Presented by REP Studio
Book now
DETAILS
Date: Sunday, 4 August 2024
Time: 5-7pm
Location: Canberra REP Theatre
PRICING
Member — $15
Non-member — $40
Concession— $25
All sales are subject to a $4 per transaction Telephone Booking Fee
ABOUT THE CLASS
How to make brave choices: Building character in the audition room and beyond
ABOUT CAITLIN
Caitlin Baker is a director, dramaturg, and actor living and working on Ngunnawal/Ngambri land. With a focus on feminist narratives, and reinvented classics, Caitlin’s work seeks to interrogate the position of young women and young people at the intersections of politics, sex, and adaptation in contemporary Australia. Her recent directorial credits include Karen Vickery’s new translation of Anton Chekhov’s Seagull (2024), the award winning world premiere of Joanna Richard’s philosophical thriller You Can’t Tell Anyone (2023), and the Australian workshop premiere of Sophie McIntosh’s biting black comedy macbitches (2023), as well as Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2021). As an assistant director, Caitlin has worked on the award-winning productions of Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories (2022) and Kate Walder’s Soul Trading (2022), as well as Cathy Petoczs’ The Initiation (2022). As a dramaturg, Caitlin most recently worked on You Can’t Tell Anyone’s development, as well as Julian Lanarch’s AWGIE nominated How to Vote. She has recently completed her 2023 English Honours Thesis on Sarah Kane under Dr Rebecca Clode. She was a 2022 Canberra Youth Theatre Resident Artist, and her performance history encompasses companies such as Canberra Youth Theatre, REP, ACT Hub, and later this year, Echo Theatre.
ABOUT LACHLAN
Lachlan is a director and (sometimes) actor living and working on Ngunnawal land. Currently undertaking a BA (English) at the ANU alongside working at The Q, Lachlan has developed a deep passion for the performing arts. His directing credits include The Laramie Project (2022), An Ideal Husband (2022) and Mr Burns, A Post-Electric Play (2023); his assistant directing credits include Five Women Wearing the Same Dress (2024, dir. Steph Roberts). He will be assistant directing both The Inheritance at ACT Hub and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Q later this year. His acting credits include Lord of the Flies (2020), Love and Information (2021), When the Rain Stops Falling (2022) and You Can’t Tell Anyone (2023), which won Outstanding Production (Community) at The Ovations earlier this year.
Throughout the year, the directors from REP's mainstage productions will each present a one-off Director's workshop. Topics will be chosen by each director with limited paid spots available for each session. So, if you see one you like, best book in quick!
If you have any questions please email studio@canberrarep.org.au or call (02) 6257 1950 or (02) 6247 4222 - Wed - Fri 10am - 4pm.
Want to be the first to know about Masterclasses? Join our fortnightly eNews.
PAST Workshops
A Director's Vision with Anne Somes — 4 March 2024
The Craft of Acting with Aarne Neeme AM — 18 May 2024.
Finding meaning through emphasis with Kate Blackhurst — 25 June 2024
Monday 4 March
Anne will take participants through the key elements a director needs to consider when approaching a play - from casting and technical design, through to more practical aspects like drafting a rehearsal schedule and developing a lighting plot and soundscape.
About Anne
Anne formed Free-Rain Theatre Company in 1995 and this is the 28th year the company has been in production. Free-Rain Theatre Company was the Company in Residence at the Currong Contemporary Arts Theatre in 1999. Free-Rain was based at the Courtyard Studio from 2000 to 2015. In 2013, the Company staged The Phantom of the Opera in the Canberra Theatre. This was followed by Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and Wicked. Free-Rain has produced Mamma Mia, Pricilla, Queen of the Desert at the Q. In 2024, the company will be staging Billy Elliot, The Musical. Some firm favourites Anne has directed for Free-Rain are: A Street Car Named Desire; Equus; A Month of Sundays; Chicago; Cosi; The Removalists; Brilliant Lies; Guys and Dolls and West Side Story.
Anne was a Judge for the Canberra Area Theatre Awards between 2007 and 2017 and enjoyed seeing artists and companies grow over the years. Since its inception, the Company has won over 70 awards in both local and interstate performances. This includes 7 Canberra Critics Circle Awards and personal directing awards. Anne is Joint Head of the Play Panel for The Ovations which are a new Performing Arts Awards entity formed in 2021 for the Canberra/Queanbeyan district. In 2019, Anne was recognized as an ACT Finalist in the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.
Anne first love of theatre came from sitting in a Riverside Hut where Canberra Repertory performed in the early years. Anne has previously directed two great plays To Kill a Mockingbird and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for REP She is delighted to be joining with REP to present Neil Simon’s witty play about 1960s sexual revolution Last of the Red Hot Lovers.
Preparing the Instrument and Meeting the challenge of the Script and Character.
In this workshop, designed primarily for actors and beginners, Aarne will guide participants through the process of acting- lifting the words off a page and transforming them into a viable character, which in turn illuminates the play.
Numbers are strictly limited. Early bookings are encouraged.
ABOUT AARNE
Aarne Neeme AM has been working in Theatre for the past 60 years. Mostly as a Theatre Director, but also in Television, and teaching in both Vocational and Academic Drama Schools. His Theatre work covers the whole range of periods and styles, with an emphasis on new writing. He has been associated with Canberra REP for some 30 years with productions including: A Doll’s House (Ibsen); Witness For The Prosecution (Christie); The Threepenny Opera (Brecht/Weill); Arcadia (Stoppard); Don Parties On (Williamson); The Pig Iron People (Doyle); Sly Fox (Gelbart); Black Comedy (Shaffer); Tom And Viv (Hastings); Gasping (Elton); Away (Gow); Tartuffe (Moliere); Just Between Ourselves (Ayckbourn); and Enter A Free Man (Stoppard). His recent production of The Gospel According To Paul (Biggins) has toured successfully around Australia. He has won various awards across the country over the years, and the Order of Australia (AM) in 2013.
Aarne is the director for REP's 2024 production of The Actress, playing 2 - 18 May.
Finding meaning through emphasis
An interactive session working with actors to interpret text, play with stress, and discover the multiple ways of expressing oneself through the same words.
ABOUT KATE
As a theatre practitioner, Kate loves nothing more than working with like-minded creative people to bring stories to the stage, and to share them in an attempt to make sense of our world. If that sounds super high-brow, rest assured, she also likes to have fun, play with characters, and drink bubbles after the show.
Since moving to Canberra twelve years ago, Kate has directed Love Letters, Neighbourhood Watch and Blithe Spirit for REP. For Crouching Giraffe Productions, Kate has directed The Penelopiad (in association with papermoon theatre) and an International Women’s Day performance of excerpts from Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife. She has also directed Coda for Shirley for The Acting Company in association with Shadow House PITS, and a couple of ten-minute plays for Short and Sweet. Other previous directing credits include plays Popcorn, Night Cleaners and Blackadder:Bells for Queenstown Shakespeare Trust, and the musicals Beatlemania ’64 and Cribbies for the Arrowtown Entertainers.
Kate wrote and directed Scene Stealers and promenade performances Shakespeare on Location and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gardens in Queenstown, and a Shakespearean compilation, An Error of Comedies, which toured the South Island of New Zealand. For the 150th anniversary of the discovery of gold in Arrowtown, she was commissioned to write a series of site-specific theatre pieces. She has also written a ten-minute play, Sorry, which was performed at Short & Sweet, and published a novel, Mornington Crescent.
Kate was last seen on stage as Gloucester in 1H6 for Mill Theatre in 2023. In Canberra some acting highlights have included Maria (Twelfth Night), Bella (Gaslight), Dabby Bryant (Our Country’s Good) (which won a CAT Award), all for REP, as well as Ann (At Home at the Zoo) for Something Borrowed, Heather (People Inside Me) and Dr Bryce (In Loco Parentis) for the Street Theatre (for which she received a Canberra Critics Circle Award) and Joan (Vinegar Tom) for COUP: Canberra. She also performed in the award-winning short film With Little Hope (Cinema New York City Film Festival Best Short Film).
In life before Canberra, Kate appeared, among other things, as Mrs Elton in Emma, Witch 1 in Macbeth, Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Dionne in Hair, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Sister Jeanne in The Devils, Jelena in Necessary Targets, Lucy in Secret Bridesmaids’ Business, and Jeanette in The Full Monty.
