In the pool and on stage, Justine van Eyssen was destined to perform. Login or signup to continue reading. She took home a silver and two bronze medals while representing Australia in swimming at the Paralympic Games for Persons with Mental Handicap in Madrid, Spain.
On stage she's performed for Prince Edward, plus appeared in and written material across numerous arts organisations, including No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability - which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Justine listed a few elements about what makes a good theatre production:.
She has been with No Strings for 10 years. Her writing formed the basis of Abandoned on a Desert Island , a show about day-trippers on board a cruise ship that leaves its passengers behind at an isolated destination. There, she and colleagues performed Chef Anton , where the protagonist and his subordinates baked a cheesecake with the wrong ingredients. Justine portrayed being the head of four sous chefs. Aside from the creative outlet that performance offers, she relishes the opportunities it's afforded her to make new friends and meet different people.
Today Justine focuses on acting, but she was also a Paralympic swimmer. At the Paralympics , she won silver in the women's 4xm freestyle and a bronze in each of the women's 4x50m freestyle and women's 4x50m medley.
Just like acting, being performance-ready took a lot of determination and practice - she used to get up at 4am to swim in a pool for two hours, and would do another hour in the evening. But, she knew putting the work in would pay off.
