From time to time, Acting Up invites prominent industry figures to take or participate in our workshops each month. This gives students the chance to meet others currently working in the industry and hear about the industry from different viewpoints. Click on the names below to read a brief biography on each Guest Tutor:
Guest
tutor
MIKE
BISHOP (Actor/Director/Drama Coach)
Currently working with Grundy TV and known for his extensive credits in theatre, film, television and radio, Mike has vast experience in all areas of the Australian stage and screen industries.
His feature film credits include Mr Average, Metal Skin, Ghosts of the Civil Dead and Malcolm. Television credits cover Prisoner, Something in the Air, Stingers, Backberner, Blabbermouth, Neighbours and Blue Heelers and he has extensive theatre credits including Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night and The Hobbit (performed at the Sydney Opera House and Victorian Arts Centre), as well as numerous television commercials.
Mike has worked with Acting Up students on Acting for Camera, from both the actor’s and director's perspective.
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Guest tutor
JONATHON DUTTON
(Screen Actor)
Jonathon is best known for his role as "Tad" on the Australian soap Neighbours. However, since his departure from the series, he has been busy working in London on two series of the UK sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (currently airing in Australia on UKTV) and was most recently seen on Australian television in a semi-regular role in the well-known Aussie series Secret Life of Us.
Jonathon has worked with Acting Up students on the subjects of working as an actor in the Australian and British industries in film, television and theatre.
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Guest tutor
ALAN FLETCHER
(Stage & Screen Actor)
Alan is currently best known to audiences for his role as "Dr Karl Kennedy" on the Australian soap, Neighbours. Alan has portrayed the role of "Dr Karl" for 11 years of the program's 20 year history. Prior to this, he played lead roles with the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) and the West Australian National Theatre, performing on stage with UK theatre luminaries Arthur Lowe, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Honor Blackman, Warren Mitchell and Tom Stoppard, amongst others.
Alan has performed in over 50 theatrical productions, numerous television programs, mini-series and feature films and written and performed for radio drama and comedy. He came fully to the public's attention when he landed the role of "Constable Frank Rossi" in the popular 1970's police drama series, Cop Shop. Various film and television roles soon followed, inlduing his AFI-Nominated performance as "Michael Clayton" in the ABC television series "Embassy", the mini-series All the Rivers Run II and Sword of Honour and the feature films Fran opposite Noni Hazelhurst, Mercy Mission opposite Scott Bakula and Gross Misconduct opposite Jimmy Smits and Naomi Watts.
Alan has also appeared in several musical theatre productions, including Mame, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (as "Brad") and My Fair Lady (as "Prof. Henry Higgins"). Melbourne Theatre Company credits include The Touch of Silk as "Cliff", As You Like It as "Duke Senior" and "Duke Fredrick", Romeo and Juliet as "Tybalt" (also stage fight choreographer), The Three Musketeers as "Aramis" and God's Best Country as "Horse".
He held the position of Victorian President of the MEAA (Actor's Union) and is currently juggling his Neighbours commitments with his band Waiting Room, who have just completed their second sold-out tour of the UK.
Alan has worked with Acting Up students on the subject of the realities of being a working actor in the Australian industry, as well as the actors' union, Actors Equity (MEAA).
To read more about Alan (as well as see some video clips of his work), visit his official site at www.alanfletcher.net
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Guest Tutor
DINA MANN
(Casting Director & Dialogue Coach)
Dina is one of Melbourne’s most sought after casting directors. She began her career as an actress recognised for several television soap opera and film roles in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the 1970s Dina specialised in playing characters much younger than herself in adult-themed dramas and comedies. Her roles in Australian television programs, including several appearances in the Crawford Productions' police dramas Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police, were nearly all teenage characters. Her first television role was in an episode of Delta where she played a 15-year-old who appeared in a semi-nude swimming scene. Mann also played a schoolgirl in the hit sex-comedy feature film Alvin Purple (1973) and was a young female cricketer in its 1974 sequel Alvin Rides Again.
She later played the key role of schoolgirl "Debbie Chester" in adult soap opera Number 96. She joined the show in late 1975 and continued until its final episode in August 1977. She subsequently played guest roles in prison-based soap opera Prisoner, first appearing as the rebellious "Debbie", the daughter of "Ken Pearce" (Tom Oliver), in 1980 and again in 1981. She reappeared in the series in 1983 playing a different character, and made other guest appearances in Australian television series until the mid-1980s.
In 1985 she became the Casting Director at ABC Television Melbourne and during her seven years there she cast several projects including: Phoenix I & II, Embassy I, II & III, Police Crop, The Magistrate, Street Angels, The Four Minute Mile, A Matter of Convenience and The Fast Lane. Since becoming a freelance casting Consultant, she has cast a variety of projects including the documentaries The Good Looker (AFI Best Doco) and Islands, TV series and tele-features Waiting at the Royal (AFI Best Actress), Dreams for Life and The Widower and the feature films Only The Brave (AFI best performance award), Road To Nhill, Crackers, The Missing, Head On, Mallboy (AFI best performance award) and Japanese Story (AFI Best Actress, Best Film 2003).
Dina is also in great demand as a drama/dialogue coach for film and television, working with various respected drama institutions such as TAFTA, The Rehearsal Room, Victorian College of the Arts (VCA), National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and others.
We are delighted to welcome Dina to the Acting Up stable of Guest Tutors and know that students will benefit from her experience as an actor as well as casting director in the area of auditioning for screen.
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Guest tutor
SARAH PENN
(Actor/Director)
Sarah is a recent graduate (2005) of the prestigious Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). Raised on the Peninsula, she participated in several amateur theatre productions and local plays during her school years. After undertaking work experience at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and completing courses at the Victorian College of the Arts, she was well and truly bitten by the acting bug.
Sarah is a qualified primary school teacher and secondary drama teacher who completed her Bachelor of Arts (Drama)/Bachelor of Teaching degrees at Monash University in June of 2003. Earlier that same year, she wrote and performed in a one woman short Commedia play Nonna Unfortunato and has organised and directed several plays through her placement in primary schools during her degree.
Other acting credits include the Monash University’s production of The White Rose in Singapore and Salmac Productions' Chasing Pegasus.
Sarah is now concentrating on her acting and directing careers in the Australian stage and screen arenas.
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Guest tutor
JO RIPPON
(Casting Director - Jo Rippon Casting)
Jo is one of the most experienced and highly-respected Casting Directors in Melbourne, having cast numerous film and television projects over the years including the television series and TV movies Scooter Secret Agent, Fergus McPhail, Wicked Science, Pirate Islands, Backberner, Horace & Tina, My Brother Jack, The Games, Thunderstone I II & III, Ocean Girl IV, Ocean Girl I & II, Frontline (Pilot) and Kelly I & II, as well as the feature films: Parts Of A Horse, The Wogboy and The Hard Word (Extras).
Jo is additionally called on by many drama training institutes to teach audition process from a Casting Directors' perspective, including the highly-respected TAFTA (run by John Orisck) and The Rehearsal Room (run by Richard Sarrell).
We are thrilled to have Jo join us as a Guest Tutor and know that students will greatly benefit from her expertise in the area of auditioning for screen.
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Guest
tutor
RICHARD SARELL
(Director/Drama Tutor)
Richard has been conducting workshops for professional actors in Australia and New Zealand for a decade and a half, working with institutions such as the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA), National Theatre Drama School and the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).
Richard's directing work entails directing 175 hours of Television Drama over a period of seventeen years, including the television series: MDA, All Saints, Home and Away, Neighbours, Something in the Air, Murder Call, Water Rats, Shortland Street (TVNZ), Plain Clothes (TVNZ), Australia’s Most Wanted, A Country Practice, Skirts, Blue Heelers, Law of the Land, Embassy and The Fast Lane.
"Richard understands that for an actor a scene must do more than further the plot - it must explore the relationship between the characters. Richard has a gift for making this process clear and simple. His direction gives me confidence to trust my own intuition, thus allowing the character room to breathe." - Shane Porteous (Lead Actor in "A Country Practice" - Australia's longest running T.V. drama)
"Richard's understanding of the acting process allows character to develop thruthfully and spontaneously." - Martin Sacks ("Blue Heelers")
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Guest
tutor
MARISA WARRINGTON (Stage & Screen
Actress)
A graduate of the National Theatre Drama School (Melbourne), Marisa is probably best known to Australian and UK television audiences for her regular role as "Sindi Watts" on Neighbours. Less well known is her training with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in Stratford on Avon and The Barbican Theatre, London and with The Actors Centre and Cicely Berry, also in London in 2000, as well as her work playing lead roles with the Australian Shakespeare Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC).
On stage, Marisa has played "Hermia" in A Midsummer Night's Dream (for three seasons), "Viola" in Twelfth Night and "Juliet" in Romeo and Juliet. She has also played the leads of "Nicki" in the Melbourne Theatre Company's production of The Recruit, "Sharon" in Bay Street Productions' For Better, For Worse and "Eva Braun" in Acorn Productions' Summit Conference, amongst others.
More recently, she has played the roles of "Columbia" in The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Regent Theatre, Melbourne and played a lead role in The Inner Sanctum by Adam Zwar for La Mama. She has even branched into radio and hosted the Australian Top 40 on the Austereo Network.
On screen she has played the recurring role of "Lara" on Blue Heelers, was a regular on The Eric Bana Show, played the guest characters of "Robin Dawson" and "Wendy Scott" on Neighbours (prior to her reincarnation as Sindi!) and was a regular on Good Morning Australia. Marisa's television commercial roles include ads for Telstra, Tennis Australia, Mitsubishi, Helga's Bread and Maconna Coffee.
She is also actively involved with the charities Whitelion, Guide Dogs Victoria and Scope.
We are delighted to welcome Marisa to the Acting Up team and are sure students will benefit from her extensive knowledge of both screen and stage performance.
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