Yesterday, NIDA officially launched the careers of 117 talented creative artists at the graduation ceremony for the class of 2016. As the graduates and their family and friends looked on, Sydney Theatre Company’s (STC) Artistic Director, Kip Williams, delivered an inspirational address at the very institution that helped shape him.
Yesterday, NIDA officially launched the careers of 117 talented creative artists at the graduation ceremony for the class of 2016. As the graduates and their family and friends looked on, Sydney Theatre Company’s (STC) Artistic Director, Kip Williams, delivered an inspirational address at the very institution that helped shape him.
Filled with excitement, hope and determination, NIDA’s gifted graduates left the building with one of the following degrees: the Master of Fine Arts in Design for Performance, Directing, Voice, or Writing for Performance; the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, Costume, Design for Performance, Properties and Objects, Staging, or Technical Theatre and Stage Management; the Diploma of Live Production and Technical Services; the Diploma of Musical Theatre; or the Diploma of Screen and Media (Specialist Make-up Services).
The ceremony – a first for NIDA Director/CEO Kate Cherry – was an opportunity for the organisation to celebrate their graduates’ aspirations, imagination, dedication, courage and tenacity.
‘Studying at NIDA is a rewarding, creatively fulfilling and life-changing experience. Our graduates will go on to play many different creative roles, and yet they will all have things in common. They will take into their lives an understanding of and an appreciation for creativity. They will understand the power of transformation; they will have engaged with the other; they will have multi-tasking skills my generation can only begin to imagine. They are well placed to foster imaginative possibilities and provide empathetic experiences,’ said Ms Cherry.
‘Our graduates have worked hard and risked so much. We are proud to celebrate as they enter into the professional practice of creativity, and wish them resilience, courage and opportunity.’
Mr Williams said it was an honour to be invited to celebrate such a special occasion at NIDA and inspire the next generation of creatives. He also shared some advice on how to be resilient and cope with rejection, setback and success.
‘Stop at nothing to keep being a practitioner. Stop at nothing to say what you have to say. If you have an idea, do it now. Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity to come along because it never will. You have to birth your ideas when you have them,’ said Mr Williams.
‘In the six and a half years since I left NIDA, I can’t tell you how many brilliant people I’ve seen sitting where you are right now – full of potential, full of promise – leave drama school and not do anything. The actors, for example, that I have employed recently out of drama school are actors that I have seen in independent shows – at the Old Fitz, in an apartment building, in a rundown warehouse. Take the opportunities to get your work out there and be seen.’
Mr Williams graduated from NIDA in 2010 with a Master of Dramatic Art (now Master of Fine Arts) degree in Directing. As Artistic Director at STC, Mr Williams directed the Australian premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica, which was met with critical acclaim. Later this year, he will direct Caryl Churchill’s classic Cloud 9, and a reinterpretation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters in a new adaptation by Andrew Upton.
NIDA Class of 2016
Master of Fine Arts (Design for Performance)
- Gerardo Javier Angeles Valencia
- Antoinette Barbouttis
- Tyler Hawkins
- Sabina Myers
- Ellen Stanistreet
Master of Fine Arts (Directing)
- Alexander Berlage
- Mark Churchill
- Warwick Doddrell
- Madeleine Humphreys
- Carissa Licciardello
- Anna McGrath
Master of Fine Arts (Voice)
- Gavin Leahy
- Amanda Stephens-Lee
Master of Fine Arts (Writing for Performance)
- Joseph Brown
- Jocelyn Alice Farebrother
- Liz Hobart
- Emme Hoy
- Alexander Lee-Rekers
- Peter Maple
- Shae Riches
- Gretel Vella
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting)
- Daniel Ball
- Saxon Blackett
- Simen Bostad
- Elysia Boyd
- Callan Colley
- Phoebe Grainer
- Mark Hill
- Megan Hind
- Kieran McGrath
- Thomas Mesker
- Imogen Morgan
- Ryan Morgan
- Joseph Raggatt
- Wil Ridley
- Giorgia Scott
- Louis Seguier
- Laura Soerja Djanegara
- Annie Stafford
- Angela Sullen
- Nadia Talotta
- Ebony Vagulans
- Ross Walker
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Costume)
- Lauren Hunter
- Naomi Mcilgorm
- Katelyn Schallmeiner
- Nicole Vella
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design for Performance)
- Nicholas Fry
- Genevieve Graham
- Charlotte Mungomery
- Mathilda Robba
- Ara Steel
- Courtney Westbrook
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Properties and Objects)
- Courtney Clarke
- Alice de Groot
- Stephanie Nicholls
- Jacob Stevens
- Jasper Turner
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Staging)
- Kieren Dew
- Joseph Gleeson
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Theatre and Stage Management)
- Liam Barwick
- Kayla Burrett
- Bridget James
- Brooke Kiss
- Ashley Kurrle
- Cecilia Nelson
- Raine Paul
- Toby Rosengarten
- Erin Shaw
- Michael Soul
- Andrea Theodore
- Lillian U
- Thomas Walsh
Diploma of Live Production and Technical Services
- Christian Ayoub
- Ari Baram
- Amellia Bruderlin
- James Elmore
- Orion Jovanovic
- Valentina Krstic
- Grace Llanwarne
- Alexandros Makaronopoulos
- Kajol Naicker
- Benjamin Nicholson
- Sophie Parker
- Culhain Wood
Diploma of Musical Theatre
- Sally Alrich-Smythe
- Jessica Balzer
- Devon Campbell
- Blake Condon
- Sabrina Durante
- Manon Gunderson-Briggs
- Zoe Ioannou
- Brandyn Kaczmarczyk
- Brittany Lewis
- Savannah Lind
- Alexis O’Donnell
- Eadie Pocock
- Louise Roupas
- Justin Rynne
- Cameron Shields
- Brittanie Shipway
- Nicholas Sinclair
- Charlie Smith
- Rebecca Spicer
- Taylor Troeth
Diploma of Screen and Media (Specialist Make-up Services)
- Lily Appleby
- Caitlin Brown
- Joshua Churchill
- Kiara Doherty
- Casey Elder
- Madeleine Jones
- Camilla Leary
- Mia May-Sullivan
- Megan O’Connor
- Caitlin Poynter
- Isabelle Prudhomme
- Josie Williams
