Date/Time
Date(s) - 09/06/2019 - 10/06/2019
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location
Castlereagh Boutique Hotel - The Masonic Club
The June Seminar is fast approaching and we have a fantastic line-up ready to go.
Please encourage your fellow teachers, senior students and other interested people to attend. At this stage the stated rate is for the full weekend, or one full day (either Sunday or Monday) only, but if there is space for additional attendees, we may offer single session attendance at the door for $80 per session (which is equal to the first timers weekend rate). Due to the expected popularity of the seminar with Anthony Ackroyd presenting, we have booked a larger seminar room at The Castlereagh Inn this year. So please help us to fill the space. We can accommodate up to 70 people instead of the usual 35.
Book your place on TryBooking on our Latest News page or Facebook
The June Seminar will be held at the
Castlereagh Inn at 169-171 Castlereagh Street Sydney.
The seminar program is as follows:
SUNDAY 9TH JUNE – DAY 1 Sessions 1 and 2
9:00 Registration
9:20 Welcome and outline of the day, then Session 1 begins.
9.30 Touchstones – Sharing our warm up exercises old and new.
10:30 The Voices in Romantic Poetry ‘Organic Harps, diversely framed’ presented by
DAVID GILBEY
12:45 LUNCH – not provided. Groups generally find lunch at a local cafe or at the QVB.
1:55 Regroup at the Castlereagh Inn ready to begin Session 2.
2:00 Comedy and Improvisation presented by ANTHONY ACKROYD
4:00 Conclusion of Sunday sessions for members
4:20 Committee Meeting. Please forward any agenda items to the Secretary or
President.
6:00 Gather at “Windows on the Park” at the Pullman Hyde Park, 36 College Street,
Sydney for a buffet dinner and dessert with a complimentary glass of wine on
arrival.
MONDAY 10TH JUNE – Day 2 Sessions 3 and 4
9:00 Registration
9:20 Welcome and outline of the day. Start of Session 3
9.30 Teaching Commedia to inform Shakespeare and modern theatre presented by
ANTHONY SKUSE
11.30 Morning Tea
11.45 DULCIE LENTON MEMORIAL LECTURE delivered by Dr KATHLEEN WARREN
12.45 LUNCH – not provided.
2:00 Copyright – a session to update us all on the changes to copyright that will affect
us. To be led by Sari Erasmus-Hickey.
3:00 Open Mic and poetry discussion to be led by David Gilbey. Please bring along
your favourite performance poems short or long (but not too long). This is an
opportunity to recite, read, listen and chat.
4:15 Special General Meeting – Members were sent an email with information
on the 19th May
OUR PRESENTERS:
ANTHONY ACKROYD is one of Australia’s most successful comedians and speakers. He is currently one of the stars of ABC’s Thank God It’s Friday!, the top rating radio comedy show in Australia. In his stellar career as a stand-up comic he has produced laughter live in front of audiences ranging in number from a private party of 10 to 110,000 at Stadium Australia.
Before becoming a comedian Anthony worked as a busker, actor, puppeteer, songwriter, musician and was the lead singer in the almost famous rock band Albatross.
Anthony rose to prominence as a star of ABC TV’s legendary comedy series The Big Gig and has performed and written for hundreds of Australian and international TV shows, radio programmes, and feature films (he’s even been a question on Wheel Of Fortune!). He was also a writer-performer on Australia’s most successful comedy TV series, The Comedy Company.
Anthony’s impersonation of ex-Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has become the stuff of legend and was described by the real ex-PM Bob Hawke as “the funniest and best in the history of Australian political impersonation”.
Anthony has worked extensively throughout Australia, USA, UK, New Zealand, South America, the Middle East and Asia. He was chosen as one of six international speakers to be featured at Kuwait’s first ever happiness conference and was a headline speaker at the renowned Happiness & Its Causes conference.
Anthony has workshopped material with writer-performers such as Billy Crystal and Rowan Atkinson, and co-starred in the movie Reckless Kelly with Hugo Weaving and English comic Alexei Sayle. He has also written material for Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura character.
As a clown-doctor Anthony spent years cheering up sick children in the Sydney Children’s Hospital. He is a certified Laughter Group Leader with Laughter Club International. He also worked extensively as a Humour Therapist in aged care facilities helping dementia patients.
Anthony was the creator and Director of the Bowral Of Laughs Comedy Festival, a three year project which showcased the cream of Australian comedy including the staging of the official Graham Kennedy Celebration which honoured Australia’s greatest comedian.
In the business and corporate world Anthony applies his unique talents to entertaining and inspiring with his keynote delivery and seminar Stress Less Laugh More. He teaches people how to deliberately and skilfully enjoy, create and express humour and laughter at work and in life in general and reap the rewards. His work in this area was featured on Oprah Winfrey’s website.
Recognised as a leading authority on the social and cultural impacts of comedy Anthony’s articles on this subject are frequently printed in leading publications including the Sydney Morning Herald.
The political satire web shows Political Bent and The Ackroyd Retort Anthony wrote and presented were featured on the websites of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WA Today, and The Brisbane Times.
In recognition of his cultural influence Anthony was chosen to be part of a group of prominent Australians whose opinions on the nature of democracy were recorded for a permanent multi-media installation at the Museum Of Australian Democracy in Canberra.
Anthony is the CEO of the company he created Feel Betterer which helps people have fun changing their lives for the better through high quality online courses and live events.
ANTHONY SKUSE is Head of Performance at Actors Centre Australia. He was Associate Lecturer for Performance Practices at NIDA from 2009 to 2012. Anthony will show us how Commedia informs so much of modern theatre and is still incredibly relevant today whether we are studying Shakespeare or even the most modern pieces of theatre. A not to be missed opportunity with a knowledgeable and talented presenter.
DAVID GILBEY was a lecturer at Charles Sturt University for nearly 40 years and has been the editor of “New Writings” and President of Booranga Writers Centre for 0ver 25 years. David is widely recognised for his work of encouraging emerging writers in Australia and has published his own books of poetry as well as being invited as a regular contributor to publications in Australia and overseas. He has also been a visiting Professor at Miyagi Gakuin University in Japan on three separate occasions, each for an academic year. His experience covers a wide range of poetic styles and he will share his love of the intricacies of Romantic Poetry and help us to see it anew.
David says – “There are many voices of Romantic Poetry – from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience and his ‘prophetic’ The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, through Coleridge’s ‘conversation poems’ and the haunting Rime of the Ancient Mariner to John Keats’ Odes…
…we can hear the polyphonic (some would say cacophonous) chorus.
Romantic poetry positions the reader (and the speaker) differently than previous generations’ poets and has influenced the speaking voice to this day. The diverse voices of Romantic poetry are both more elevated and more intimate, more ‘spiritual’ and more profane.
Partly it’s a matter of what is considered a ‘fit’ subject for poetry—the ‘ordinary’ rather than the aristocratic, the colloquial everyday rather than the heroic. Partly it’s language registers: ‘the language of men’, as Wordsworth wrote—including the language of children, leech-gatherers, demented dreamers, political and sexual revolutionaries. And there’s the validity of dreams and other modes of consciousness—as well, overarchingly, as a new relationship to Nature—awed, attuned, participatory—shaping and being shaped …
David suggests we are made new/breathed/uttered as readers/listeners/speakers by Romantic poetry …David will help us explore the different ‘voices’ of poetry through a presentation and discussion of poems by major English Romantic poets and we will discuss how this might affect the teaching and understanding of the language of poetry to this day.
DR KATHLEEN WARREN
‘The arts enrich our lives. They inspire intuition, creativity and imagination and influence the ways our brains make connections. They prepare us for life because they have so much in common with life’s realities. Dance, drama, literature, media, music and visual arts enable us to understand our world using creativity and imagination. The arts can portray ethical dilemmas, multiple perspectives, personal interpretations and problems that have no clear solution.
When educators hear the term “back to basics” they need to remind the speaker that the arts are basic and are an essential part of our lives.
Children are our future. They need the best education we can provide. This will only happen if that education is rounded and comprehensive. Certainly reading, writing and arithmetic are essential skills in today’s world. But the knowledge skills and understanding that the arts afford are of equal importance if children are to be fully prepared to take their place in our chaotic and ever changing world.’
Kathleen Warren Doctor of Education, Master of Arts (Hons), Licentiate of Art of Speech in Australia, Fellow of Trinity College London
Teacher, writer, adjudicator, early childhood and drama consultant
Kathleen Warren has worked with children and teachers in the field of drama in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, England, Ireland, Canada, United States of America, Holland, Hong Kong, Portugal, Taiwan, Samoa and Sweden. Previously a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University she has also worked with the University of Western Sydney and the University of Newcastle and was for a time a tutor with NIDA’s Open Program, working with pre–school children and with Open Program tutors. She has also been a guest lecturer at other universities and tertiary colleges in Australia and overseas. She is a Past President of the Speech and Drama Association of NSW and is currently editor of the Association’s journal, The Voice.
She is a teacher, writer, an experienced speech and drama adjudicator and early childhood and drama adviser who has published widely in her field and has presented papers, often by invitation, at national and international conferences. She has contributed to reviews of drama syllabi undertaken by the NSW Board of Studies. She is a writer and early childhood consultant with The Wiggles and has worked as a writer and script editor for Playhouse Disney and as a consultant for Asia Disney.
She is also an award winning actor and director in community theatre and is currently an active member of Newcastle Theatre Company She was awarded a CONDA (City of Newcastle Drama Award) for best actress in a leading role for her portrayal of the Dowager Empress in the play Anastasia.
Kathleen is a passionate advocate for the arts believing they enrich our lives above all else.