Dramatic Licence Can Reach Beyond The Stage

The Age

Saturday June 17, 2006

TREVOR ROBBINS

Drama studies apply to a range of skills and jobs, Trevor Robbins discovers.

THERE'S no telling where a drama major could take you. Susan Bamford Caleo, for instance, has used her 1985 Melbourne State College (now University of Melbourne) bachelor of education degree - with majors in drama and music - as a springboard into many exciting workplaces.

As Melbourne Museum visitor programs officer, a job Ms Bamford Caleo shares with husband Bernard, she delivers activities and programs to engage the public.

The couple has co-written and performed theatrical presentations at the museum and recently devised and led popular workshops at the Immigration Museum, teaching storytelling and performance to children.

Her current focus at Melbourne Museum is organising "Many Players, Many Parts: The Third National Forum on Performance in Cultural Institutions", to be held on October 12-14.

"One of the features of my life is that I don't do one thing at a time - I do lots of things. This is a real skill you learn by studying drama. It's the classic case of having more strings to your bow. I've had a wonderful life so far."

During the past 20 years Ms Bamford Caleo has tackled a variety of enriching jobs - performer, director, assistant director, publicist, tour manager, box office and front-of-house manager.

She also teaches voice and body awareness, drawing on her six months in Madrid studying a technique developed by Vicente Fuentes. She has sung with top Melbourne jazz groups and won the 2004 Fringe Festival Award for Most Outstanding Female Performer.

"The way I interpret myself is as a voice teacher and as a museum worker, but I also do casual work at the Royal Children's Hospital, where I run communication workshops based on role-play as a learning tool for pediatricians on how to break bad news to parents. I've also done role-play sessions for medical exams for obstetricians and gynaecologists. These are great applications of my drama training."

John O'Toole, Foundation Chair of Arts Education at the University of Melbourne, says drama graduates have a lot to offer prospective employers, not necessarily in theatre or drama, but bringing into a workplace exceptional communication, listening and empathy skills and an ability to competently and clearly present concepts.

Most drama graduates will have their eyes set on careers in theatre, arts management and in many sectors of the entertainment industry, but some may pursue careers as drama teachers or in corporate theatre, community arts, public relations, marketing or in human resources.

Professor O'Toole says graduates who have passed a reputable drama course will show prospective employers that they are confident, good communicators with a large vocabulary and good organisers with well-developed negotiation skills. "You can't do drama, dance, music, sports or physical education without understanding teamwork.

"These graduates not only have specialist skills but also valuable attributes. One of my former drama graduates now manages the ethics office at my former university and works with academics and industry partners - a job that calls for very high human relations and negotiating skills."

Before taking the chair at the University of Melbourne, Professor O'Toole was professor of applied theatre at Griffith University and has been at the forefront of drama education and applied theatre for all age groups on six continents over the past 30 years. One of his many books includes Theatre in Education, the first book to be published on the topic. He says most tertiary graduates will probably have five different careers in their lifetimes, so people have to be trained more broadly. "If you bring back the old-fashioned notion of a generalist training, including the creative and performing arts, then we'll have people with better career prospects because they know how to learn."

Professor O'Toole says drama and performance graduates will also be potentially very good researchers because they are taught to ask questions. "Drama at its best doesn't give answers and happy endings, but rather leaves questions in the mind."

"We are bombarded with visual art work and sound which is also highly designed. People are involved in developing presentations, street theatre and tourism using theatre methods. Much of this demands - and sometimes doesn't get - training skills. People need to be trained to do this and that's why I think, apart from careers, performing arts are important in schools."

Melbourne University's bachelor of creative arts provides theoretical and practical studies across creative writing, visual and media art and theatre studies with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary subjects. Students must tackle at least one major study for their degree.

Angela O'Brien, of the university's School of Creative Arts, says many careers are possible for graduates, including acting, arts management, arts criticism, curating, film-making, theatre or film design, digital art, photography, journalism, writing, lecturing or teaching.

Associate Professor O'Brien says the course emphasises communication, research skills, creative problem-solving and lateral thinking. Students are taught to develop their own creative capacities, to analyse and grasp cultural concepts, to understand multidisciplinary connections in the arts and encouraged to participate in cultural events and practice.

She says many graduates have praised the multidisciplinary aspect of the degree, giving them the confidence to explore many areas within the creative arts field. Recent course graduates include Melbourne Art Rooms gallery manager Tilly Morris award-winning playwright/producer Lally Katz and novelist Christine Balint.

A concurrent undergraduate diploma for students enrolled in any degree program at the university allows students to major in theatre studies or other creative arts areas, adding an extra year to their studies. There are also postgraduate and higher research degree programs in the creative arts, including arts management.

University of Melbourne drama course inquiries: Jacqui Denison, phone 8344 8389.

Drama and theatre courses are also offered at Victorian College of The Arts, National Institute of Dramatic Art and Deakin, Monash, La Trobe, Victoria, RMIT and Australian Catholic universities, Swinburne University of TAFE, University of Ballarat and its TAFE division and other TAFE colleges.