NIDA Open has once again teamed up with the Mulkadee Youth Arts Festival for its 2017 edition, sending four of our talented tutors to Townsville for a week of creating, devising, directing and performing during 16�21 July.
NIDA Open has once again teamed up with the Mulkadee Youth Arts Festival for its 2017 edition, sending four of our talented tutors Sean Hall (NIDA Acting, 2000), Sally Blackwood (Directing, 2006), Jack Ellis (Acting, 2014) and Margie Breen to Townsville for a week of creating, devising, directing and performing during 16�21 July.
NIDA Open has been working with Mulkadee for several years now, facilitating drama workshops for young people from North Queensland, building performance pieces, which are shown on the final night of the event at the Townsville Entertainment Centre. Our drama tutors work within a larger team of artists specialising in band, choir, dance, strings and guitar.
The theme for this year was The Journey and our NIDA Open tutors worked from the storyline of Finding Neverland to create theatre with over 100 drama students from grades 6�12.
Each tutor worked in a large marquee with their individual groups and came together to show their work before the final event.
‘We created an amazing ensemble piece that was performed in front of 3,000 people. It featured lots of colour and movement, incredible dialogue and really raised the bar in terms of the audience’s expectations,’ commented Blackwood.
NIDA was joined by an impressive line-up of teaching specialists including The Kings School, Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Guitar Music Ensemble and Sydney Dance Company.
‘When a person learns acting, I think they also learn a lot about themselves. They learn about relationships and how to interact with people. It’s a really important skill whether or not the ultimate goal is to become an actor,’ commented Hall.
Over 1,000 students travelled to Townsville from locations as remote as Mount Isa and Palm Island to participate in Mulkadee, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and the many culturally and linguistically diverse students from the Townsville area.
Our NIDA tutors had a very busy and exciting week working with the young Mulkadeeans and are looking forward to returning to Mulkadee in 2018 for some more ‘Mulka Madness.’
