St Andrew High student eyes Hollywood; excels in JCDC Performing Arts competition
Published:Thursday | October 10, 2024 | 12:08 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Fifth form student at St Andrew High School for Girls, Zarah Johnston, has chosen a non-traditional career path, and she couldn’t be more passionate about it. For as long as she can recall, the aspiring actress has yearned to be on television. The bug bit while watching cartoons as a child, eventually transforming into a desire to be on the silver screen. Not-so-quietly, the teenager is steadily making her way to Hollywood.
Johnston was counted among those who excelled at the recent Jamaica Festival of the Arts Competition hosted annually by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC). At the recent Marcus Garvey Awards for Excellence in the Performing Arts ceremony, hosted by the JCDC at the Little Theatre, Johnston was chosen as one of the students to read a passage from the works of Marcus Garvey. She felt truly honoured.
“I entered [this year] and I won Best Class 4 Standard English Prose and Poetry. I entered JCDC while I was in prep school and won gold and two silver at parish finals. I didn’t do anything else until I joined the drama club in fourth form ... so this is my first time entering since being in high school. It feels good. Knowing that I was able to excel at nationals is a big deal for me. At parish finals I got the highest gold of the night which was a 99 out of 100 and that alone surpassed my expectations and made me feel extremely good about myself. I went to nationals and won two trophies for the two pieces I entered. Words honestly can’t really express how I feel about it,” Johnston told The Gleaner after the awards ceremony.
Sharing that she is “extremely passionate about drama on a whole”, the teen emphasised that acting is not something that she wants to do “just for fun” and noted that there are actors both on the local and international scenes who have inspired her. And, she has even met one of her favourites.
“I would love to, one day, be on the big screens, on TV, in Hollywood. It has always been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. It’s something that I genuinely want to do. Growing up, I was mainly watching cartoons at first and I was really interested in voice acting. It was of my major interests because I saw the cartoons and I was like .... I want to have my voice as one of the cartoon characters on TV. And then I started watching Nickolodeon and other shows like that and I remember High School Musical with Vanessa Hudgens... I will never forget that. I always wanted to be just like her ... and Dove Cameron in Liv and Maddie. Those are some of the childhood shows. Blake Lively is another inspiration and Ryan Reynolds... I love how he incorporates comedy in everything that he does. It might me a tragedy and if the scene is sad he always finds a way to incorporate something funny to make the audience laugh,” Johnston said.
She added, “As for Jamaican actors ... he was here today, Sir Glen Titus Campbell. He is one of my major inspirations. Again with the comedy ... he just inspires me so much. I watch some of his plays and I absolutely love them. I actually got the pleasure to interview him for my theatre arts SBA [school based assessment] and it was a dream come true. Yeah those are some of my big inspirations.”
Johnston, who is pursuing theatre arts as one of her CSEC subjects, is only too aware of how valuable this is in her future endeavours, and, with plans to go on to sixth form, she is studiously performing a balancing act.
“I am absolutely loving theatre arts. It is a lot of work but I am willing to do anything it takes to excel in that subject and later excel in my future career. It is difficult preparing for CSEC and being in the drama club, because many times after school I have to be with my teacher rehearsing for competitions and other things like that ... also in the mornings. But I do make it work. When I go home, I just have to put in the hours ... I put in the work. These are major exams and I have to do well. I don’t have a choice, I have to do well,” Johnston reiterated.