INFORMATION PACK 2016

Showfit has fast become one of Australia’s most sought after Musical Theatre courses. Led by a team of industry professionals, Showfit provides graduates with a strong skill base across all disciplines of musical theatre. The course is well renowned for its close connection to the industry, which allows students to be trained by a wide range of Australia’s most successful musical theatre performers and teachers.

Showfit’s renowned musical theatre course offers intensive technical training in singing, dancing and acting.

Showfit is a 1 year full-time course with an optional 2nd year for students who wish to further their training. Students will experience Australia’s elite musical theatre teachers as well as industry professionals from around the world.

The course consists of daily dance classes including: Broadway Jazz, Classical Ballet, Tap, Hip Hop and Partner Work.

Daily vocal classes include: group song repertoire, singing technique, harmony work and musicianship. Showfit provides a strong grounding in acting technique including Stanislavski fundamentals, voice, movement, scene work and improvisation.

Students are also trained in audition technique and study the history of musical theatre.

Some students have found Showfit to be the perfect bridging course to go on and further their studies at WAAPA, VCA and NIDA. Other Showfit students have started working within the profession straight away.

LEANNE WHITE (COURSE CO-DIRECTOR)

Leanne danced professionally for over 23 years in shows such as Evita, Oklahoma, Song and Dance (where she was nominated for an “Adam Award”), Cats (as the original Dance Captain), Possum Magic and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Dance Captain and lead dancer). Her extensive TV work includes The AFI Awards, Don Lane Show, Mike Walsh Show and several variety specials.

From 1993 to 1995 Leanne was resident director of Cats throughout Asia and Australia and resident choreographer on Sunset Boulevard at the Regent Theatre. In 1998 she was associate choreographer with Anthony Van Laast for The Boy From Oz and continued to maintain the choreography throughout its Australian run. In 1999 she was flown to London by Paul Dainty to meet with Arlene Phillips the director of Saturday Night Fever and to consult on casting the show in Australia. She was also Associate Choreographer on Happy Days the Arena Mega Musical,original casting consultant on Mamma Mia, choreographer for the Production Company’s Mack and Mabel and choreographed Putting It Together at Chapel Off Chapel.

SCOTT JOHNSON (COURSE CO-DIRECTOR - ACTING)

Scott Johnson is a NIDA graduate and has worked extensively in theatre and television around Australia for the past twenty years. He is most recently known for playing Tommy Devito in Jersey Boys, for which he was nominated for a Helpmann, Green Room and Sydney Theatre Award. Scott’s other theatre credits include: Third World Blues, Cyrano de Bergerac and John Proctor in The Crucible for Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company’s Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf and August Moon, Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome (QTC & Bell Shakespeare Co.), The Siege of Frank Sinatra (Ensemble Theatre), Amco Riders (Tamarama Rock Surfers), How like an Angel (Railway Street), Alone it Stands (Ross Mollison Productions), Hansel and Gretel and Go Pinocchio (STC & Theatre of Image), Crimes of the Heart (Marion Street Theatre Co.) and Wonderlands (Griffin Theatre Co.) for which he won a Glug award.

Scott’s film and television credits include: Four Quarters, Offspring, Neighbours, Home and Away, McLeod’s Daughters, Jessica, Monster (US), Breathe, Oops, Heaven on the Fourth Floor, Road Rage, Blue Heelers, Big Sky and Rescue Special Ops.

Scott Johnson’s vast industry experience has seen him work at NIDA and VCA. As Course Director of Showfit, Scott’s great passion for teaching provides students with the skills and opportunities to engage in professional theatre practice.

MATT FRANK (DIRECTOR OF MUSIC)

Mathew Frank has worked throughout Australia and internationally as a Musical Director, Conductor, Composer, Performer and Vocal Coach. A graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Mathew was most recently the Musical Director of Jerry’s Girls, La Cage Aux Folles and The Pirates of Penzance for The Production Company. Other shows include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Geoffrey Rush at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Private Lives (composer/musical director), Next to Normal and The Drowsy Chaperone for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Mathew was also the Associate Musical Director on the Company’s productions of Poor Boy, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (and STC season), and Urinetown (and STC season),and the Assistant Musical Director on The Sapphires.

He was Musical Director/Arranger of the smash hit Britney Spears: The Cabaret which has played Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne over the last 5 years and recently did the same jobs on Rhonda Burchmore’s Vinyl Viagra and Christie Whelan-Browne’s Show People for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. With writing partner Dean Bryant, he composed the musical Prodigal, first produced at Chapel Off Chapel in 2000 (Green Room Award for Best Original Score) and revived at fortyfivedownstairs. Prodigal became the first Australian musical produced in New York City, with its Off-Broadway debut at the York Theatre Company in 2002. Other shows with Bryant include Once We Lived Here (Green Room Award for Best New Musical) fortyfivesdownstairs, Virgins: A Musical Threesome (six Green Room nominations) Malthouse and presented at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and an adaptation of Sonya Hartnett’s The Silver Donkey.

With 20 years experience in the musical theatre profession, Mathew has combined his skills to direct and develop one of the most elite musical theatre courses in the country.

REGULAR TEACHERS AND GUESTS

Verity Hunt-BallardSally-Anne Upton Michael RalphSue Ellen ShookRemy Noonan Suzanne HeywoodFreya List Ben Osborne

Lisa-Marie ParkerChristine AllisonSage DouglasElise LucenteSarah Clarke Rowena Balos

Michael LavineChristie Whelan-BrowneEsther HannafordGareth Keegan Angela HardingJohn Lander

Centrestage Studios 15 Albert St. East BrunswickMelbourne, Victoria, Australia 3057

Open Mon – Fri, 8am – 3.30pm

Public Transport Tram #96 Nicholson St. East Brunswick runs every 15 minutes to and from Melbourne CBD.

For more information please visit our website www.showfit.com.au or call us on 03 9380 8480 (Ext: 1)