18th September 2006

NEW WEBSITE for TRR

This new design for The Rehearsal Room website has been created by actor/writer Sally McLean. She has provided a long overdue renovation of the current design and layout. Although there are still many enthusiastic comments about the content of The Rehearsal Room website increasingly actors were finding it difficult to locate articles and information. Since it was established in April 2001 the website has grown like topsy. It now holds over 80,000 words exploring acting process. Easy to Find The new design should make specific pages much easier for you to find when you are visiting the website and we are hoping it will also make The Rehearsal Room much easier to find when using the Internet search engines.

Teething Problems
As the website is so large it has been impossible to thoroughly check all its functions. If you find links that don't work or articles/pages that wont open please let us know.

There are still some additional changes to be made in the near future so keep an eye out for them.

Any Suggestions
A number of actors have made suggestions about what they would like to have on the website. Do you have any thoughts?

MANY THANKS to all those actors who have contributed their views about the value of Rehearsal Room process.

AUDITION WORKSHOPS - A Growing Success
The Round 4 Audition workshop, with Casting Directors Veronica Taylor and Dina Mann, was a huge success. Both casting directors were impressed with the quality of the actors they work with at The Rehearsal Room. At the end of her session, Veronica Taylor (Casting Director with Mullinars Casting Consultants who currently casts 'Home and Away') commented to the group about the consistency of the work she had witnessed during the morning. She complemented actors on their level of preparation.

Richard Sarell explained, "The reason these workshops are successful is that the actors are becoming more and more proficient at applying acting process." Actors can plainly see the improvements they are making. It is because of the practical nature of this view of acting process that casting directors are seeing the quality of performances going up and up at The Rehearsal Room. A number of actors achieved personal best performances at this workshop.

Building Knowledge and Experience
Rehearsal Room workshops build skill in a very productive way. JACKIE RAE LYTHGO emailed The Rehearsal Room in July saying "I watched my tape the other night from the 1st audition workshop to the last.... There's a BIG change!!"

Rehearsal Room actor CAROLINE LLOYD (right) has been doing an excellent job reading for the current round of Audition Workshops. Reading for Audition Workshops is another way that The Rehearsal Room helps the more experienced actors continue to build skill through experience.

NEXT ROUND of AUDITION WORKSHOPS
Actors commenced the preparation sessions for the next Audition Workshop on Saturday 16th September. This time actors will be assessed by Independent Casting Consultant Lynne Ruthven and Nathan Lloyd (Mullinars Melbourne).

ROUND SIX will be the last Audition Workshop for this year with Casting Directors Nick Hamon and Jan Russ (Neighbours) assessing the workshop.

A NEW TV Presenting Gig
SHURA TAFT rang on 24th August 2006 to tell The Rehearsal Room he had a contract with Channel Nine to co-host a Saturday morning kids show with the working title "Kids WB". He will be on air from 7:30am until 10.00am on Saturday mornings with co-host GEORGIA SINCLAIR. GEORGIA has recently trained at The Rehearsal Room. They rehearsed on Friday 9th September, recording their first two shows on Saturday 10th September. Initially the pair will be pre-recorded but once four shows have gone to air they will be broadcast live. The first show will be aired on 16th September.

Since completing the TV Presenters Workshop in July 2005 SHURA has worked hard at finding oportunities to develop his skills and build his experience. He worked on a travel documentary that was produced by Jennifer Adams and shot in India in April 2006. That programme will go to air on World Around Us on Channel 7 in November or December.

Monologue Workshop
The first Rehearsal Room monologue workshop was a great success. The actors found The Rehearsal Room process was very useful and in the course of one day everyone achieved significant steps forward. Actor CHARITY SHAW (right) tried out the techniques the following day at an audition and got the gig. She opens in "Chasing Pegasus (a play in ten chords)" on Tuesday October 3rd at Gasworks Art Park.

Shortly after NICOLE SARWEH wrote - "I want to thank you for the workshop I did with you. I had an audition last Thursday, I used your techniques and the casting agent was moved by my work. He was really touched by what I did and the feedback he gave me was very positive." ANDREA McCANNON is also performing a monologue in a Fringe Festival play "Mayhem in Milan" which opens on Sunday 1st October at RUST Cocktail Lounge in Fitzroy.

Neighbours Producer Visits
Peter Dodds attended the same inspirational workshop at the ABC in Melbourne which started Richard Sarell's journey towards the view of acting process he teaches at The Rehearsal Room. Twenty-one years later Peter and Richard came together again to explore this view of acting process at the final evening of this terms MASTER CLASS. Peter, now the producer of Neighbours, explained the Neighbours schedule and the pressures this creates. He also explored his view of performance process. It was a fascinating evening.

The next morning Paul Cousins wrote - "The insight which Peter presented on the varying topics he covered was awesome. To think of the entire business from his very experienced point of view has made me realize that we are very lucky indeed to have people like yourselves who actively campaign for and represent the validity of Australian content on our screens.

It was fantastic for the whole class to get the chance to work with him and for this I would like to thank you both."

CHANGE YOUR VIEW OF THE ACTING PROCESS
Next terms Rehearsal Room classes start on the week commencing 9th October.

To Enrol NOW (click here) 4 levels of carefully planned workshops from Introductory to MASTER CLASS that allow actors to develop standout professional skills.

TV PRESENTERS WORKSHOP (FOR MORE) commences on Sunday 1st October.