Drama Biog Blog

Did anyone else go to this? I didn’t see anyone else from uni there…

I watched both the Drama and Theatre Studies shows from today (22 Apr).

And it frikken frikked me out. Everyone was excellent. I spent three hours amongst the beautiful/young/modern watching people I’m sure I’ll see again. I’ve attached the program in case anyone wants to have a look for familiar names/school/suburbs etc. Ignore my notes - they’re just to jog my memory in case someone asks me about any of them.

I’m officially highly recommending the Top Acts day in June. It’ll make your toes curl.

topclass2007-drama-theatrest_p1-2.pdf topclass2007-drama-theatrest_p3.pdf topclass2007-drama-theatrest_p4.pdf

Ok, Hopefully this has finally worked!( If there are several half drafts attached to it, my apologies.)

Well, basically I fell into drama by a series of chance. On a visit to Adelaide my mother sent off an application for a drama school and auditioned and happened to get in and as a result stayed in Adelaide for 3yrs  while I completed the course. I fell in love with my voice teacher, a brilliant actress and teacher called Cath Carter who was our Shakespeare / Voice teacher and as a result fell in love with the way we worked with all our Shakespeare work. Cath had trained in the states with Shakesperae and Co and i had decided to do the same and become a voice teacher, so after graduation I went on to do a mentorship with Cath and started getting ready to go overseas. Last minute I kinda changed my mind and decided to go instead to David mamets ‘Atlantic theatre company school’ so I moved over to new york for awhile and trained.

Comong back to Australia was great, I felt competent and positive and worked for awhile as an actor and a drama teacher and then I started to have a mini meltdown and stopped doing any acting or even auditioning. At the moment I am trying to break out of this and get back into it with baby steps. But whilst I wait for abit of inspiration I decided to study teaching so atleast I can remain in the general field .  Its definetly a different perspective to look at drama from and i am suprised that Im still finding the course as interesting as I do.

Well well. thanks for reading.

Cheerio Xn

“The staffroom by Steve Wheat

…
the staffroom is a play about the teachers in an inner suburban secondary school staffroom – their trials and tribulations throughout the school year.

Simon has just completed his Bachelor of Education. Armed with a satchel of pristine lesson plans he steps into his new life as a secondary school teacher.

As he opens the door to the staffroom he discovers a sacred refuge where teachers – freed of the restraints of instruction, discipline and, importantly, students – outpour their exasperations and frustrations in extraordinary ways. Simon soon realizes that it’s not the students he needs to worry about.

From the creators of The Write OneDotComn – “a comic highlight” Herald Sun
ManWomanSexRevenge – “electrifying, funny, pure enjoyment” The Age
Cloudburst – “funny, titillating,terrific” Herald Sun

Directed by Beng Oh

Venue: Cromwell Road Theatre, 27a Cromwell Road, South Yarra
Dates: 8th to 31st March, 2007
Times: Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 6pm
Tickets: $20.00 adult & $15.00 conc/group (8+)
Bookings: (03) 9517 7302 or at the door
Visit: www.grainfedtheatre.org.au

..Began whilst being brought up mainly by my maternal Grandparents. Both coming from diverse ancestral backgrounds, I came to develop a great appreciation for our family and for values held in high regard at the time of my Grandparent’s upbringing in pre-war Europe. My time with Grandma and Grandad took place in many and varied locations ranging from Australia to the UK, central Europe and East Africa (the latter, where Grandad had been posted by the British government).

I should probably mention that, as an only child, I spent almost all of my non-school time in the company of people 60 years older than me, meaning that the traditional aspects of childhood imagination and creativity were spent alone. But when one is with energetic imagination, one is never quite alone. In addition, whenever Grandma and Grandad weren’t around, sometimes substitution was required (generally a strong female character - like Grandma).

During our time together, I gained a great appreciation for the talents of many ‘great’ actors and actresses such as Sir John Gielgud, Sir John Mills, Lord Olivier, Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Joan Plowright, Dame Judi Dench etc I think you all get the idea. So here we have examples of the kind of talent I shall strive for the rest of my life to try and equal. (Impossible I know, but it gives me an aim).

The other two primary influences were spending time at the local theatre, owned and run by my two great uncles and then ofcourse, there was my secondary school.

I attended a secondary school (the primary school of which I had also attended for the previous three years), with a great emphasis toward the arts. Being a little performer with an affinity with older people, I had every intention of making the best possible use of the facilities on offer, both theatrical and musical.
And so taking part in all plays (straight and musical), available to me was the key to me deciding that as an actor waiting for work as I would no doubt be, teaching with passion and excitement, the performing arts that had brought me so much pleasure, development and understanding seemed the only path to take.

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I have little to no memory of Drama activities at primary school -  I think the most drama education we received involved attending a special showing of the local high schools play. My mother decided after some deliberation to send me to gymnastics (instead of a Helen O’grady class). Apparently I had heaps of energy to burn and I was always putting on dance/singing shows for my family.

In year 7 I found the joy of musical theatre. I was involved in the School Production of ‘Pirates of Penzance’. This was not during school hours. We rehearsed after school on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s from 4-6 (maybe 6:30) and on Sunday’s closer to the show date! I was in the chorus and I loved it! This event lead to many other plays including:

-          The Pyjama Game (my first line)

-          Trial by Jury (my first real ‘role’)

-          Pirates of Penzance (again this time as the leading female)

-          The Three Musketeers

-          Footrot Flats

Of all of these performances only 1 was rehearsed during school hours!

For me ‘Pirates’ was an impacting point – as it was my first every musical and later on my first ever leading role.

In high school I was blessed with excellent and passionate drama teachers. And I think that part of the reason why I want to be a drama  teacher is because I have seen their passion and want to share that with future generations.

I have always enjoyed teaching (dance, swimming, anything) yet straight out of highschool I didn’t want to go into a teaching degree, as I didn’t feel ready. So, with the blessing of my family, I chose a course that involved my passion – Performance. 

I have a huge passion for using drama as a tool for teaching individuals with special needs (whether that be a physical or mental disability or simply self esteem concerns). Ideally I would love to have my own business, working with some of these issues both in and out of the school setting.

Year 12 was an interesting time for in my Drama career, there were 5 of us in the class and we were very close. We talked about developing our own company and touring our performances to rural schools (like many of the performances that we had seen). This unfortunately didn’t happen – as many of high school friends go their separate ways. I think that this cemented the notion of teaching drama – or at least sharing the passion for the performing arts.

Like most girls in this class, it seems, I grew up directing backyard extravaganzas. My little brother, visiting friends, farm animals and stuffed toys were usually willing to participate (or were too scared to say no). Of course, I always played Cinderella etc (insert beautiful heroine’s name here). Needless to say, I can be quite bossy sometimes.

Unfortunately there was no creative outlet for me during primary school. I did a few dance classes here and there but it’s hard to keep up extra-curricular activities when you live in the country and have to travel long distances to get to the nearest main town. I remember enjoying singing in the school choir, until one day one of the older girls laughed at me because my voice was too loud (who me???). This criticism crushed me and I never sang in public again until I was much older and perhaps a little bit drunk.

My parents took me to see Hair when I was in high school and – not just because of the full-frontal nude scene) – that was an eye opening experience! But they didn’t really have much of an interest in theatre or musicals and because of this I’ve always felt I’ve been a bit culturally disadvantaged.

I never participated in a rock eisteddfod or high school musical. It wasn’t until Year 11 that I even had such an opportunity and then I had to make a choice between acting in Little Shop of Horrors or playing in the basketball team. I chose the basketball team (because of a boy!), spent the majority of the time on the bench and consequently had a miserable year. From that time onwards I swore I would always choose the arts (being a ‘thespian’) over sport (being a ‘jock’). And so I went on to study a Bachelor of Performing Arts at the University of Tasmania in Launceston. I really enjoyed my time there but always suffered from a lack of confidence about my abilities. And I was realistic enough to see that if I pursued my dream of becoming ‘an actor’ I faced the prospect of constant rejection and possible starvation. And I just didn’t want it that much!

So I travelled around Australia for a year. And then I just happened to be in the right place at the right time (Broome) and got some extra work on a television show. And then they rang me one day and I thought it was going to be my big acting break but alas, they offered me a lackey role in the production office instead. Still, it was a pretty good gig and I made some contacts and worked on an American telemovie in Melbourne and another TV show in Broome. But I can’t seem to stick at one thing very long, so I gave that all away to move to London and work as a nanny and travel, travel, travel for a year and a half. But then I felt like a change again (funny enough) and came back home to study teaching (something I’d always said I was going to do)….

To tell you the truth I found going back to uni really hard last year and I’ve lost a bit of motivation in terms of drama and teaching somewhere along the way but I’m hoping this year will inspire me to get excited about the possibilities…..

Hi all,

It appears that how I became to know drama and what motivated me to want to teach drama is similar to other uni drama students.  I remember as I very young child dancing around my grandma’s lounge room singing, dancing and swinging on chairs pretending I was ‘Eliza’ from ‘My Fair Lady’.  Probably, the reason why that memory is still so strong is because once, when I tried to do a grand leap using the aid of the chair, the chair tipped over so I landed flat on the floor, giving myself quite a shock!  That was the last of my chair swinging days.  However, I have continued to sing and dance and have discovered over the years that it’s my drama skills that have been a key player in these fields.  Like many, I started dance at age 4 and have never stopped, was in Australian Girls Choir for many years, took speech and drama lessons and exams for 9 years, have played a range of musical instruments and have reached a high level in several, participated in school musicals obtaining lead parts and the list of experience goes on.  The older I became the more I realised that drama is a crucial part of life.  Without the skills of drama I would not have had the confidence to perform and express myself especially in music and dance exams. Even today people say I have good people skills and I look confident even when I feel quite the opposite!  These are vital life skills that drama has given me.  I took drama as a subject all through school and lobbied hard to get Theatre Studies as a VCE subject; thankfully I succeeded in launching this VCE subject at my school and was in the inaugural Theatre Studies class at PLC.  I feel very passionate about pushing drama forward in schools as I know it helps people develop communication skills which are important no matter what field you work in.  I also learnt through studying drama that because we are always ‘being other people’ we become more sympathetic towards different types of people.  Usually the students who want to be doctors of lawyers overlook the importance of drama as they do not realise all it has to offer them.  Therefore I’m driven to teach Drama and or Theatre Studies in secondary schools so I can educate students about the importance of drama and even if their dream isn’t to perform on stage, drama can teach them skills that will make them even better at their profession. 

Jane

I’m just amazed that I’ve finally gotten this thing working!  yay.. Anyway, my shocking computer illiteracy aside, I suppose I’ve always been interested in theatrics and the performing arts.  I was in a performing choir for a number of years (before the choir leader actually heard me sing) and I even attempted a rather unsuccessful foray into dance.  Something I vowed would never be repeated…that is until I get a few vodka raspberry’s in me on the dance floor at click click, but that’s acompletely different story

I was always that nutso kid  in the back of the class rambling on with other like-minded individuals about the most inane things like why isn’t there any toothpaste that’s black and calledgothpaste?  Long story.. This kind of stuff makes me sound very stable and well adjusted doesn’t it?

Getting back to the actual point of this blog, it was only when I got to high school that I really began to explore drama.  I had some really fantastic teachers and some really stereotypical teachers.  Mscoov DeMeurville was hilarious.  She was the kind of lady that would wear mismatched leggings, two different shoes, had more lippy on her teeth than her lips and would often be seen dropping her keys into her tea instead of her pocket.  She was really amazing because she taught us to forget about everyone else in the room and not to be self conscious about the ridiculous things we were doing.  She made us understand that it wasok  to sometimes feel vulnerable in a drama class, and she taught us to combat our insecurities.  My VCE drama teacher was the same, she showed us what it really meant to do group work with very creative and sometimes temperamental people.

Anyway, it wasn’t until yr 11 that I realised I wanted to be a teacher.  My ‘revelation’ as I like to call it, came completely out of the blue, I was just sitting in literature and all of a sudden it was as if a light was shining down on me (ala JD in scrubs) and something just clicked in my head, like a lightbulb turning on really.  Not an incandescent, but an energy saver, I’m all for the environment here.

Well I guess my drama/ performing arts experience began when I was 5 years old when I did creative dance with my older sister at Deakin when it was Rusden funnily enough! I cant really remember much but ive got photos of me holding a big pole with streamers and of the dance group and I think I had a crush on one of the older boys! From then my experience with drama/dance didnt really begin again until high school, I started playing the violin in primary school and played in some string workshops and concerts. I started drama in year seven at highschool and got involved in the school productions from year seven I remember doing the Canterbury Rider and we had to where these sock booty things and as I was dancing I slipped over and was in a ball on the floor was very embarrassing in fact Ive fallen twice in school productions the second which was went to be a fake fall but I actually did fall and my dance partner fell on top of me! So some good fun memories from school productions! For me Drama became my outlet in high school it was the subject I enjoyed to go to and I poured all my energy into it, Drama was a positive experience for me up until Year 11 when we got the worst teacher ive ever encountered, we had to sit in class and do breathing exercises for the whole lesson thats it she was eventually sacked and now I know how to breathe! Id stopped playing the violin and had given up playing tennis, so drama became my passion. In year 12 we had an awesome teacher, he would spend countless hours after school working with each student, on how they could develop their monologue, he renewed my interest in becoming a teacher as it made me see that all students should have that experience during high school, they should have a teacher that is passionate about what there teaching from their own experiences and would be willing to work with them and give them a 100% of their time and dedication and I hope thats what I will bring to teaching! Thanks for reading!