of brings back flashbacks to when we were around that age,” Kaleb said.
The nostalgia was echoed by Grace.
“It’s really cool seeing where we were, and knowing we used to look up at the 18-year-olds so much, and being like, ‘oh, wait, that’s us now’.”
“It’s like the Player’s legacy lives on,” Kaleb interjects.
The three told Star News that through Players, they were able to build the confidence to perform on stage, from singing, dancing and acting but also in helping their work ethic and teamwork.
But at the time of starting off, none of them thought performing would become more than a hobby.
“It was more just like, yeah, ‘I’ll give it a go’.” Kaleb said.
“You know, I was into the school musicals and then Victoria was encouraging me to get into Players because she could see something I couldn’t.
“And I think it’s the same with all of us.
“She could see something that we couldn’t see.
“So it was just trying to get that encouragement to explore around a bit and venture out and try new things.”
“It’s a big blessing to have someone who believes in you before you do,” Grace added.
For many young performing arts enthusiasts, Players provides a welcoming space and an environment where those who aren’t often accepted in the outside world, can feel connected with like-minded peers all with one goal in mind — to perform.
“I’ve had one of our kids who is autistic who had told me this is the one place she feels like she can unmask, can just be herself because she feels accepted by everyone and that’s a really important thing especially at Play Theatre Company,” Victoria said.
“And that’s really important because we want it to be fun and we want it to be a safe place.”
“There’s acceptance here because we’re human and just because we happen to be a little bit more right-brained doesn’t make the love or the passion for what we do any less important.”
Victoria likens junior performers to extracurricular sports activities, such as footy practice or dance lessons, and says that there needs to be a greater acceptance of nontraditional “outlets of hobbies”.
“Musical theatre specifically is a very niche area.”
“Kids who love musicals can be very rare in their own schools and a lot of schools do musicals and they do get that outlet.
“But there’s also schools that don’t and there’s also schools where it’s seen as not cool.
“We have kids auditioning for our shows who get into them and see that they have found their people and we’ve had these conversations with parents after they see the show and they’ve seen what it’s done for their kid and their confidence has grown.
“And that they’ve found where they belong.”
Newsies Jr will be showing at the Christine Strachan Theatre from 4 April to 12 April.
Tickets are available at trybooking.com/events/landing/1431128
