15th April 2006

Green Room Award

On Sunday 9th April the Green Room Award for Best Supporting Actress in a musical was won by LISA SONTAG. The character of ‘Frenchie’ in the Arena Spectacular of “Grease” was the performance that attracted the attention of the judging panel.

LISA wasn’t expecting to win. She discouraged her mother from flying from Sydney for the presentation saying, “Nothing will happen.” But she was delighted with the award and the first person she called, of course, was her mother. LISA has just completed her first Rehearsal Room workshop. She found The Rehearsal Room very helpful. "It pinpoints the things you need to work on" she said. Lisa graduated from WAPAA in 2004. CONGRATULATIONS LISA!!!!!!

Making Work

2005 was a fairly steady acting year for PETER DAVENPORT. He had guest roles in – “Blue Heelers” as Leo Pascal; “The Secret” (Channel 9) as Knight; “M” (feature) as Constable Michael; “Academy” (Aus/Japan co-prod feature) as Richard, plus a BBC DVD UKTV campaign (voice) and a Fosters corporate video.

But despite these achievements PETER isn’t waiting for the phone to ring. In 2004 he created a series concept for which he shot a seven minute promo. These efforts attracted the attention of a producer. In 2005 this concept, “Spin”, was funded by Film Vic for script development and that phase is now complete. Recently the script and its producer were in MIP seeking a co-production partner. Peter is hoping to gain a part in the series and experience as associate producer. He’s working at making things happen.

Presenters on the Move
SHURA TAFT, having completed The Rehearsal Room TV Presenters Workshop in 2005, departed on Good Friday for a two and a half week shoot in India. SHURA is co-presenting a documentary on ‘achievable travel’. The documentary will explore the country, the culture and the food of India. It is being produced by Jennifer Adams for Channel 7. Jennifer is also hosting the show. The plan is that this will be the first of a 10-part series involving travel all around the globe.

BELINDA KIRWAN, who has nearly finished her MA in Journalism, has been doing some presenting on SBS for the music show "Noise TV". She is also in pre-production for an SBS doco on the ‘Union Movement and Human Rights’.

The next TV Presenters Workshop starts on Sunday 23rd April.

REHEARSAL ROOM FEEDBACK
Information collected by The Rehearsal Room plainly indicates why word of mouth is such a strong element in promoting these workshops. The vast majority of actors who have attended the classes believe that they get -

• more useful information
• more teacher contact
• more improvement in their work

... at the Rehearsal Room than they do at other classes. This is because The Rehearsal Room has –

• a simplified view of the acting process
• that’s based on well-founded theory
• with effective methods of implementation.

Feedback from actors is consistently high in praise.
“I still use all we learnt in the Rehearsal Room. I do it because it works.” Jules Lund - ('Getaway' Channel 9)

“The Rehearsal Room pin-points the things you need to work on.” - WAPAA Graduate and 2006 Green Room Award Winner Lisa Sontag.

“I learnt more about myself in 10 weeks than I did in a three year degree course at Uni” - a recent student.

SECOND TERM classes start in the week commencing 24th April 2006.
CLICK for MORE information about Introductory, Advanced, Advanced (level 2), MASTER CLASS and TV Presenters Workshops.

NEW on the website – the long overdue Part 2 of ANDI LEW'S interview “The Road to Presenting”.