Since her first role as an elephant in The Holliday Zoobilee at the age of five, Mikaela Kawaley-Lathan has gone from strength to strength on the stage, and is now preparing for the lead role as Sleeping Beauty in this year’s Pantomime.

Ms Kawaley-Lathan said it was her first school play combined with her family’s involvement in local pantomimes that gave birth to her love for theatre.

“Going backstage after the show and seeing everyone getting out of costume, It was just magical to me,” she said.

“I’ve done every school play I could get my hands on since I was five. I can still sing most of the songs.”

Just in the past month, Ms Kawaley-Lathan has found time off the stage hard to come by.

Besides preparing for the lead in the pantomime, she has been a murderess in ‘Chicago’, and Beatrice in Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.

“My first lead was in a school play this year, where I had a bigger speaking role. And also for the school’s Shakespeare play, which was at the beginning of this month. So that was a bit difficult, rehearsing for three plays in one month. It was a little crazy.”

Away from the stage, the year 11 student at Saltus has been hard at work studying for the eight GCSE exams she plans on taking, giving up lunchtimes to spend as much time with her teachers as possible.

While most would be hard-pressed to find a 15-year-old with a solid idea of what they want to do as a career, Ms Kawaley-Lathan is the exception.

She hopes her love of theatre, combined with high academic ambitions, will lead her into the world of psychology.

“Right now I’m looking at therapy through drama. I’ve always loved it and find it’s a great way to open up and get to know people. I’ve always wanted to use that to help people, and drama is a great way of doing that.”

In the meantime, however, it’s the pantomime she is most looking forward to.

“I am very excited. Normally it’s at City Hall, but we’re doing a shorter show at Daylesford Theatre, so we’re kind of taking it home this year. And we’re going to be having a fair outside. We’ll be having vendors and games all with a fairytale theme. We’re hoping to transform the whole building into this fairy-tale land. We’re getting schools to donate different decorations, different charities have been donating things. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

“[Preparing for the role] has been a lot of fun. The cast is a lot of fun. The director is brilliant. She has this really easy way of memorising things. She’s very laid back and we have a lot of fun.”