A performing arts student from Canterbury hopes a recent appearance on New Zealand’s longest-running soap will help launch her acting career.
Zoe Ritchie, 21, grew up in Ashburton, where she attended children’s theatre classes at Big Little Theatre Company.
Ritchie said it was a highlight of her life to have landed a role as a ‘‘ditsy’’ hospital patient in a Shortland Street episode which screened February 24, now available on TVNZ+.
‘‘It’s like a fever dream, I didn’t think I would ever see myself on television so soon.’’
‘‘They have absolutely shaped my acting,’’ she said of the theatre school.
After graduating from Ashburton College, Ritchie attended Hagley Theatre School, then Unitec in Auckland where she is in her final year of a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts.
Ritchie and 20 of her fellow students got the lucky Shortland Street break after a director visited their class.
They were part of a scene about youngsters who had been to a music festival and presented with pyrotechnic and stampede injuries.
Ritchie was one of four named characters, having about 20 lines. She played Marissa Stanley, presenting with burns and symptoms of drug use.
While unusually happy to start, and ‘‘a little bit ditsy’’, it does not end well as she exits the episode having a seizure.
‘‘She was a super bubbly character, I loved playing her.’’
Appearing on Shortland Street had given Ritchie the opportunity to meet the show’s entire cast, including some of her favourites.
She and her fellow students got together after the episode aired to make sure they all watched it together.
While nervous at first to see herself on screen, Ritchie ended up liking the performance and being ‘‘super proud’’.
