ON STAGE the Spring 2002 Newsletter of Victoria Theatres Trust Vol.3 No.4
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ON STAGE The Spring 2002 newsletter of Victoria Theatres Trust Vol.3 No.4 Ballarat’s new Arts Academy opens Camp Street, Ballarat, has come full circle: the city’s first arts school was established there in the 1890s. Now it is once again home to an arts academy. fter seven years’ planning, The dedicated arts campus, comprising graduate Tanya Burne has won a Ballarat’s Arts Academy, two contemporary purpose-designed scholarship to the famous Actors Studio AAustralia’s newest university buildings and four prominent heritage- Drama School in New York. She is only the campus dedicated to the visual and listed buildings, is in the heart of Ballarat’s second Australian to be accepted there. performing arts, was officially opened by historic precinct once known as the (Bronwen Coleman, a 1998 graduate of the Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, on Friday, Government Camp. It was from here that Victorian College of the Arts’ School of 11 October. troopers set out in the early hours of Film and Television was the first.) The same day the Academy’s 144-seat 3 December 1854, to quell the miners’ In 1995, when it was decided that theatre was inaugurated, with a musical, uprising at the Eureka Stockade. Ballarat Police Station and the law courts Working, written by Stephen Schwartz, Now, Camp Street has reinvented itself would move to a new site, Ballarat’s leaders performed and produced by students. as a dynamic cultural hub buzzing with grasped the opportunity to revitalise the The Arts Academy campus, planned student life, having also been the site of the historic street and add another dimension conjointly by the University of Ballarat, the city’s first arts school in the 1890s. to the city’s cultural significance by City of Ballarat, and state and federal The Arts Academy’s cutting edge developing an arts precinct. governments, now houses the university’s courses in performing arts, fine arts and Today, seven years and $30 million TAFE and higher education curriculum in graphic design/multimedia have won later, Ballarat has an extended fine art visual and performing arts, all on one site. international acclaim and are attracting a gallery and the new campus where students It can accommodate 400 students and is broad range of students from Australia spend their days developing their the final jewel in the crown of Ballarat’s $30 and overseas. creative talents. million Camp Street Arts Precinct, which Alumni of the Arts Academy already Construction of the two contemporary has also seen major redevelopment of including Libby Tanner (All Saints), Peta university buildings, the renovation and Ballarat Fine Art Gallery and the creation Brady (Mullet), Michelle Pitcher (Oliver!) refurbishment of existing heritage * of the community space, Alfred Deakin Place. and Matthew Heywood (Mamma Mia!). Internationally, performing arts The Camp Street campus of the University of Ballarat, the New North building in the centre. The other five buildings in the campus are all heritage status. A precinct steeped in ‘The Bohemian’ days the rich history of The recent, hugely successful, arena spectacular The Man From Snowy River continues a grand Australian tradition the goldfields of the travelling ‘Wild West’ shows. Walking the length of Camp Street in century ago Australians what the real flesh-and-blood the heart of Ballarat is to take a walk thrilled to the shows of drama was like. Boys and girls through Australian history. Athe enterprising sneer at it—give it ‘the bird’, of ill Today home to the University of E.I.Cole, ‘The Bohemian’. Cole omen, preferring the chalk-faced Ballarat’s dynamic Arts Academy, died in 1942. shadows and the tinny mechanical voices of the screen. flanked by Australia’s oldest and Richard Fotheringham’s ‘Bohemian Dramatic Company’ in But the real living theatre never largest regional fine art gallery, this Companion to Theatre in Australia dies; it only changes its style and street has had an illustrious history (Ed. Philip Parsons, Currency title. I have even heard of a since the discovery of gold in 1851. Press, 1995) and Barbara Garlick’s modern ‘producer’ who read a It was on this escarpment, set high ‘The Problem of Sources: The scenario of As You Like It and above the goldfields, that the city’s “Bohemian” Cole Collection in remarked: ‘This stuff’s the goods, early leaders first began the job of Australasian Drama Studies, October but I’ll tell the world this guy The 144-seat New South Theatre at the University building Ballarat’s administration 1993, cover the subject. But this Shakespeare has pinched a lot of of Ballarat during one of its earliest performances. profile, one of a ‘Great Figures of my ideas!’ Below: a pre-performance makeup session. when they established the first Government Camp. Our Stage’ series by Norman And the outback to its performing arts students are encouraged Campbell, originally published in uttermost frontier has its wireless buildings—the former Ballarat Post In the first 50 years of Ballarat’s Office, Ballarat Library, state government to explore cross-art experimentation. Life magazine in Sydney in June miracle where the lonely boundary- development, Camp Street was home offices (which later became the Ballarat Budding entertainers can study a Diploma 1940, is especially interesting as rider can sit by his fire and listen to to the police, courts and the goldfields Courthouse)—and the old courthouse and of Arts (Small Companies and Community it was written while Cole was the King of England talking to him. the extension and redevelopment of the Theatre), Diploma in Music (Jazz and administration, with postal services still alive. The play’s the thing. It must Ballarat Fine Art Gallery combine with Contemporary), Diploma of Entertainment established around the corner. A major collection of Cole come again. It is not dead more open spaces, theatres, galleries and (Lighting and Sound), or Bachelor of Arts In 1854 it became the rallying point memorabilia is preserved in the but sleepeth. restaurants to create a new cultural precinct. in Music Theatre Performance, Theatre for for the government’s efforts to Mitchell Library, Sydney, In those good old, bad old Facilities at students’ disposal range Performance or Theatre Production. quell the Eureka uprising, and later the reference ML5497. days, there was a real link between The Arts Academy also offers a from historic spaces to contemporary centre of trade unionism and the 1891 worth five million dollars. the theatre and the people. Bachelor of Visual Arts in Fine Arts or Theatrical pioneers of the back country purpose-built studios. These including the federation movement for the district. Great Figures of Our Stage Of this genus was—and is, for he is still 144-seat theatre, the flexible Post Office Graphic Design/Multimedia, Diplomas of No. XMIL carried the only oriflamme of culture and The area also became the cultural alive and hearty at 85—Edward Irham Cole, Arts in Graphic Arts and Visual Arts, and Theatre and the innovative media arts space ‘Bohemian’ Cole the ‘Bohemian’, with the long hair, beloved imagination ever seen or known there. All an Advanced Diploma of Arts (Graphic heart of the city, with a free library on where multi-disciplinary work can evolve. by Norman Campbell of small boys who are now grown men, and honour to their memories. Design). the corner, the Mechanics’ Institute Nearby is the renowned Her Majesty’s who still cherish affectionate memories of It was not a very high form of dramatic Two other academy courses, a Diploma across the road, the Fine Art Gallery Theatre, second oldest still-operating theatre What, exactly, do we mean by a ‘great ‘Cole of the Bohemians’. art they got, to be sure. There was a deep of Ceramics and Certificate IV in in Australia after the Theatre Royal, Hobart. and its associated arts school and Her figure’ of our stage? In this year of grace and disgrace, 1940, gulf between literature and the theatre, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art All building and renovation works have Majesty’s Theatre. I take it that it is someone who it is hard for us to realise how starved the there was a deeper and wider gulf been fully approved by the National Trust and Design, are offered at the University’s Consultant to the University on symbolises a particular form of dramatic art country was for theatric amusement of any separating the theatre from everyday life. and Victoria’s Heritage Council. SMB Campus in Ballarat. The Visual Arts the Arts Academy development, Dr that appeals compellingly to the audiences kind at and about the end of the last And there still existed the ancient, Diploma can be studied at Horsham with puritanical prejudice against theatre-going. To maximise their creative potential, Frank Hurley, said Camp Street was of his time—who marks the trend of his century. The cinema which can now some units at Stawell. n particular period. The only plays which could be within metres of one of the most present a field of battle with thousands of In such a sense I claim that ‘Bohemian’ soldiers and horses; a vast ship sinking at produced successfully were those which lent historically significant intersections in Cole is a distinctive figure. He himself sea; a city on fire; the Emperor Nero with themselves to spectacle and melodrama. Australia, the corner of Sturt and would be the very last to accuse himself of all his sumptuous Court—a thousand The popular actor of those days did not Lydiard Streets, which is a legacy of being a ‘great’ actor. moving accidents by flood and field at the want a finely wrought play with skilful Ballarat’s golden past.