Moving in a Different Direction (Directing Downunder): The evolution of director training into studies of “creative leadership” in an Australian context: Invigorating [directing] pedagogies. Actors, it’s not always about you (but it is…)

Australia’s first professional theatre training school, The National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), was founded in 1958 (Hay 2012). Contrast this to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, which opened in 1884 (Zazzali 2016), and the relatively younger state of antipodean professional theatre training is apparent. It was not until 1972 that NIDA introduced their inaugural one-year graduate course specialising in directing (NIDA 2020). Today, it is reported approximately two thirds of Australia’s 37 public universities offer degrees in drama/theatre/performing arts (Meyrick 2021), including specialist post-graduate studies in directing or undergraduate degrees that include at least one subject of study dedicated to the craft of directing.

The arguably rapid growth of directing as a targeted area of study is conceivably counterintuitive, given the skill of directing is “basically about instinct, and therefore, it cannot be taught” (Sidiropoulou 2019, 1). However, as Sidiropoulou further highlights, the growth of MA and MFA directing courses continues unabated in many jurisdictions, presenting the opportunity for director-trainers to promote and mentor in the practical skills of directing, which can be taught. In the consumer-driven commercialisation of higher education, there is a market to be serviced, which brings with it an encumbrance on teachers to provide some kind of foregrounding for students in directorial best-practice.

At one university in Australia, the Queensland University of Technology, this demand-driven response to director training has resulted in the design of an undergraduate unit of study promoted as “creative leadership.” Covering topics as diverse as analysing a playscript to managing conflict. The unit has successfully attracted students from across the broader university, beyond its disciplinary home in the drama department. It attracts students searching for skills-development that speak to workplace demand for collaborative and creative leaders, soft-skills cited as desirable graduate traits in almost all industries (Bureau of Comminications and Arts Research 2019). This presentation discusses the potential benefits of director-training in this cross/inter-disciplinary environment, as well as posits some of the potential pitfalls of contriving disciplinary specifics to meet a generalist appetite for creativity as a marketable skills commodity.