Presented by REP Studio
DETAILS SOON
Date: TBA 2025
Time: TBA
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
Information listed here when Dates adb subject are confirmed - early 2025
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.
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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
How to make brave choices: building character in the audition room and beyond with Caitlin Baker and Lachlan Houen — 4 August 2024
"Nerves" and the brain: A guide for actors with Lainie Hart —16 September 2024
Audition Techniques with Josh Wiseman—9 December 2024
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.
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.
"Nerves" and the brain: A guide for actors.
The program taps into Lainie’s knowledge of the brain and functional neuroanatomy stemming from her work as a neuropsychologist. The aim is to understand how our biology relates to our experience of nerves as actors, and how we can work with and not against it.
ABOUT LAINIE
Lainie is excited to return to Directing after many years, and so grateful to REP, for trusting her with this production of Michael Gow’s beautiful play “Away.” With respect to Acting credits, Lainie recently appeared as Zoe Struthers in Echo Theatre’s Bombshells and for the same company as Goneril in King Lear. Lainie has performed in The Street Theatre’s production of This Rough Magic, Chaika Theatre’s productions of The Children and Three Tall Women, Everyman’s seasons of The Importance of Being Earnest, and Free Rain’s Steel Magnolias. Prior to that, credits include God of Carnage for Echo, and Canberra Repertory’s production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. She worked on Lakespeare & Co’s live streamed Rockspeare Richard III, in the live-streamed play reading of Leopoldville with the Canberra Theatre Centre and was a part of The Q’s Stripped program. She worked with The Street Theatre on creative development projects for First Seen - New Works in Progress, on Lakespeare&Co’s Sounds of Shakespeare and their summer season of Twelfth Night. Lainie toured Victoria with Pigeonhole theatre’s Playhouse Creatures. She spent 18 months completing further study and training where she graduated from the full-time program at 16th Street Actor’s Studio in Melbourne and went on to perform in the La Mama autumn season of Survival.
Lainie would like to dedicate this work to Glenda Cloughley, who would have nurtured every step of this creative process with gentle wisdom. My world feels darker without her, but forever richer because of her.
Audition techniques.
Josh has sat on the audition panel for the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for the last 10 years, supporting Australian applicants applying for the Masters program. In this 90min workshop we will cover audition technique for both Drama School applications and Cold Readings.
If you are looking to audition for Drama School Or if you are hoping to secure more parts, this workshop will cover some key techniques to give you the upper hand.
Note: *Please bring two 2-3min monologues that you are prepared to present and work on*
ABOUT JOSH
Since graduating from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK (2014), Josh has been balancing his time between working as an actor on stage and screen in Canberra and Sydney, as well as developing his career in not-for-profit organizations. He currently is the Chief Risk and Innovation Officer for The Y NSW. Since moving back to Canberra in 2019, Josh has worked with almost every theatre venue in Canberra. Notable roles have included; Edgar in King Lear (Echo), Timothy in Hand To God (Everyman), Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (REP) (winner of the Ted Light Trophy for Best Male Dramatic Role in the 2022 REP Awards), Nick in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Free-Rain) (winner of Best Supporting Male Performance in the 2022 Ovations), and Granillo in Rope (REP) ( recipient of a Canberra Critics Circle Award). He also played Thomas as part of BakeHouse Theatre Company’s Coram Boy in 2019, nominated for Best Ensemble in the Sydney Theatre Awards. This is Josh’s directorial debut for REP. It is also his first time directing a play, having only directed Chicago for ANU Interhall Productions in 2011. Often taking to the stage as an Actor, Josh is thrilled to be able to step into directing this great play for REP in 2024.
