Bachelor of Performing Arts (Stage and Screen)
(Partnership with Actors Centre Australia (ACA))

This subject aims to deepen the student’s understanding of how an individual or a group can more effectively harness physical capacity in performance. It requires the student to apply body training methodology and body mind/breath connection to a public performance of a text-based creation as well as a newly devised choreographed movement piece.

Pre-requisite: VMF101 - Voice and Movement Foundations, VME101 - Voice and Movement Exploration, VMB101 - Voice and Movement Behaviours

Assessment Tasks: Reflective Journal, Workshop Engagement, Public Performance, Attendance 

Delivery Mode: On Campus

Students will explore the creation of character and develop a process to inhabit a character’s physical and vocal qualities, as well as create a history and psychological profile for the character. They will write a monologue for their character and definea process to transfer an observed character into performance. Students will also identify and discuss the physical actions and psychological behaviours of a character in an existing text, as well as identifying inciting incidents, crises and the climaxes of the text. This work will climax in a classroom presentation.

Assessment Tasks: Report, Presentation, Attendance

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject aims to deepen the student’s knowledge, understanding and experience of voice and body in a range of classroom situations. They will be required to reveal freedom of emotional impulse in voice and body, congruent with truthful connection to language and character. Students will further engage with the theoretical and practical aspects of movement for the actor as embodied in a variety of physical disciplines, which may include yoga, Pilates, Alexander and/or the Suzuki Method of Training.In this trimester students will also begin their study of regional accent and dialect in voice class.

Assessment Tasks: Report, Presentation, Attendance

Delivery Mode: On Campus

In this subject the student will explore complex texts demanding the actor to live, in the project, as a character in a different culture from their own. The subject requires skills and knowledge to deal with the intricate psychological and emotional landscapes of complex texts. They will also connect to a deep inner monologue and understand its dramatic use and be required to fully utilise the physical and vocal skills necessary for performance while successfully serving the director’s vision. Students will move vocally, physically and professionally beyond their own interpretation in order to apply the director’s vision in practice.

Assessment Tasks: Script Analysis, Workshop Engagement and Performance, Attendance 

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject consolidates the student’s understanding and implementation of psychological action, emotional release techniques and detailed character embodiment. Investigation will also continue into defining a process of transferring an observed character into performance. Activities will include locating, observing and creating a challenging character from the real world and bringing that transformation onto the stage with physical and vocal precision and clarity. Students will also embark on research into Shakespearean text, beginning their investigation of its linguistic characteristics and using the full range of the emotional potential of these heightened texts. Students will also develop a methodology for reading and contextualizing a performance text, examining the theatrical conventions and cultural assumptions contained within it, as well as devising a performance that incorporates an exploration of the period and text in question.

Assessment Tasks: Journal, Report, Presentation, Attendance

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject continues the student's creative engagement with the vocal, physical and now also musical tools necessary for a professional actor. Topics include an investigation into flexible, dynamic delivery, a variety of movement modalities, the exploration of a consolidation of singing training through research and performance projects, as well as a continuation of the student's study of regional accent and dialects.

Assessment Tasks: Presentation, Attendance

Delivery Mode: On Campus

Students will extend their voice work in performance through the preparation of complex text and master the voice support needed to deal with sophisticated language. They will also apply self-maintenance of a healthy and resilient voice throughout a range of performance activities. Students will use physical resources instinctively as part of the actor’s physical practice. They will utilize principles of safety in a specialized area of physical practice [e.g. stage combat], as well as performed a choreographed sequence effectively and with style.

Pre-requisite:VMG201 - Voice and Movement Genres, VMP201 - Voice and Movement Projects 1,VMP202 - Voice and Movement Projects 2 

Assessment Tasks: Report, Presentation, Attendance 

Delivery Mode: On Campus

Students will develop heightened emotional dynamics and detail in the transactions between characters, explore emotional release appropriate to the scene, play at high speed with high stakes, and implement stagecraft without requiring direction. The subject also advances the student’s understanding of how to prepare for and act a detailed and prolonged acting scene using advanced improvisation techniques, being able to release their energies with detail and dexterity through spoken text and action. They will also plot onstage transactions and devise and perform the scene’s emotional score, with the aim being to deepen and layer the actor’s onstage performance.

Pre-requisite: PER201 - Performance Realism, PES201 - Performing Shakespeare

Assessment Tasks: Essay, Workshop, Attendance

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject explores the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to perform choreographed dance routines, as well as combat sequences. It is focused on the realisation of the actor’s choreographed movement practice in performance. This subject also focuses on the development and adaptability of vocal technique to professional requirements in theatre, film, television and voice-over. Focus is also given in both topics to consolidating a personal practice in regard to vocal and physical self-maintenance.

Assessment Tasks: Report, Performance, Attendance

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject deals with both complex text and cultural idioms, with an additional focus on accents and dialects. The subject requires an advanced understanding of language, style and accent, leading to a dynamic physicality in the delivery of the text. The student will research, analyse, interpret and physicalise the text and character, rehearse the text using effective rehearsal processes, and perform the text in a public presentation.

Assessment Tasks: Script Analysis, Workshop Engagement and Performance, Attendance 

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject explores a number of acting scenarios and learning environments: working on texts for simulated auditions for theatre and for screen in a workshop laboratory situation. Students will analyse text and bring the choices made to life in rehearsal with speed, clarity and skill. The subject also deals with increasing an actor’s personal employability by uncovering and overcoming their personal blocks and limitations, as well as developing skills and knowledge that address the demands and specific requirements of the professional audition process. Subsequent classes will address the more intricate and detailed elements in the actor’s onstage process, including advanced improvisation techniques, being able to release energies with detail and dexterity through text and action, and being able to plot onstage transactions and score a scene with dexterity. Within this subject, the students will continue their investigation into the skills and knowledge to act professionally in film, tv and online media, interactive media and commercial arenas. They will prepare for and film screen tests, analysing the different types of tests they might do and what they might require. Students will respond to direction given during the screen test and work safely and with emotional maturity and consistent focus throughout the screen test. There will also be a number of masterclasses offered in for example, script writing, editing, and sound editing.

Assessment Tasks: Journal Lab, Workshop, Video Test, Attendance

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject explores the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required to demonstrate the development and adaptability of vocal technique to professional performance requirements in theatre, film, television and radio. Students will master the use of their voice for stamina, consistency, flexibility and extended cadence. Students will continue to attend singing classes and acquire knowledge, understanding and experience of singing in a range of public performance situations [duets, solos].

Assessment Tasks: Presentation, Video Presentation, Attendance 

Delivery Mode: On Campus

This subject includes skills and knowledge required for developing audition techniques for the professional actors. Students will demonstrate effective sight-reading technique, make bold choices, and collaborate with a director to identify the director’s vision and to build an empowering relationship. This subject explores the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge required for detailed television and film acting on a professional, film and television context. It deals with analysing, rehearsing and performing scenes for camera or multiple camera coverage. The subject requires a high standard of professionalism and adherence to onset protocols. In the final part of this subject, students rehearse and perform a monologue or scene, from either theatre or film/television, to industry directors and agents in order to showcase their talent, technique and contribution to the profession and to prospective industry employers. Students will produce, in collaboration with a professional director and camera crew a complete, edited, professional show reel for screening at their industry showcase, to maximize employment opportunities.

Assessment Tasks: Report, Showreel, Performance, Presentation, Attendance 

Delivery Mode: On Campus