The Real Filmmaking Workshop, image courtesy of AFTRS.
Early experience in an arts rich environment can be integral to childhood development and identifying interests and focus-points from a young age.
According to the Early Years Learning Framework, settings to support learning should be vibrant and flexible spaces, encouraging open ended interactions, spontaneity, risk taking, exploration, discovery and connection. Design and imaginative thinking is a fundamental strategy in experimentation.
This learning should not begin and end with the school semester, mid-term holidays are the ideal time for kids and teens to be involved and immersed within creative and expressive experiences. The following are short courses and workshops that seek to highlight, support and engage young artistic development for primary and secondary school children.
Primary school workshops
The Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) as part of their holiday workshops, offers a range of creative classes for youngsters. For ages from kinder to grade two workshops include Bush Magic, Midnight Mayhem, the fantasy themed Eye of Newt and The Faraway Kingdom.
While for years 3 to 4 at ATYP kids can gaze through the looking glass and enter the world of Alice in Wonderland in Back to Wonderland, embrace diversity in Marvelous Mutants or create a play based on favourite Glorious Villians and Amazing Heroes of all time.
Become a reality television personality in ATYP’s My Reality Rules for year 4 to 6 and for year 5 to 6 Pulling the Strings! teaches students about the technical skills behind puppetry, while Wizard of Oz on Trial and Newsmakers further explores new roles for developing early creative skills, even becoming a mute in Not a Word.
At the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), as part of AFTRS Open kids ages 9 to 12 years old can Create Your Own Superhero! or take their first step into animation in Kids Digi Animation, learning 2D and 3D digital animation techniques.
For kids aged 9 to 12, AFTRS’s Screen Acting for Kids is an introductory workshop for on-camera acting skills. In Make a Stop Motion Movie kids develop their own animated character and story through model making, storyboarding and stop-motion techniques using stop frame animation.
From 27 June to 19 July, the National Institute of Dramatic Art will be travelling around the country with NIDA Open giving kids and teens the opportunity to engage in a variety of performing arts classes.
For kinder to grade 2, kids can join workshops In the Picture, NIDA Monster Zoo, Storybook City Adventures, NIDA Ninjas or Dragon School, to keep busy. While offering creative classes for grades 2 to 3 and year 4 to 5 with parents in StarLight, Star Bright and Bookworm Bites.
For grades 3 to 6 in Sydney NIDA Open kids courses include Spoonful of Sugar: Musical Theatre, NIDAWarts: Screen acting, Heroes, Villains and Spies: Screen Acting, NIDA Reel Life: Mockumentary Making and Auditions and Screen Tests- giving early tips and practical techniques for the process. Musical Theatre Boot Camp will hold classes in Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney. NIDA Drama School, Acting and Screen Acting Boot Camp, Space Travelers: Intergalactic Adventures and NIDA Wonderland Stories will tour nationally in June and July.
Secondary school courses
Comedy
At ATYP, for year 7 to 9, workshop Comedy Through the Ages encourages teens to experiment with different styles of comedy and learn about its evolution through time. For year 10 to 12 ATYP teaches a workshop in Sketch Comedy, where students learn to write their own original sketch, play with improvisation techniques and physical comedy.
Radio
For 13 to 17 year olds as part of AFTRS’s Teens Radio: Get Started Here, students can experience the rush of live radio in the AFTRS radio studio, practicing voice techniques, on-air announcing, programming music and developing their questioning skills to make engaging interviews.
Acting
At ATYP year 7 to 9 students can study and interact with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Shakespeare- A Dream or learn about and act out in their own sitcom in The Art of the Sitcom.
Year 9 to 12 students can hone their screen acting skills in ATYP’s Stage and Screen, while for year 10 to 12 The Outsiders get’s students to perform their own play based around the concept of the human experience on the edge of society.
Learning how to perfect the audition at AFTRS, 13 to 17 year olds can learn practical advice and experience in the three day course Auditions and Screen Tests.
Across Sydney, Hobart, Canberra and Perth for years 7 to 10 and in Sydney for years 11 to 12, NIDA will hold two day workshops for Auditions and Screen Tests, to practice auditions for theatre, film and TV, participating in a ‘mock audition’.
Touring nationally, NIDA Actors Project for years 11 to 12 will teach students the core tenets of NIDA actor training, collaborating with a recent graduate from the NIDA Higher Education.
Touring schools across Australia, NIDA Drama School for year 7 to 10, and NIDA Acting 101 for year 11 to 12 offers a comprehensive course, developing performance skills including improvisation, voice and movement, devising, acting and rehearsing scenes. NIDA’s Young Actors Residency two week intensive program at NIDA Sydney for years 11 to 12 builds on this foundation.
NIDA Open will also hold specialty dramatic art training in Acting and Screen Acting Boot Camp, All Things Screen, Roar Footage: Making Music Videos, Doctor Who: Screen Acting @ the ABC Studios and Hitting Your Mark: Screen Acting.
Musical Theatre
ATYP offers training in The Modern Musical for years 7 to 9, students spend a week exploring the great composers of our time.
NIDA Open offers several musical theater workshops across Australia including Musical Theatre Boot Camp in separate workshops for years 7 to 10 and 11 to 12, in Sydney to fine-tune singing, acting, dancing and storytelling skills, as well as hosting Musical Theatre 101 for years 11 to 12 in Brisbane and Musical Theatre School for years 7 to 10 in Melbourne and Brisbane.
NIDA’s Young Musical Theatre Residency for years 11 to 12 is a two week residency at NIDA Sydney, where students work with industry experts to develop the three core performance disciplines, complete individual and group work, rehearse songs and scenes for presentation at the end of the week.
Film
ATYP offers Short Film Course- Scary Movie, giving students the opportunity to write, shoot and edit a horror film for year 9 to 12 teens.
AFTRS’s five-day Real Filmmaking Workshop gives young creatives aged 13 to 17 a ‘real filmmaking experience’ working with a director, professional actors and crew in AFTRS studios.
Five day intensive workshop AFTRS Trop Jr Filmmaking Week for ages 10 to 15, gives kids and teens the opportunity to write, direct, shoot, edit and act in a group-devised short film, teaching students skills that can be applied to making their own film to enter into Tropfest’s kids film festival Trop Jr.
Screenwriting
In AFTRS’s course Writing a Short Film for 13 to 17 year olds students learn about writing a script from initial conception through to the development of story, including how to create engaging characters and action.
For years 11 to 12, NIDA will host Directing 101 in Brisbane and Writing for Stage 101 in Sydney, teaching skills to direct and write a theatre production. NIDA’S Writer’s Boot Camp for years 7 to 10 in Sydney develops the essential skills required to write a short script, through the principles of practice of writing scenes and creating a synopsis.
Digital
At AFTRS for 13 to 17 year olds, 3D Digital Character Design three-day course teaches students the basics of creating a character from scratch for games or animation, planning and drawing a character and bringing it to life on screen by building it digitally.
Intro to Game App Design for 13 to 17 year olds at AFTRS, teaches students to create their own game application, working with industry professionals to learn the software and design elements of a basic game application.
Costume & Set Design
For year 7 to 10 teens NIDA Open teaches Costume and Design Challenge, learning contemporary design techniques and ways of creating costumes sourced from recycled clothing and non-traditional fabrics.
Costume Design 101 at NIDA enables year 11 to 12 students to develop original character designs for stage or screen, learning drawing techniques and costume design concepts. While Set Design 101 teaches the basics of how to develop design ideas for stage and screen, using model boxes and simple prop construction techniques, exploring set design fundamentals.
Participating schools
Australian Film, Television and Radio School
Australian Theatre for Young People
National Institute of Dramatic Arts
