About
The School of Performing Arts is a dynamic and innovative department with an intensive and rigorous curriculum, offering full-time courses in acting, directing, animateuring, actor training and voice teaching in theatre, film, television, radio and new media.
Our graduates are renowned for their capacity to work creatively and collaboratively, in both traditional and groundbreaking performance contexts.
The department maintains an international profile, researching and developing the theory and practice of theatre.
Through the discovery and mastery of skills, we enable our students to develop virtuosity. They investigate form and meaning and expand the boundaries of all aspects of the art of theatre whilst integrating their work with creative collaborators. Our students and graduates work at the highest levels of excellence in mainstream drama and have contributed enormously to the development of orginal work in this country.
The Theatre department of the School of Performing Arts at the Faculty of the VCA and Music, University of Melbourne, is located in Southbank, the heart of the arts precinct in Melbourne. Having celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2006, it continues to be of major significance to the development of original work in this country.
The philosophy and practice of the School of Performing Arts, Theatre Department recognises that the training of artists for the next millennium needs to occur within an atmosphere of permission where investigation and learning are inextricably fused.
We believe that such training is best done by staff who are practicing artists; and we require all visiting teachers and directors to be of the highest calibre and to represent all aspects and genres of performance and production thereby giving students access to leaders in all fields.
Students are expected to develop individual and autonomous working methods for their future professions as theatre workers, performance makers, production personnel and performers. Conceptual development is also an important value in the training and students are expected to investigate their craft intellectually as well as practically.
The courses are taught by master teachers with a commitment to learning, a belief in the individual, and a vision for the future.
The specific objectives of the Theatre Department are:
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to train individuals to work as professional actors, directors, animateurs an associated disciplines, and
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to play a significant role in the shaping of our culture through continuing research and development in the theory and practice of theatre.