NETWORK 26 - MARCH SEMINAR
About
Join the SDA NSW on March 14th and 15th for 2 days of professional learning.Day 1 - Saturday 14th March 10am-4pm
Eisteddfod and Adjudication Focus
-Learn or refresh your skills for Speech and Drama Adjudication for Eisteddfods
-Make valuable contributions to the SDA NSW resources to help support students, teachers, adjudicators and eisteddfodau.
Day 2 - Sunday 15th March 10am-4pm (includes AGM at 1pm)
Brendon McDonall - Inhabiting Characters
In this interactive 90-minute workshop, actor and director Brendon McDonall will teach practical tools for eliciting compelling performances from Speech & Drama students for monologue and storytelling categories. The workshop will cover:
-Selection and adaptation of material
-Text analysis
-Approaches to characterisation
-Performance tools, including clarity of thought/intention, internal landscape, environment or “Vista”, scene objectives or “Wants”, behaviour and action, and personalisation.
**Note: Please bring 2 hardcopies of a chosen piece you have used in the past.
Brendon is a multi-award winning, BAFTA-nominated filmmaker based in Sydney. His short films include The Law (special Jury Prize, Flickerfest), The Dam (MIFF Accelerator, Best Film Woods Hole) and All God’s Creatures (Dendy Awards), which won the prestigious international Iris Prize. His UK-shot film Spoilers premiered at Frameline and Outfest, and won both Best Film and the Audience Award at Queer Screen Mardi Gras Film Fest, and the Emerging Filmmaker Award at MQFF. It was nominated for a BAFTA Award and premiered on BBC2. Brendon has won Australia’s premier queer film award My Queer Career twice (2013 and 2017).
An AFTRS Masters and Graduate Diploma graduate in both directing and screenwriting, he won the AFTRS/Foxtel Award for Exceptional Talent. He was Associate Director for Series 2 of Janet King (ABC/Screentime), under Ian Watson. Brendon started his career as an actor and theatre director. He appeared in over 30 productions for Bell Shakespeare, STC, Belvoir, Monkey Baa, Q Theatre, RTC, Theatre South and Darlinghurst Theatre. His stage directing credits include the premiere of hit verse comedy Love’s Triumph, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Falling Petals, Falsettos, Search & Destroy, Henry V, Red Noses, The Visit, Boy’s Life, The Lights, A Vampire Story and the world premiere of the musical Somewhere, which he created with Kate Mulvany and Tim Minchin.
Brendon is currently writing and will direct a chapter of Tony Ayres Productions' anthology feature film Ten Moments. He wrote the family film Woof for Big & Little films/Stan, and is attached to direct his debut feature film Unbending by Allen Palmer and Mat Govoni, produced by Future Pictures and starring Kate Mulvany (Hunters, Elvis), Levi Miller (Jasper Jones, Streamline) and Rory Potter (The Dressmaker, Secret River). He recently returned to the stage to direct the sell-out premiere of Sarah Walker’s Who’s Afraid? for Belvoir, a queer reimagining of Virginia Woolf, and directed films It's A...? for NIDA acting students and Kinderspiel for the Drama Centre. He teaches at NIDA, AFTRS and JMC.
Brendan Atkins - Improvisation/Theatresports
In this practical 90-minute workshop, Brendan will explore the core fundamentals of improvisation, focusing on strengthening technique, developing clear narrative structure, and enhancing the overall entertainment value of improvised scenes. Participants will leave with practical strategies and classroom-ready approaches to elevate both performance quality and student engagement.
Brendan Atkins is an experienced Speech & Drama practitioner and improviser with extensive performance and teaching credentials. He holds a Performers Diploma and Teachers Licentiate in Speech & Drama and serves as an Examiner for the IMEB.
A NSW Theatresports Cranston Cup Finalist (2016), Brendan is also a two-time Improv Comedy Cagefight Champion (2023, 2024) and has performed in Impro Australia’s Celebrity Theatre Sports (2024, 2025). He recently performed in the original production Kingdom of Fools, which enjoyed sold-out seasons at the Sydney Fringe Festival (2025) and Adelaide Fringe (2026).
Location
Chippen Street Theatre
45 Chippen Street, Chippendale NSW 2008
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NETWORK 26 - MARCH SEMINAR
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