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Take Over Our Theatre - We Dare You!
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Three former trainees with HotHouse Theatre’s Biting Dog Theatre Festival are set to leave the Border after accepting offers with two leading tertiary institutions involved in training theatre professionals. Robert Anderson, Ryan Barwood and Katie Skillington have spent many hours in the past four years training in behind-the-scenes theatre operations as part of the festival. Now Robert and Ryan are headed for Perth where Robert will study lighting design and Ryan will study management and production, both at the Western Australian Academy of the Performing Arts. Katie will move to Melbourne to study a Bachelor of Production at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Robert, a former Albury High School student and senior trainee with the festival in 2005 said he was excited at having been offered a place at the academy which had been his first preference. "In 2004 I was a regular trainee with the festival and that’s when I really got into technical theatre and became addicted to lighting design," he said. "I really got a huge kick-start from my involvement in Biting Dog and this year I have also been doing casual work with the company."
Katie first became involved with HotHouse and the Biting Dog festival in 2001. She has won the festival’s poster design competition four times and in 2003 was selected as a technical trainee for the festival. "Up to six months ago I wanted to study performance but I didn’t think I was good enough and I realised I don’t enjoy it as much as stage management," she said.
General Manager of HotHouse Theatre, Bernadette Haldane, said the Biting Dog Theatre Festival had provided a launching pad for those interested in further studies in theatre. "So many kids go into university with no hands-on experience. These guys are proof of how they can excel and walk straight into a place," Ms Haldane said.
In 2006 the Biting Dog Festival will again offer training opportunities to eight technical trainees. The traineeships will involve exposure to lighting, sound and stage management skills as well as significant one-to-one tuition with members of HotHouse staff across a range of areas relating to the staging of a theatre festival. It is expected that each position will specialise in a particular production area such as lighting, sound and stage management. Successful applicants will require some previous theatrical experience and positions are being targeted at age 15, 16 & 17 years. Further information is available as downloadable pdf’s from the Biting Dog Theatre Festival section of the website. Applications close on March 31.
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