Formation | 1984 |
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Type | Theatre group |
Location |
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Artistic director(s)
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Patrick Conlan |
Website | stageschool |
Stage School Australia (formerly Children's Performing Company of Australia) is a Melbourne-based performing arts training provider for young people. Established in 1984 as the Victorian Children's Theatre. It notably encompasses the Young Australian Broadway Chorus and the Victorian Youth Theatre. Since its foundation, the organisation has expanded to seventeen locations across the greater Melbourne area to become one of the largest performing arts tuition providers in the state of Victoria.
Stage School offers several streams of training which, depending on the age of the young people, can be conducted separately or concurrently. Most streams have a hierarchical structure wherein students may be promoted to a more advanced group, based on the student's skill level and experience.
In 1995, the CPCA established four theatre ensembles with a strong musical theatre focus. These expanded to become what is now known as the Young Australian Broadway Chorus (YABC), the stream which trains students in singing, dancing and acting.
The YABC's first performance was held in 1998 at the National Theatre in St Kilda - a gala performance much simpler than the more extravagant shows that are put on in the same theatre by YABC students today.
The Victorian Youth Theatre (VYT) is the drama branch of Stage School's performing arts training activities, which originally traded in the 1980s as the Victorian Children's Theatre. While trading as the Victorian Children's Theatre, the course focused largely on improvised drama, but eventually the curriculum was expanded to include script work and acting for the camera.
Stage School Australia also operates as a performing arts company and have been putting on multiple stage productions annually for two decades. Stage School Australia have done seasons of original plays and musicals as well as many theatre classics including; The Conference of the Birds, Godspell, Man of La Mancha, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Oliver!, Rags, Salad Days, Wizard of Oz, Disney Alice in Wonderland Junior, and Disney Aladdin Junior.