Professional actress Rachel McNamara made her way to Corowa’s Uniting Church Hall (The Lab) to share her wisdom with some of the region’s budding performers last Friday, January 11.
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Well known for her role as Frances Regan in popular Australian TV medical drama All Saints, Ms McNamara took charge of the ‘A Day of Drama’ lesson run by Corowa Theatre Company, teaching children aged between six and 18 years the perks of stage and film.
“The kids today are learning about stage and film, learning about spacing and taking shots in both inside and outside environments, so they’re learning about lighting too,” Corowa Theatre Company Creative Director B Gezici said.
“The kids have been making their own individual shots and from that they’re putting it all together. As a group they need to figure out how it’s all going to connect.
“We’re very lucky to have Rachel here. She’s been fantastic. We’re thrilled that she’s taken the time out to share her skills and knowledge and we hope to get her back again at some stage.”
Ms Gezici said she was thrilled to see 25 kids sign up for the 9.30am to 4pm workshop.
“We didn’t think it would be that many but we didn’t know what to expect,” she said.
“It’s the first time we’ve run a workshop like this, it happened so quickly because we waited on Rachel’s availability.
“She said she could come on this day and we said ‘yep, we’ll do it then’. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity of having someone of her experience down here teaching the kids.”
Ms Gezici said it was “fantastic” to see both old faces and new faces turning up for the drama session that she hopes to be the jumpstart for more in the future.
“It’s a great turnout. They’re all talking to each other, working together and really loving it. It also means they’re meeting new friends,” she said.
“We want to attract the younger ones to extend their skills and build an ensemble for future performance projects.”
The drama workshop gained plenty of traction from adults as well who would have attended the session had it not been during the day.
“We’ll look to do a night one too at some stage given the interest,” Ms Gezici said.
Ms Gezici said any age is welcomed to join the group, willing to run more workshops to create new ideas and get more locals involved in writing their own productions.
The hall is known as ‘The Lab’ by those who have attended and created drama there in the past.
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