Drama Biog Blog

Hi everyone, I am April. My story…hmmmm…well since I was a very young girl, I always wanted to be a dancer, I used to dance around the room, putting on concerts for my family, etc. So when I was six my mum finally brought me to my first dance class, and that was it, I loved to perform. I loved being on stage, it was my place, somewhere I could express myself, because although I felt I was free when performing, I was very shy within the school yard.

This passion for dance has never stopped, my passion for drama however I did not truly discover until I was in university. I studied drama in High School, in Yr 8, 9 and 10, and did various plays as part of this, but I was still very shy, and a bit insecure. I was very conscious of people judging me, this was perhaps because drama in high school was not viewed as something to take seriously, and most of the students shared this same view. So although I enjoyed drama in high school, I was not passionate about it. However this changed when I came to Deakin.

I auditioned to get into dance and as part of this it was compulsory to audition for drama as well. I was really really scared, I had never done any ’solo’ acting before, but I thoroughly enjoyed the audition, and people laughed, and appeared to enjoy my performance. When I found out I got in, I was really happy.

Over the next few years, although my major was Dance, I got to share in some fantastic drama moments, great plays, wonderful people and teachers, and a fantastic atmosphere to learn in. I also found that although it was hard at first, I became more confident, not only as a performer but as person as well. I feel that drama has assisted me in becoming a teacher, as it has allowed me to discover the joy in talking to people, in wanting to communicate, and not being afraid of what people may think. I now love meeting new people, and learning from each person I meet, which contributes to my love of teaching.

Through this new confidence I began teaching four years ago. I now teach for two dance companies, sometimes running drama programs within these, and I love it. This is how I discovered what I really wanted to do with my life - teach.

Thanks, see you in class!

April Bryceland.

Although you may not know it to look at me, I have ADHD. When I was much younger I was a bit full-on, and my mum thought ‘what better way to exhaust a child than throwing them into a drama school!’ Thus, I was introduced to the world of performance.

As time went on, school and my dramatic extra-curricular activity became more and more diametrically opposed. In year 10 I quit the drama-school to ‘focus on my studies’ of a distinctly mathematical and scientific flavour.

It was some time before drama again entered into my life. It occurred when I volunteered to help run a Christian kids holiday program (on a team with about 45 other leaders). We had the choice between being involved in the music team or in a serial drama that ran every night of the program. I chose the drama.

It was there, at an open theatre that drama found me again. Apart from my continued involvement with the kids holiday program, I continue to write, direct and act as often as often as possible. I love dramatic performance and the expressive medium that it is.

My involvement with drama in Tertiary studies has been varied and has affected me deeply as an artist and a person (but would take me quite severely over the approx. 300 word count). One specific thing that has affected and inspired my take on drama occurred during my second semester at Deakin ‘Modern and Postmodern Drama’. It was there that I was introduced to… and fell in love with Antonin Artaud. While I do not agree with him on every point, a couple of things have stuck with me… his unbridled passion for the theatre… and his concept that the theatre is like a boil to society, ‘it brings whatever would have remained noxious, hidden and festering to the surface- and expels it’ (1977 p. 19)

Yours truly,

Timothy Richards

Oh… I suppose I should provide the reference :S

Bermel A., 1977, Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, Taplinger, New York

I was hyperactive as a kid. Mum said that as soon as she put my clothes on, I’d take them off. I just liked to be out there, naked. I used to talk a lot. The reason Mum got me into acting was that I was so chatty. I’d travel on a train somewhere and would have the whole carriage talking to me by the end of the trip. I traveled to Perth by myself once to visit relatives, and chatted to everyone on the plane that by the end of the flight I had the whole row playing Eye Spy. I was six.

So i have never written a blog (not really sure what one is). But here is my story (fairly boring and cliche about an inspirational drama teacher) =
From a young age i always wanted to be a perfomer or persue something to do with acting. I guess that i never really thought twice about it, from as long as i can remember, i just assumed that i would be a perfomer. As a child i was always confident and outspoken. I was always the class clown and i got on with most people. However, the transition to highschool was an awkward one and my extraverted and confidence seemed to plummit. I became a quiet student - which was unusual for me - however, i found that in drama classes i couldn’t help but get involved with the work. During the middle years of high school, my academic life wasn’t my top priority as much as having lots of friends were and i lost sight of what i really wanted to do. However, drama was always a subject that i enjoyed and felt i was good at.
As i got older, i began to realise that i needed to make a decision about what i wanted to do with myself when i left school. In year ten, we were introduced to a new drama teacher who inspired me to persue my dreams of performance (i know it’s very cliche) She brought the life to the perfomring arts department that it had lacked for so long. From year ten and all through my VCE drama was my main priority and year twelve i was given the lead part in our school production. During VCE i regained the confidence whihc i lost years before and i began to find my true self again.
So why teaching? Well, after directing a play for a house drama festival in year twelve, i don’t believe that i have the patience for this job..however, i do have a feeling that i will be able to help students as my teacher helped me. Also, in year twleve i had an absolutely horrid english teacher who slammed a door in my face who i despised intensely. She is another reason why i want to teach…i believe that students deserve teachers that see them as equals, not as inferiors as my old, and horribly wrinkly english teacher did.
I hope that this course leads me to where i should be…

The first indication that I would pursue perfoming arts was in a kinder nativity play. I was to be an angel And of course, it was a complete stretch. Although I was sick with Chickenpox and supposed to stay away from the other children, the Kinder teacher pleaded with my mother to allow me to perform. Apparently I was the only one who knew all the words and sang louder than any other angel (not at all precocious!). Well, I performed - spots and all. My parents and neighbour suppressed hysterical laughter throughout the entire performance. I was indeed the loudest and very bossy on stage, leading the other angels (a couple of little boys dressed in white sheets with tinsel halos).
I was forever the exhibitionist when I was younger, playing “make-believe” with family and friends and making family sit through a number of “home-performances”.
This love for performance led on to many experiences within and outside of school (prim,sec,tert). The first of these was Dance (especially ballet). From free physical expression to music, to technical training, professional performances and overall appreciation of the artform continuing into early adulthood.
Then I tried singing - school choirs, productions, Aust Girls Choir, private tuition, exams, amateur productions, university musical procuctions, concerts, recording, collaborative works, etc - ongoing training and development in classical, contemp/music theatre and alternative genres/styles. Hoping to gain “employment” and paid more for it than mere profit-share Anyway, this is not a CV…
Acting/Drama seemed to be a natural progression from previous experiences and interests. I began my “exposure” to Drama in high school. However, I might just say here that I believe Drama, Dance and Music are inextricably linked (although specific skill/technical training is required for each, they all inform/enhance one another). The high school drama room was a space for lots of things (much of it seemed little to do with Drama…or was it?… until VCE). Throughout high school I performed in the musicals (directed by our Drama teacher). Although “performance”/outcome-orientated, these were great experiences - building confidence, developing skills, showing off skills and making friends across year levels. Drama in the classroom really became interesting for me during VCE. I found the excursions, discussions and writing (both reviewing and creative) really made me think about the elements of Drama and how they might be most effectively used.
During Yr 12 I was also trying to complete a part-time Muscal Theatre Course at The National, St Kilda (however, the dreaded glandular fever put a stop to this). This course was most beneficial for me at that age. I believed I was doing “the real thing”, away from school, amongst a range of adults. Also, it was utilising and developing my three areas of interest; Drama, Dance and Singing (music) in a way that school didn’t/couldn’t. It was here that I began to realise how linked they actually are.
Post-school, I completed a Bachelor of Performing Arts, Monash Uni (Major Drama, minor English- wanted to do music rather than English, but realised I was crappy at music theory, and was vaguely thinking of teaching methods as a crutch for a failed performing arts career). Although the academic side of Drama is valuable and interesting, I craved more practical experiences of performance (one might say “play”?). I did a number of Uni productions (course-related/student theatre). After graduating, I stopped academic pursuits for a few years - worked in diff. jobs, including a long stint in the medical environment. During time away from Uni I performed in a number of shows (mainly musical-related) and worked a few times as a Stage Manager for a Music Theatre Program (for adults with intellectual disabilities). There were a couple of valuable experiences of collaboration - both writing and performing new works. These revealed the hard work required, and educated me on what to do/not do when involving other people.
I clearly still want to “perform” and develop my understanding and skills in Drama/theatre. I believe teaching Drama will simultaneously inform/develop my students AND myself. Hopefully it will be a reciprocal learning environment There’s still heaps to learn. My experiences in education and performance/arts have enriched my life, but also humbled me somewhat from my “exhibitionist-angel” beginnings. There’s more to it now than just being the loudest

To make my long story brief i was a shy low marking student until drama came along. Encouraged by my teachers, drama class gave me confidence amongst my peers and helped my studies and class participation across the board. Instead of being the invisible student i actually voiced my opinion to teachers and peers. It fostered my imagination and showed me that i was actually good at something. So with this came a great passion in theater and film. My school which was focused on sport finally started to pump large amounts of funds into the arts. So when i entered year 10 and VCE we had state of the art facilities and teachers to match. We went on many excursions, this taste of live theater gave me confidence to see theater on my own. My major turning points were my Drama year 12 CAT and the school musical. With the CAT i took risks artistically and received a rewarding mark to match and the school musical showed me the fun of an ensemble and the thrill of an audience.

Funny enough i still greatly fear going on stage, and i still get really nervous but once a performance starts i don’t want to stop and the feeling of accomplishment afterwards is reward enough.

From year 12 i went to Deakin as a drama major and all of my other electives in contemp arts where media because my original ambition was to be a film maker. The people i met there teachers and students alike were more important than the classes when i think back. It was the little conversations in between class that helped me think deeply about the theater. After Deakin ended i decided to try the whole acting full-time thing, which after a few hits and many misses and many shit kicker jobs i wanted a stable income (teaching) which had a relevance to all of the experiences i acquired over this time. So here i am.

I have always been extremely musical and have been stongly influenced by my older siblings passion for the Arts. I remember singing “Chim, Chiminey” from Mary Poppins with my (still my best friend) Joey at kinder, and both of us loved knowing all the words to Pirates of Penzance. “Dressing Up” was always a massive part of growing up and performances to our parents were always a must. I think we learnt most about economics and others’ opinions through our performances, and being able to express personal opinions about perfomances in our family were always encouraged. So long as we could justify our opinions sufficiently, it was encouraged. Going to a single sex boys school from Prep to Y12, Drama was never greatly accepted as part of the learning curriculum, however, there was a Musical performance every second year, and a theatrical straight-play on the alternative year. So there was an avenue to performance at my school, but it wasn’t until about 1997 that Drama became as equally important to our school as Academic and Sports performance. On the lighter side of performance, Drama was a great way for us heterosexual and developing boys (at a Private Boys School) to socialise with the developing girls at our sister school (a Private Girls School). Some of the relationships I made then, I still retain now. It was an important social status for us (*drama fags*) to be seen laughing and socialising with these beauties from the sister school. Our headmaster and our year level helped break down the stereo-typical views that drama carries with it at an all-boys school.
I honestly believe though, that drama and performance is such an important part of development, and I also believe that it is the most beneficial skill in working through the difficult transistion from childhood to adulthood. I have made some of my favorite friends through my theatrical experiences. It has also helped shape my opinions on the actions of the world around me, and helped me be more accomadating and accepting of others views and opinions.

To aspire to become someone you dearly look up to is an unreachable thought and a painful process…… well, so i have seen and therefor learnt.

So i have decided not to aspire but rather, take the lead….

A very tall and quite exuberant women in her early twenties enters the quad- trangle with a look of the new and unexpected in her eyes.She wears khaki green cargo pants and a pre-loved pink tee-shirt,and walks as though she is on a life saving mission, perhaps she was…. trying to save the youth that awaited her arrivel from the ever draining and painstakling long classes of math and sci..

My next vived memory, then begins with the four of my closest and troublesome friends, hanging out of the two story building window yelling nothing but hate filled taunts and names directed at her…. well she was new and that therefor put her straight into the ‘fresh meat” catagory…

Melissa Latham or “Mamma” as she was later called had saved me from a life of being led by the damaned and doomed… yeah, i was mean and resentful, but she saw past that and gave me a sense of pride a worthiness… she let me into a world were i could be expressive and crative without the sick feeling of getting something wrong..”Mamma”, shone a light into many different aspects of the performance world to me, not just the stage, lights and make-up. She also showed me that as a teacher you could also be human and show emotion, concern and feeling.

One day “Mamma” decided to take a handful of students (me included) and show them her place of tertiary tuiton….Deakin Uni… i was in awe…so excited and so ready…From that day i vowed to be as inspirational as she had been to me… if i could touch one students life then i would be worthy to be called a student of Melissa ‘Mamma” Lathem.

My last cousre at V.U.T enabled me to become more then just a preformer, rather a performance maker… i adore the fact that i can quite confendlty put on a performance with meaning along with a dash of crativity.. i am not that grat with many things this academic life has to offer but with the few i am, i plan on doing well and with every passionate bone in my body

As virtually an only child, often left to my own devices, I revelled in pretending-games around the farm. When my dad and brother built me a cubby house for Christmas they even put in a blackboard for me (how did they know?) and it turned out my toys were quite bright (excellent at subtraction).  Most days I would prance around the house or garden being the hero, or the princess, sometimes the one who got killed off (and mourned for decades), and even occasionally the villain, resiliently believing that no-one could hear me re-enact The Princess Bride behind closed doors.

My private high school had an excellent drama teacher – Anne Holt – who generated excellent school plays and was beyond the appreciation of year 7s and 8s, but she was poached before I hit the senior years.  She was a classic tie-dye hippy, regularly having to wake students from the relaxation ‘warm up’.  I fondly remember the oral exercises Red Leather Yellow Leather and, the classic, “Please Sir, can you tell me where to park my car?” “Yes Sir. Here, Sir, where all the parked cars are.”

I wasn’t a popular person during school, and I found that when on stage everyone had to be quiet and listen.  The empowerment was addictive and I intended to be an excellent actress (or a director, if desperate) so that I could command that attention on cue.  Performing arts weren’t offered beyond year 10, so I left for a larger state school.  There I found that I could branch out, becoming a stage manager and assistant director for school musicals as well as performing roles.  In these jobs I was given responsibilities and authority like never before, and again felt much empowered and very important.

Even though I applied to lots of courses, including teaching degrees, I got into Rusden by an audition-only process and took it as a sign that I should go on with a course that included acting.  Unfortunately it was very rare that I was proud of my acting efforts, but I was proud of my production tasks and dance work.  In acting I was even given pivotal, risky or challenging roles (only once did I get to play someone who was both my age and gender) and still I dropped the ball by not committing to any ideas I had: I was too gutless.

I haven’t attempted any drama since uni, and certainly haven’t been paid for any acting work.  I may be a confirmed extrovert and a comfortable public speaker, but,as far as drama and acting go, I’m petrified of being found out as a fraud.  Nevertheless I still have faith in drama as a crucial element of education. My greatest hope is that I will be able to use drama and theatre for

• fun and creativity,
• teaching areas like English, history and personal & social skills and
• helping people in the ways so many other forms of expression can’t fulfil.

The first thing I remember doing for Drama was in kinder. I was in a few performances none of which I can recall any specific details of, the sole exception is the faint recollectioin of a Kick ass Christmas Tree costume I wore in one play.
Drama in Primary school was, I believe, largely forgotten. However in year 6 my class got a new teacher to the school. this teacher was younger than any we had ever encountered, she also insisted we call her by a nickname. This teacher proposed that wwe would make a puppet theatre stage. I remember being very exited about helping design the theatre. my friends and I spent some lunchtimes writing plays, these were built around the various animal puppets we had in the classroom.

I was very exited to begin High School, the chance to be in ACTUAL DRAMA CLASSES, this would have to be cool.
I was very popular in drama class, I could come up with a scene fast and assign roles and even give lines to people straight away. this meant that for those who didnt really want to do drama (the vast majority) I was the best person to be in a group with because I told them what to do so they didnt have to work at it.
Year 10 drama was an elective and so (in theory at least) only people serious about drama were in attendance. The final assessment task rolled around and I was ill prepared. I had to improvise a solo performance and to my great shock I got an A+ (this may be because I was playing a paranoid schitzophrenic while I was in fact having a legitimate panic attack of sorts on the stage).
Going into year 11 noone wanted to do Drama. I was desperate, my parents complained to the school and after much whining and bitching I was granted the right to do year 12 drama instead. This arangement was not without its compromises. The drama teacher would let me in the class, however I had to complete all the year 11 drama theory work over the holidays. So I spent an immense ammount of my holidays studying by myself.
I presented the work on the first day back at school and never saw it again. it was never reffered to in any detail in class and my fellow Drama students (all year 12), when questioned about it were astonished that I had learned these things that they said had only been mentioned in passing and “you never need to learn”.
Anywho finished year 12 drama with decent results. Also participated in a school musical, played several minor roles, one of these was a scene stealer and i became famous around school.

University, Bachelor of Creative Arts, Performed in the fringe festival in a performance piece, random pieces of drama we made in class. I was doing English at the same time and studied creative writing and Shakespeare whenever possible. I performed in a few more performances including “tales from vienna woods” (tried to upload cast photo) and “life after george” the latter being a student directed and performed production, also my final Uni production.

University, Bachelor of Teaching (Primary and Secondary), On placement have taught many lessons on\with drama. One lesson I did on costume remains among my fondest memories of last year.

Thats about it but I always like to end a post with a pop culture reference so here is one to think about in relation to performance,
“Do or do not, there is no try”- Yoda