Keynote Presentations
Keynote Presentation, Friday 9 March, 2012
Title: Drama's for Geeks: Developing a Life Long Love of the Arts
Presenter: Wesley Enoch, Queensland Theatre Company
Biography:
Wesley Enoch is the Artistic Director for Queensland Theatre Company. Wesley has directed for Queensland Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, State Theatre Company South Australia, Company B Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Malthouse Theatre, Windmill, Melbourne Workers Theatre, Alphaville and the ERTH Festival. As a playwright he has written The Story of the Miracles at Cookie’s Table (awarded the 2005 Patrick White Playwright’s Award), The Sunshine Club, Life of Grace and Piety, Black Medea and he collaborated with Deborah Mailman on The 7 Stages of Grieving. Wesley has been Artistic Director of Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts and Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre, Associate Artist with Queensland Theatre Company, Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company, Director of the Indigenous section of the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, a Sydney Opera House trustee, a NSW Government Arts Advisory Council member and on numerous other committees.
Keynote Presentation, Saturday 10 March, 2012
Title: The imperative of an arts-led curriculum: Lessons from Research
Presenter: Robyn Ewing, University of Sydney
Biography:
Initially a primary teacher, Robyn Ewing is Professor of Teacher Education and the Arts and Associate Dean (Academic), Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. She has a commitment to innovative teaching and learning at all levels of education and is passionate about the role that the Arts can and should play in learning.
In the Arts, Robyn’s research and writing has focused on the use of drama with children’s literature to enhance children’s English and literacy outcomes. Current projects include a partnership with Sydney Theatre Company on School Drama an initiative that aims to develop the drama expertise of primary teachers. She is also a chief investigator on the TheatreSpace: Accessing the cultural conversation ARC project examining what engages young people in theatre. The experiences of early career teachers and the role of mentoring in their retention in the profession, sustaining curriculum innovation and evaluation, inquiry & case based learning and arts informed research methodologies are also research interests. Robyn is National President of the Australian Literacy Educators Association.
Robyn’s publications include: The Arts in the lives of young children (in press); Transforming the curriculum through the Arts (with Robyn Gibson); The Arts and Australian Education: Realising Potential; Curriculum and Assessment: A Narrative Approach; Teaching, Challenges and Dilemmas (with Susan Groundwater-Smith and Rosie Le Cornu), Beyond the Script Take 2: Drama in the classroom (with Jennifer Simons) and Action Learning in Schools: Reframing Teacher Professional Learning and Development (with Peter Aubusson and Garry Hoban). She is editor of Beyond the Reading Wars: Towards a balanced approach to helping children learn to read and co-editor of Teaching and Communicating: Rethinking Professional Experiences (with Tom Lowrie and Joy Higgs).
Special Address, Sunday 11 March, 2012
Title: The Australian Arts Curriculum: What does this mean for Drama?
Presenter: Linda Lorenza, Senior Project Officer, Arts, ACARA
Description:
This session will provide Drama educators with an overview of the development of the Australian Arts curriculum. The ACARA Curriculum Development Process will be presented and the timeline clarified. Examples of the work underway will be given across the five Arts subjects within the Arts Learning Area. Concluding with looking at where to from here and how to become involved in the consultation on the draft Arts Curriculum in 2012.
Biography:
Linda Lorenza studied the anatomy of the voice with in her first degree in Linguistics focusing on speech and language disorders at Macquarie University after which she worked in Speech Technology at the University of analysing Australian English for computer recognition and synthesis of speech - the beginnings of the automated voice systems in use today (for which she accepts no responsibility). Linda studied Opera at the Sydney Conservatorium and in Italy. She has worked in schools as a teacher of drama, music, English and voice. In 2010 Linda left her role as Head of Education at the theatre company, Bell Shakespeare, to facilitate the development or of the Arts in Australia’s first national curriculum for the Australian Curriculum Assessment Reporting Authority. She is currently a doctoral research student in the Faculty of Education & Social Work at the University of Sydney.