Overview

Led by industry experts, experience hands-on, skill-based learning. Our classes are for students at any stage of their creative development with a focus on both personal and artistic growth. NIDA Open provides a dynamic environment where young artists can explore their passions, gain confidence, and develop their craft in an inspiring and supportive environment. 

Learning Framework

Each term we focus on a specific area of performance practice to ensure students have a varied experience and learn a range of essential creative skills. Students are able to join us at the start of any term during the year. NIDA Open Drama courses are designed across a four term structure within the following learning framework: 

Term 1 Improvisation and Performance Craft 
Term 2 Voice and Movement 
Term 3 Devising and Contemporary Performance 
Term 4 Script Work and Staging 

Term 1: Flip the Script

What if Dorothy had stayed in Oz? What if Burr and Hamilton had reconciled? What if Juliet had lived?
Inspired by the hit pop musical & Juliet, work with a NIDA Open teaching artist to develop your improvisation skills and create bold alternative endings to famous stories. Collaborate with your ensemble to remix and reimagine the fates of iconic musical theatre characters, as you sing and stage some of the most celebrated pop anthems of the 90s and 00s.

Components

• Freeing the Imagination: Grow confidence through exercises that promote spontaneity and creative expression.
• Voice and Song: Explore vocal range and dexterity with singing technique.
• Collaboration: Incorporate and develop shared ideas into a live presentation.

Term 2: Broadway Deity

Sing and dance your way back to ancient Greece and meet the mythical characters from some of history’s biggest tales. Inspired by the pop-musicals Hadestown, Hercules and The Frogs, develop physical and vocal techniques to bring courageous characters back to life. Collaborate with your ensemble as you reinvent the world’s most epic stories and create an odyssey to remember.

Components

• Physical awareness – Practice movement and musicality through physical exercises and movement training.
• Voice and Song: Apply singing technique to develop confidence in front of a live audience.
• Performance skill: Experiment with specific physical choices to influence character, vocal quality and performance.

Term 3: Cyber Chill

What happens when a supercomputer ends up inside the mind of an ordinary high schooler and they get to take control? Inspired by the high-tech teen musical Be More Chill, extend your singing and acting skills and explore devising technique to invent original characters, build futuristic worlds, and create brand-new stories of teenage chaos with your ensemble. Bring your inner geek to life and share your bold creation with family and friends at the end of term.

Components

• Creative Expression: Experience a variety of roles in a creative development process to generate ideas and concepts for a new live presentation.
• Performance: Apply acting, voice and movement practice to a short, singing and acting presentation.
• Characters: Experiment with vocal and physical expression to create an original character.

Term 4: A Truly Rotten Rewind

What if Shakespeare had written musicals? Is it absurd to even imagine a smash hit 16th century musical comedy? Well of course it is, but that didn’t stop the Tony Award winning creators of Something’s Rotten! – and it certainly isn’t going to stop us from entering this madcap world. Work with an expert teaching artist to develop your singing technique and explore NIDA acting techniques to shape the unique characters at the centre of this renaissance tale. Join us to discover the joy of ensemble storytelling as you reinvent the course of musical history.

Components

• Acting Technique: Explore characterisation and the application of NIDA acting technique to a musical theatre performance.
• Stage Craft: Consider the elements that contribute to the physical realisation of a performance.
• Performance: Rehearse and present a short live performance.

For more information, please see our Terms & Conditions.