GOOD LITTLE SOLDIER: Teen Otto Kosok steps up to top rank

The Sunday Times

Every casting director wants to discover the next big thing, and in 17-year old Otto Kosok, Phil Thomson thinks he might have.

“I have mentored and directed a number of extraordinary artists in the first bloom of their career, people like Greta Scacchi, Tim Minchin, Kelton Pell, Joel Jackson and Shaka Cook,” Thomson said. “I can see a similar excitement, talent and potential with Otto. He has courage, intelligence and he’s obviously a really good dancer.”

Otto, a Year 12 student at Duncraig Senior High School, is juggling his studies with his first role in a professional production. Good Little Soldier, a story exploring the effect of post-traumatic stress disorder on the families of returned veterans, is a challenging work for any performer, let alone someone with limited stage experience.

Otto plays Josh, the teenage son of a deeply traumatised returned war veteran.

“It was a fine line between finding someone tough enough to deal with the physicality and emotion and somebody that looked innocent enough that you thought it was a vulnerable child,” director Mark Howett said.

Having started dancing as a six- year-old, Otto has appeared in productions with STEPS Youth Dance Company and youth ensemble Co3, but said working professionally had been a steep learning curve.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “The speed and the intensity they work at is really nice. ”

Otto is from a family of creatives.

His mother is an actor and his father does stand-by props on film sets. His grandmother, Nikola Weisse, is a famous German stage actor.

He plans to audition for the WA Academy of Performing Arts next year.

Good Little Soldier is at Subiaco Arts Centre from July 9-30. Tickets available from Ticketek.

 

Image by Justin Benson-Cooper/The Sunday Times