Actors Centre Australia is located just off Crown Street in Surry Hills. It is a great location and venue. I recently went to find out a little more about them and join in one of the classes.Actors Centre Australia offer a range of courses for all levels of expertise. They have some highly qualified instructors who love to share their wealth of knowledge and skill.
Scott Witt ran the drop in class that I attended. Scott has been working in stage, television and film for over twenty-five years in that time he has been acting, fight directing, directing and clowning for many theatre companies in Australia and internationally: His credits are too numerous to list here and include: Sydney Theatre Company, Opera Australia, Merrigong Theatre Company, La Boite Theatre, Queensland Theatre Company, Zen Zen Zo, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, square the circle, Bare Boards Productions, Bell Shakespeare, Queensland Performing Arts Trust, Kooemba Jdarra, Opera Queensland, Queensland Ballet, Grin & Tonic Theatre Troupe, someone, JUTE, Tropicsun and many independent feature and short films. Performances Scott has directed have played throughout Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
As an Instructor of Acting, Clowning, Stage Combat and Fight Direction, Scott has taught nationally and internationally. Nationally - Actors Centre Australia, Queensland University of Technology: Creative Industries, University of Southern Queensland, James Cook University, Opera Queensland Internationally - Welsh College of Music and Drama, Mountview Theatre School, East 15 Acting School, Guilford Acting School, Bristol Old Vic, Rose Bruford, Isle of Wight School of Acting, Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art. USA: American Academy of Classical Acting and Paddy Crean International Stage Combat Workshop,
His critically acclaimed adaptation and direction of Scapin (a co-production between Queensland Theatre Company and State Theatre Company of South Australian) received a Mo Nomination in 2004 for Best Theatre Production of the Year. For his work in 2005 Scott received two Matilda Awards.
So, yes I was in good hands, so to speak! Actually that was one thing that surprised me, most of the people who attended the class were male. So, what is a drop in class? Well, they happen twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday, Tuesday is the acting and impro class, Thursday is the short scenes for camera class, both are 2 hours long. Between 5pm and 7pm you register and pay just $30, easy!
I went to the acting and impro class, it was a challenge, I hadn't done anything like this for over 20 years! The theme for the night was listening. We started off with what seemed like something simple we just had to say 'you', then a piece of food, then a city, however we were all working together and you had to say your words in the correct order in the correct pattern within the group, so yes it took quite a bit of practice, I don't think we ever got it quite right! Next up we were in groups of fours on the stage, one person had to copy another person while answering maths questions and personal questions from people either side of them. I thought women were meant to be able to multi-task? Then, we had to guess who we were while being questioned by a group of reporters. I wasn't so good at this, my general knowledge regarding people is not good, I don't read magazines or watch the news much but I did guess who I was! Phew! The task was good though because the reporters had to ask questions so that the person answering could eventually guess correctly. Last up, was my favourite bit of the night we worked in pairs on a short script. We had to put a situation behind it and then act it out, the audience had to guess our situation. This wasn't as easy as it sounded, but we did manage to guess most peoples by the end. It was the quickest two hours I have encountered in a long time, I would go back to the class again. Even if you are not serious about acting you can learn some great skills here and boost your confidence and self esteem.
