Sheridan Harbridge

Former Student, NIDA Graduate, Class of 2006

Loving reading all the stories of KJ’ness. I wanted to add my silly tale. He was a towering figure in my life, and when we thought it were near the end in 2017, I dedicated my performance in Prima Facie to him. I was there, burrowing into that play, because of the passion, expertise and shall we call it the demonic act or die fire that was set alight in us by the teachers at NIDA.

My audition for NIDA, I was SO damn green, I don’t think I had ever prepared a monologue before. Not believing I would get through to the second round, I hadn’t prepped my third monologue. Trembling, I plonked on a chair and fumbled my way through what I could. Tony Knight stopped me barely 30 seconds in and said ‘Darling, what are you doing. You were interesting before, now you’re really boring”. Then he said, “you look like Liza Minelli. Can you do it like Liza?” And I said “BOY MUMMA, CAN I!” He let me sing a song, do my cheap basement Liza, and bam, I got a call back.

A week later, a new third monologue smugly learned. I had picked a piece COMICALLY beyond my skills, my life, my baby dumb mind, The Love of the Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker. The Greek tale of Philomile, raped by her sisters husband, she confronts him and he cuts out her tongue. I’m 18, I’ve done a year of music theatre training, I’ve never even lived in a city, and Im ready for the Greeks! KJ is here now, and he is having NONE of it. He shreds me, SHREDS me, consumes me, for maybe 45 minutes. I try and I try to go where he wants me to go. I fail. I sit down. Tattered. I already feel ten years older. Later on in the day, sitting through the other callbacks, I volunteer to assist, They sit me in a chair next to the staffs trestle table for the actor to do their work to me. I’m standing next to KJ. I look down, and I see his notes. They are the notes from my audition, pushed to the side with coffee spilled all over them. They are three notes, in big messy scrawl: SUPERFICIAL. NO DEPTH. CANT TAKE YOUR EYES OFF HER.

Kevin wrapped up my career from day dot. To my absolute shock I got in, after what I’d read. KJ came up to me on the first day and said, outright “So I don’t think you’re any good. But Tony likes you. So we’ll see”. But that fucking menacing strategist, KJ had me under his wing for three years. He put me in every show he directed with our year, took me to shows with him, held me, constantly, to his high expectations, put some goddamn depth in me. Thankyou for knowing you could teach me, KJ. Thanks Tony for having superior taste, though, phewf….