Key dates
Learn more
Learn more
Student experience
Overview
Meet current student, Jane Schon
I don’t believe I would be the performer or maker I am today without all the tutors and lecturers at the VCA, so it’s very difficult to single out a single mentor – a very diplomatic answer, I know, but it's true. Rinske Ginsberg and Steph Kehoe have been my closest mentors though. Steph Kehoe’s guidance has been fundamental in my growth as a maker, and as a human. In addition to her invaluable teachings in Lecoq, devising, mask work, Clown and Bouffon, Steph is also the head coordinator of the BFA theatre course, a role that she takes very seriously. Rinske Ginsberg is a legend … literally … I think she may know everyone in the Melbourne theatre scene. She has been working in the industry for more than 35 years and has a keen dramaturgical eye.
Jane Schon
Highlights have included being awarded the Grace Marion Wilson Trust scholarship this year, which was very humbling, and was a boost I very much appreciated receiving in my final year. Also, the training we undertook with I Wayan Dibia was something I looked forward to every year. Dibia usually joined us from Bali at the beginning of each semester. He taught us the technique of Balinese dance, and Kecak chanting, which we performed as part of AsiaTOPA this year. I also loved the Balinese Mask work of Per Brahe we learnt in first year with Budi Miller (Head of Acting).
All in all, my collaborators inspire me most – the people in my cohort. The talent and love in the room is incredible. You need stamina to undertake a course like this, so when I feel like I don’t have anything left in the tank, my team are there to shake some life into me … whether it’s with a much-needed pep-talk or a hilarious Clown routine.
Showcasing your skills
Each year, our graduating students from the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) showcase their passion and flair in a season of original contemporary performances. Our 2022 graduating student season included Sometimes, Always, Rarely, Never – short performance works exploring ideas of systems and ecologies, acts of care, disruption and transformation.
Discover Sometimes, Always, Rarely, Never
At home in the cultural heart of Melbourne
You’ll enjoy access to industry-standard facilities, including cinemas, digital vision and audio post-production facilities, visual art studios and technical workshop facilities, purpose-built dance studios, libraries, theatre and performance spaces, and animation and stop-motion studios. Your teachers are practising artists who are well-connected to industry, and there are course-integrated opportunities to collaborate with students from other creative disciplines.
With classes and facilities in the heart of Melbourne’s Arts Precinct, the Faculty’s Southbank campus provides many wonderful opportunities for students to participate in the artistic life of Melbourne.
You’ll gain professional exposure and practice through public performances, exhibitions and crewing, while the embedded capstone experience provides the opportunity to showcase performances to industry in Sydney and Melbourne, in public film screenings, and in graduate exhibitions.
Faculty of Fine Arts and Music
The course is taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, the proud home of the Victorian College of the Arts and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
You’ll enjoy access to incredible facilities, including cinemas, digital vision and audio post-production facilities, visual art studios and technical workshop facilities, purpose-built dance studios, libraries, theatre and performance spaces, and animation and stop-motion studios.
While studying at the Faculty, you will have the chance to benefit from a range of partnerships and engagement activities at major arts companies in Melbourne's Arts Precinct, local and national festivals and sister institutions around the world.
Explore the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music
Wilin Centre
Situated in the heart of Melbourne's Arts Precinct, the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development provides exposure to contemporary Indigenous arts practices and supports the recruitment of Indigenous artists, academics and students.
Steph Kehoe
Meet Steph Kehoe, Course Coordinator of the BFA (Theatre)
Steph Kehoe has worked as a teacher, director and performer in Australia, Europe, the Americas and Asia. She trained under Jacques Lecoq at Ecole International de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and completed her teacher training in the Lecoq pedagogy under Thomas Prattki at the London International School of Performing Arts. Here, she shares with us the best thing about working at the VCA.
The students! The fact that year after year students travel from all round Australia, and from abroad, to train at the VCA is testament to their own wonderful optimism and courage and a counter-cultural impulse that is a joy to be around. Our students are funny, poetic, generous and engaged – this is what makes teaching at the VCA such a pleasure!