Dear Meaghan,

if you consider moving out of Sydney to study it would be worthwhile your talking to Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in Melbourne and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) in Perth. NIDA too obviously. The audition circus for all these places is about to commence so you'll need to follow up quickly. They all have easy web access. Good Luck,

cheers,

david

Dear Meaghan

As a staff member at NIDA, I couldn't go past the opportunity of responding to your query.

NIDA is the Australian national theatre school, a centre of excellence in training for theatre, film and television. NIDA's primary role is to select and train exceptionally gifted young people for careers in theatre, film and television. Its full-time courses provide professional training at a tertiary level for young people wishing to work in theatre, film or television as actors, stage managers, designers, scenery, costume or properties makers, directors, voice and movement teachers.

Entry to the courses is by audition or interview, conducted in every capital city throughout the country in November each year.

Whilst I fully recognise that other institutions offer excellent training, I strongly recommend you investigate whether NIDA's courses may be of interest to you.

NIDA courses are professionally effective and graduates enjoy a high rate of employment in the expanding Australian and international arts entertainment industry.

NIDA’s graduates have received Australian honours; have been awarded more than 200 fellowships, scholarships and grants; and have won well over 600 international and national awards, including OSCARS, BAFTAS, EMMYs and film festival awards. The roll of graduates reads like a who’s who of the entertainment arts, and includes Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Cate Blanchett and Baz Luhrmann.

In 2002 NIDA will boast a state-of-the-art new performance and training facility in Kensington, Sydney. The facilities and training opportunities which will be available to you are, in my opinion anyway, unsurpassed.

I would be happy to answer any queries you might have in more detail. Anybody interested in NIDA is very welcome to contact me directly.

My e-mail address is a_moller@nida.unsw.edu.au

c wrote:

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>>"No offence Andrea, but I think that show "drama school" has put people off trying to join NIDA."

The best personal advice I've ever heard given to anyone wanting to work professionally in this industry: "Don't."

Yet it doesn't seem to me that NIDA or anywhere else is struggling to find new auditionees.

You would think that those of us who are working in the industry wouldn't want to encourage newcomers who will divide the pie even further; yet you tend to observe the opposite - the arts community welcomes new practitioners and thrives on their variety and diversity, although we all remain poor. (What's another artist sharing a smaller portion of nothing, anyway?)

I guess some of us can't help ourselves.

Craig

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Hi C

Sorry for the delay in responding to you, I've been away on leave for a few weeks.

I am aware that the public response to the "Drama School" series has not been wholly positive.

I would point out though, that the merits of the school go well beyond the limits of one small, filtered television series. The training that NIDA students receive is unrivalled and is reflected in the 100% employment rate of graduates.

The Drama School series reflected only a small section of the experiences of a few first year acting students. It barely touched on those of the more senior students, or any of the other full-time courses.

The series can't have been all bad though. We have received 2554 applications for the courses in 2002, which is 900 more applications than we have received in previous years.

If you would like more information on any aspect of NIDA, please don't hesitate to write to me.

Regards, Andrea.