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Leaders at Faust: An Interview with Sophie Burkhardt


"I find myself mostly inspired by the people I surround myself with."

During this period, we would like to share with you a series of interviews from our leaders, other creative members in our community and behind the scene glimpses of our youth theatre.

Sophia Burkhardt is a graduate from the University of Kent and a long time Faust member who has returned to Hong Kong and is one of our Group Leaders at Faust. 


 What current creative projects are you working on now that you would like to share

 I’m working on my photography blog at https://sophcreates.com.
I travelled a lot during university and took thousands of pictures that I’m finally editing and sharing. I also recently picked up film photography as a hobby and have been exploring Hong Kong to get to know the city a little better and capture as much of it as I can.




What impact did drama have on your confidence growing up?

 Drama made a huge world of difference in my confidence. Being an awkward teen is never easy but drama gave me the confidence to just be who I am because our workshops allowed me to let loose, and express myself without any fear of judgement. If I could pretend to be the silliest version of myself inside a classroom, I knew I could be myself outside of it.

Sophie (front row, centre) during a promo shoot for Faust's teen production of Romeo and Juliet in 2015)


Who are your heroes and inspirations?

 Wonder Woman - not that kind of hero? Where superheroes inspire me to be an everyday hero when I can, I find myself mostly inspired by the people I surround myself with. The love and support I get from my friends pushes me pay that forward, the hard work of my colleagues push me to work hard, and the fun, silly nature of my students remind me that I don’t need to take everything so seriously!


What’s your favourite Faust moment?


 When I was in Stage Group, the opening scene for one of our performances was particularly intense. A group of us were huddled together as prisoners on a ship and every rehearsal/performance we would whisper jokes to each other or try and tickle someone in the huddle to see who would corpse. We never broke character on stage but the giggles after we exited the scene were endless!

If you could perform any character from a children’s story / play for teenagers, what would it be and why?

 Kate (Katherine Minola) from Taming of the Shrew! I love the idea of playing a strong female character who gets to be witty and unashamedly intelligent in an environment where she’s being treated like a piece of meat. I also love comedy and would like to finally be in a Shakespeare play where all the characters live to see the curtain call.


A short personal message for your students here:

 Hello Group S1! I hope you’re all staying creative and reading lots of new stories that you can share with us when we get back to class! 
When we get back we will also start looking at another wonderful Roald Dahl story and of course, we will play lots of 'Crocodile' AND the 'Atom' game.  I’m so excited to see all of you again very soon!

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