NIDA Festival Of Emerging Artists

Running from December 11 to 14 the NIDA Festival Of Emerging Artists will feature seven unique productions from students in their final year. Students from NIDA’s Master of Fine Arts (Directing) and Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design for Performance), as well as students from all disciplines at NIDA, will each present their work across three locations on each night of the Festival. Works include live adaptations, premiere works and adaptations or contemporary staging of works from Brecht and Goethe. 

Sam Trotman has written and directed an adaptation of Goethe’s FAUST, alongside designer Angela Doherty as part of the Festival. 

“I’m interested in what theatre is capable of that other mediums aren’t capable of. So what can you do in the theatre that you can’t do in film and television and I think one of those things is the ethic. The show that is sort of philosophically and dramatically enormous,” said Sam, going on to say: “When we started looking at the show, Angela and I, we had a blank page. We didn’t have a script. We had the idea of the story and the idea of adapting the FAUST myth for a contemporary audience.”

Angela has worked with Sam since the conception of the piece, saying: “This is the first time I’ve worked on a show like this that’s just started from an idea or theme. I really like to approach things from a conceptual or more intellectual point of view and figure out what we are trying to say with the design and what are the big themes we’re trying to get across.”

Angela is looking forward to presenting the work alongside Sam, saying, “I try to create really engaging and hyper-real costumes and sets that can really enhance the actor’s performances and the story. I think the audience will be engaged the whole time and be quite shocked in moments.”

Dec 11-14. National Institute of Dramatic Art, 215 Anzac Parade, Kensington. $12-$15+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.nida.edu.au

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By Madison Behringer