Actors College of Theatre and Television

TUTORS

ACTT draws on the finest professionals in the performing arts. These practitioners bring to ACTT their extensive experience and a strong desire to mentor and train the next generation (and the current one) of performing artists and crew. Collectively ACTT tutors provide a very supportive and mature environment for students to develop their talents and have a fabulous learning experience. ACTT’s administration team also has many years experience in both arts administration and performance and understand the needs of performing arts students.

LESLEY WATSON – FOUNDER AND COLLEGE DIRECTOR

Lesley has over 20 years experience in actor training and management. Lesley developed the college’s teaching philosophy based on nurture, challenge and innovation drawing together the most talented and dedicated team to create ACTT’s sophisticated training systems. As the Artistic Director of The Imagine Festival and the creator of the Actor as Artist program, Lesley’s passion for generating opportunities that bridge the gap between actor training and the profession have helped inspire and support the careers of graduates and practitioners alike.

JOHN O’HARE – HEAD OF ACTING

John is well known as a practising professional actor and director. John has taught and-or directed at all leading acting schools in Australia and many overseas. Acting credits include Wildside, GP, Heroes, Blackrock, Long Road to Heaven and Rogue Nation. He is also co-artistic director of the acclaimed theatre company, O’Punksy’s. At ACTT his passion for actor training has led to the merging of Morris and Meyerhold to create the ‘ACTT System’.

FIONA MALONE – CURRENT HEAD OF MOVEMENT

A graduate of the Postgraduate Diploma in Movement Studies (NIDA), Fiona has been the BioMechanics tutor for The Actors College of Theatre and Television since 2007. Known for her innovative cross media productions, Fiona is an award winning choreographer who had a long international career as a contemporary dancer before expanding her skills to train and choreograph for Actors. Her recent Theatre credits include working for Sydney Theatre Company on productions The Wonderful World of Dissocia and Concussion and with mentor Gavin Robins for The Bell Shakespeare Company on As You Like It

GAVIN ROBINS – MOVEMENT ADVISOR

Gavin is Australia’s leading tutor/director of movement and a Meyerhold expert. Gavin is the Director of Movement at the Sydney Theatre Company and Associate Director with Bell Shakespeare Company. Gavin’s work was acknowledged when he became the recipient of the 2006 Churchill Fellowship.

KHRISTINA TOTOS – SCREEN ADVISOR

Khristina is Sydney’s leading screen acting tutor and has worked nationally and internationally as a director, actor, script editor, producer and acting coach. Her acting credits include All Saints, Going Home, Wildside, Crocodile Dundee and with the famous British director Mike Leigh in Greek Tragedy.

TONY YOULDEN – HEAD OF PRODUCTION and TECHNICAL DIRECTOR CLEVELAND ST THEATRE

Tony’s involvement with the theatre spans over forty-fi ve years. Tony has worked as a freelance designer for most of Australia’s performing arts companies. He has lit over four hundred theatre, opera, and ballet productions. He was Technical Director at NIDA for over sixteen years and now brings a lifetime of experience to ACTT’s students and productions.

SEAN O’RIORDAN – CORE SUPERVISOR

Sean, originally a journalist, retrained as an actor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, UK and worked extensively in touring theatre in the UK before arriving in Sydney. Working as a teacher, director, actor and writer with his company BARESTAGE he has created a number of Sydney productions including the critically acclaimed MIXD DRINX. At ACTT he teaches and directs across a number of courses and is supervisor and acting teacher for both part time and fulltime Core courses.

GLEN HAMILTON – CORE SUPERVISOR

Glen has worked as an actor and director in both theatre and television, and is the co-artistic director of Poignant Productions, which works with some of Australia’s biggest companies. He is also the founder of Leading Arts, for which he writes, produces, performs and directs.

RUSSELL SMITH – SINGING & VOICE TEACHER

Russell Smith has worked as an actor, singer, musician and voice coach in Ireland for the past 15 years. In this class he will draw specifically on his extensive experience of the ground-breaking experimental Roy-Hart-Theatre of Voice in France with its unique approach to voice, developed by Alfred Wolfsohn and later applied to the theatrical context by Roy Hart and his colleagues.


The team above is supported by many professionals and tutors, specialists in their field who are highly regarded in the industry. Current professionals include:
Acting: Sam Atwell, Michael Bates, Winston Cooper, Kate Hankin, Deborah Jones, Angela Kennedy, Camilla Ah Kin, Tracy Mann, Lex Marinos, James Millar, Aarne Neeme, Steve Rodgers, Jo Turner, Lani Tupu
Body and Movement: Laurence Clifford, Virginia Ferris, Fiona Malone, Caroline Mooney, Kyle Rowling, Chris Ryan
Voice and Singing: Michaele Archer, Julia Davis, Clare Heuston, Carmen Lysiak, Brendan Monger, Jane Richardson
Screen and Stage Direction: Cameron Davie, Patrick Dickson, Victoria Haralabidou, Stephen Helper, Pete Nettell, Susie Porter, John Sheedy, Maeliosa Stafford, David Whitney

Over the years ACTT's work has been supported by many local and internation professional artists including:
Linda Barcan, Adrian Barnes, Ken Boucher, Adam Cook, Andrew Davidson, Margaret Davis, Caroline Dunphy, Kate Gaul, Belinda Giblin, Mary Ann Gifford, Rob Giltinan, Ross Hall, Julie Hudspeth, Andrew Lewis, Adam Macaulay, Lucia Mastrantone, Maria O’Hare, Sean O’Shea, Conrad Page, Fiona Pearson, Ron Popenhagen, Luda Popenhagen, Elizabeth Richmond, Alison Rooke, Colin Schumacher, Rebecca Scott, Margaret Spillane, Simon Stollery, Wendy Strehlow, Crispin Taylor, Josef Uchitel, Anna Volska, Pat Wilson, Linden Wilkinson, Kate Woods.

ADMINISTRATION TEAM

Lucy D’Ambrosio- College Manager

Email: ldambrosio@actt.edu.au
Lucy holds and MBA and has worked for many years in management and development in the arts, particularly in film and television. She as long wanted to move across to her main love, live performance and is passionate about the development of new artists. Lucy joined ACTT in 2009 and is responsible for all quality management across all aspects of ACTT.

Caroline Johansson – Course Admin and Roleplay

Email: roleplay@actt.edu.au
Caroline studied acting at HB Studio in New York, Cambridge University Summer School and has a BA in Theatre & Film Caroline has worked professionally as an actor for many years and as a teacher- director. Her arts administration career includes work with various media and arts companies including If Media and the Sydney Symphony. Caroline joined the team at ACTT in October 2006 and is responsible for Course application and audition enquiries and advice, International students, Corporate role-play and is the ACTT Short Course program coordinator

Kendall Letica – Administrator

Email: admin@actt.edu.au
Kendall has worked in the arts industry since graduating from high school in 2004. Her extensive experience includes management of a boutique art house cinema – Roseville Cinema. Kendall is also a freelance photographer who completed a course from the Australian Centre of Photography in 2006. She has traveled widely overseas, and draws great inspiration from her travels in her photography. Kendall has worked at ACTT since 2006 and is in charge of course scheduling, marketing assistance, course advice, studio bookings, tickets to productions and is the FOH manager of Cleveland Street Theatre.

Naomi Livingstone- Assistant Administrator

Email: info@actt.edu.au
Naomi is a graduate of ACTT and combines her work as an actor with her work at ACTT where she support the stduenst and assists all enquirers seekign the best course of study to match their chosen direction. She is responsible for reception, provides excellent customer service, assists with studio bookings, ticket sales and course enquiries.

Rebecca Clarke- Cleveland St Theatre

Email: theatre@actt.edu.au
Rebecca Clarke is a writer and actor who has also worked in marketing, research and event management for film and theatre companies and organisations. Rebecca is the coordinator of The Imagine Festival and is responsible for liaising with artists and companies for submissions and bookings for the Cleveland St Theatre.