Topics Available:
Australian Drama and Theatre
In this practical workshop students will explore the techniques and dramatic conventions used by past and present Australian theatre practitioners. By embodying the performance styles and conventions used in key traditional and contemporary works, students will learn how these practitioners represent and reflect Australian society, identity and socio-political ideas on stage. You can choose to focus on either Dramatic Traditions In Australia or Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice.
Texts available
Norm and Ahmed by Alex Buzo
No Sugar by Jack Davis
The Chapel Perilous by Dorothy Hewett
The Removalists by David Williamson
Verbatim Theatre
Through engaging with the performance styles, techniques and conventions of the plays, students will explore notions of authenticity, authority and the tension between maintaining truth while creating theatrically and audience engagement in Verbatim Theatre.
Texts available
Talking to Terrorists by Robin Soans
Embers by Campion Decent
Beyond the Neck by Tom Holloway
Parramatta Girls by Alana Valentine
Approaches to Acting
This workshop is a practical exploration of either one or two of the practitioners’ works and approaches to actor training. Through exploring specific techniques and exercises, students will experience the aesthetic and expression of the actor’s presence and relationship to audience engagement. You can choose to explore Le Coq, Boal, Meyerhold and/or Grotowski in this experiential workshop.
Practitioners available
Augusto Boal
Jacques Lecoq
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Jerzy Grotowski
The Voice of Women in Theatre
This workshop is an exploration of plays written by women which give expression to a female vision of human experience. In this practical workshop, students will examine the roles, characters, issues and situations in the prescribed plays and explore experientially the stereotypes and socio/cultural judgements made about women through the playwright’s voice.
Texts available
The Rover by Aphra Behn
Top Girls by Caryl Churchill
Jump for Jordon by Donna Abela
Highway of Lost Hearts by Mary-Anne Butler
Box The Pony by Leah Purcell and Scott Rankin
The Female of the Species by Joanna Murray-Smith
Black Comedy
This workshop is a practical investigation of the nature of comedy and use of humour to explore the human experience of pain, loss, the controversial or taboo. By engaging with the forms, styles and conventions of two modern comedic plays, students will explore the uncomfortable issues expressed by the playwright and how audiences are affected by these plays.
Texts available
The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
The Homecoming by Harold Pinter
October by Ian Wilding
The Shape of Things by Neil La Bute
Significant Plays of the 20th Century
In this workshop students will experimentally explore plays that shaped the theatrical paradigm of the 20th Century. By engaging with the performance styles, issues and theatrical conventions of these seminal works, students will learn how they redefined modern theatre and how their impacts are still felt today.
Texts available
Mother Courage by Bertholt Brecht
The Bald Prima Donna by Eugene Ionesco
The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project 2001
Angels In America by Tony Kushner
