NIDA’s first Diploma of Stage and Screen Performance students presented their skills to the industry and public in a powerful showcase of emerging talent.
Photo: Peyton Sears (left) and Lilly Hatwell
NIDA’s Diploma of Stage and Screen Performance students presented screen tests and stage skills to the industry and public last week in a powerful showcase of emerging talent. The group of 15 performers have spent the last nine months developing skills in theatre, film and television to enable them to enter the entertainment industry.
‘This course has equipped the students with the skills they need to perform in live and recorded works and to collaborate with others in creating original content,’ said NIDA Director/CEO Kate Cherry.
The students travelled from all over Australia, including Victoria and Western Australia. Director Warwick Doddrell worked with the students on live stage work while Director and film-maker Les Chantery focused on screen skills. Directors Egil Kipste, Sarah Hadley and Jennifer Hagan added to the students’ performance experiences.
‘Our aim is to provide specific skills that allow graduates to shape the entertainment industry,’ said Director, Vocational Studies, Mark Gaal.
The one-year course is accessible for people interested in exploring stage and screen acting, and is a new entry point for people into the industry.
‘It attracts people with a range of skill sets including some people who want to complement their existing working space with screen work, for example performers in circus or acrobatics or people going into the fringe circuit to make their own work,’ said Warwick Doddrell.
‘It’s an intensive course, but it’s been life changing for me’, said student Peyton Sears, from Perth. ‘This course is about finding the best version of yourself.’
‘We have encouraged the students to be content creators, because that is the way technology has changed,’ said Les Chantery. ‘The students selected their own screen tests to showcase, which they then filmed and edited themselves. Everything has been done with their own hands. And they have achieved a result that is industry standard,’ he said.
Chantery is confident about the future for performers in television and film in Australia. ‘More Australians were booked to be in pilot television series from material that they sent over from here than were from people on the ground in Los Angeles. Netflix has just commissioned two Australian TV shows � Pine Gap and Tidelands � and Australia is now feeling the pressure to create content to an international standard. I think we are entering our own golden age of television.’
Image gallery of the Diploma of Stage and Screen Performance Showcase.
Register your interest or find out more about NIDA’s Vocational Educational and Training courses.
