Mr Martin graduated from FedUni’s Arts Academy five years ago and The Bodyguard is his third blockbuster show.

But he hasn’t had to master a single role for his current job – he plays five different characters and is the understudy for three supporting lead roles meaning he’s had to learn eight different roles for The Bodyguard.

“It’s part of my job learning all those different parts, so if one of the other cast members is sick I can cover them,” he said.

“It’s a lot of fun because we do the show so many times over the three seasons (Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne) it keeps it interesting when you rehearse other characters.”

Mr Martin’s first professional job after graduating from Arts Academy in 2012 was in Strictly Ballroom: The Musical, and he has also performed in Georgie Girl, the story of The Seekers, and in several independent theatre shows.

“Each show is different. Georgie Girl and Strictly Ballroom were both world premieres so we started those shows from scratch and got to create those characters.

“But The Bodyguard has been done five times around the world so rehearsal was a really quick process. The director knew exactly what he wanted so we were given a script, had a few weeks of rehearsal and went straight in to the theatre to get it working in the space.”

Mr Martin said his Arts Academy training had been a great grounding for his professional career.

“It’s exactly what I want to do for my career so it’s amazing to use what I learned at uni in my career. It’s a very hard industry to get in to.”

“I always knew I wanted to be a music theatre performer but I went down the acting path first because I didn’t know a music theatre course existed … but when I learned of the course at Ballarat it was exactly what I needed.”

Mr Martin will return to Ballarat next month to see the FedUni Arts Academy’s graduating music theatre class performance of Sweeney Todd.