Dressed head to toe in vibrant splashes of colour, Scarlett Levy felt one step closer to her dream of being a costume designer.
It was her fourth year of being in the Catholic schools ASPIRE production, and she was excited to be wearing a costume that she partly made herself.
"I made a sash and the bustle and the waistcoat from scratch, it took me hours," she said.
"This is my first costume I've made, I've made dresses but designing a costume from scratch was really amazing."
The year 11 St Paul's Catholic College Booragul student was one of about 160 students from 58 schools across the Maitland-Newcastle diocese to put together this year's production, titled Scrambled.
The original production is driven by the ideas, experiences and voices of students.
It features Beth, a girl who has lost her memory, and the personified parts of her brain that try to help her find out who she was and who she wants to become.
Ms Levy was playing the role of Amy, who is Beth's amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for emotional processing.
"She's all emotions, all fun, all crying, all laughing," Ms Levy said.
"I like playing this person who really expresses every part of them and is not afraid to get out into the crowd," she said.
Ms Levy said she loved being a part of ASPIRE because it felt like a second family to her.
"You don't know until you join it how much you needed it, and how much of a family you are about to create," she said.
"It always feels wonderful, it's like your heart is moving a 1000 miles a second and then eventually you calm down."
Trinity Catholic College year 11 student Gabriel Widseth plays Wernie. The character is a representation of the Wernicke area, the language centre of the brain.
"I look like a founding father mixed with Shakespeare, very visually representative of the character," Mr Widseth said.
"It is so exciting to be a part of an original script because we get to bring these characters alive for the first time."
This year is Mr Widseth's seventh as part of the ASPIRE program, and he said every year he built up his network of friends and learnt new skills.
"I think I really found who I was when I started doing theatre programs," he said.
"Acting is kind of the vessel that I get to use to express the inner workings of myself."
In its 15th year, ASPIRE opened on Wednesday July 29 at 11am at the Civic Theatre.
It will run for four more shows until Saturday August 1.
