Black Swan State Theatre Company offers a varied program of theatre skills development classes for people over the age of 16. Each workshop runs over a 10-week period, with weekly evening classes led by some of Perth’s most experienced professional artists. Workshops focus on such diverse skills as vocal techniques and textual analysis, improvisation and movement techniques.

The first workshop for 2010 is 'Monologue Mayhem and Audition Techniques' with Adam Mitchell.

As Associate Director for Black Swan State Theatre Company and Director of Black Swan’s HotBed Ensemble, Adam auditioned over 100 actors last year alone. He sees firsthand the mistakes actors make in their auditions out of nervousness or being unprepared. In Term One of Theatre Thrills & Skills, Adam will focus on teaching actor awareness, tension, audition techniques and mastering the monologue.

Enrolments for Term One close 5pm Wednesday 3 February 2010.

Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Theatre Thrills & Skills Workshops are endorsed by Western Australia's Curriculum Council as a personal development course. Participation in the Theatre Thrills & Skills Workshops will earn secondary students points toward Secondary Graduation. Students wishing to receive Curriculum Council Endorsement for the course are required to develop a personal development folio/journal collating their work during the course. The student must be mentored by their classroom drama teacher, careers advisor or principal, who then marks the folio at the end of the course in relation to ‘evidence of achievement’. The teacher must then upload a ‘requirements met’ grade to the Curriculum Council. Students must be advised that they cannot rely on tutors to provide them with ‘handouts’, but are responsible for gathering their own evidence of involvement in the course. This may be as simple as keeping a detailed journal about their involvement in the classes.

The workshops take place from Thursday February 4 – Thursday April 1, 2010, and cost $275 incl. GST for the 10 weeks.

To secure your place, log on to the Black Swan State Theatre Company website: http://www.bsstc.com.au/theatre-thrills-skills-courses/ and download an enrolment form. Or, for further information contact Alena Tompkins on (08) 6389 0311 or alena@bsstc.com.au.