Kurt Murray's acting career started as a small child in Alice Springs after his aunt took him to one of the two amateur theatrical groups back in the late 1990s.
It never occurred to him that one day he would perform on the global stage from Romania's Got Talent to China's version, World's Got Talent, with a bubble show as his alter-ego Dr Bubble with his side kick Milkshake.
Murray credits the skills he learnt in outback Australia for giving him the passion to pursue a theatrical career.
"I was in two companies and it was two very different ways of thinking," he said.
"One was very improvised-based [theatre]. I was working with a guy named Scott Casley, who used to work with [Australian comedy duo] Lano and Woodley."
Murray said that having Mr Casley as a teacher gave him a strong learning base.
"There was infinite amounts of information about learning improvisational theatre. And one of the foundations of that was making your own work, which was huge," he said.
School drama classes and traditional amateur theatre groups consolidated Murray's love of theatre and the performing arts.
"When I joined Centre Stage Theatre between that and high school, I think I was doing about six or seven shows a year," he said.
"As a teenager, you cannot get that kind of experience.
"I didn't realise how good we had it until I went to a city and heard what everyone else was doing in their teen years."
Romania to remote bush schools
Murray and his partner, Iulia Benze, are based in Europe and travel to Australia to take advantage of the summer months.
"Every year we always come to the Perth and Adelaide fringe festivals because it's winter in Europe, and it is so cold," he said.
"If you do bubble shows in winter and you're bumping your stuff out and you're covered in bubble juice it is just hideous."
And that's when COVID-19 struck.
"Our plane tickets got cancelled. So we were stuck here [in Australia]," he said.
Like many others across the world, their plans changed almost overnight.
Through Murray's links with the remote area education system, having taught on previous trips to the Northern Territory, word got out that they were stuck in Australia.
Murray said he got a phone call to come and teach kids drama at Stirling School, which is a school based in Wilora, 250 kilometres north of Alice Springs.
"We did the week there. We made a video with the kids and put a story together," he said.
Murray said the reaction from the kids made it all worthwhile.
"We just had such an amazing response, and one of the teachers said that attendance spikes at communities when we're turning up," he said.
"The kids absolutely loved it."
