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  • Ms Sam Chester at ECU's Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

    Ms Sam Chester

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Ms Sam Chester

Senior Lecturer

Staff Member Details
Telephone: +61 8 6304 6630
Mobile: 0400 098 988
Email: s.chester@ecu.edu.au
Campus: Mount Lawley  
Room: ML3.224  
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8072-8138


Samantha is the Movement Co-ordinator for Acting and a Senior Lecturer for Acting and Performance Making at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Current teaching

  • ACT1003 - Foundations of Movement for the Actor
  • ACT1007 - Movement for the Actor
  • ACT2002 - The Dynamic Actor
  • ACT2006 - The Embodied Actor
  • ACT3002 - The Creative Physical Actor
  • PMA3010 - Devising for Physical performance
  • PMA2001 - Practical Project Solo Stage

Background

Samantha Chester is an award winning theatre maker, movement director, performer and educator from Sydney. For the past 20 Years she has been working with the physical form, first as a contemporary dancer and then as a director and choreographer in theatre and dance. She has worked with all the major theatre companies in Sydney. She was the Head of Movement and Associate Director at the Actors Centre Australia from 2008 – 2015 and has taught and directed extensively at NIDA and other performing arts institutions. She was awarded the Mike Walsh fellowship to travel to NY to train with the SITI Company in Viewpoints and Suzuki disciplines and in 2013 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship travelling to Spain, France, UK and Belgium investigating devising techniques in dance and theatre. She was the Associate Artist for Critical Path, NSW’s Choreographic Centre and is the co-founder of Queen Street Studio and founder of independent dance space ReadyMade Works. She was a guest Movement Director at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017 and recently the Movement Director on Possum Magic for Monkey BAA. touring Nationally.

Professional associations

  • Association of Theatre Movement Practitioners
  • Iyengar Yoga Association of Australia

Awards and recognition

National and International awards

  • 2018 - Best Overall Design the Blue Room Theatre 'Hiro the Man who Sailed his House'
  • 2017 - Best Overall Design Blue Room Theatre for the Astronaut
  • 2013 - Churchill Fellowship
  • 2010 - Cultivate; Dance Theatre Development Program Force Majeure
  • 2010 - Australian Business Arts Foundation ABAF Encouragement Award
  • 2004 - NSW Ministry for the Arts International Program
  • 2003 - Mike Walsh Fellowship
  • 2004 - American Australian Association, Dame Joan Sutherland Cultural Fund

University and National teaching awards

  • 2018 - University Vice Chancellor Program Award: Acting
  • 2018 - Award for Programs that Enhance Learning as part of the Australian Award for University Teaching program: Innovation in Curriculum Design and Pedagogy Practice.
  • 2010 - Australian Business Arts Foundation ABAF Encouragement Award
  • 2004 - NSW Ministry for the Arts International Program

National and International research positions

  • 2013 - Churchill Fellowship
  • 2003 - Mike Walsh Fellowship
  • 2004 - American Australian Association, Dame Joan Sutherland Cultural Fund

Research areas and interests

  • Movement for the Actor
  • Devising processes and methodologies for theatre
  • Phenomenology, embodiment and creativity

Qualifications

  • Graduate Diploma of Dramatic Art in Movement Studies, The National Institute of Dramatic Art, 2003.
  • Graduate Diploma of Arts Management, University of Technology, Sydney, 2001.
  • Bachelor of Arts, University of Western Sydney, 1993.

Research Outputs

2023

Journal Articles

  • Chester, S., Newman, R. (2023). The Brink: Receptive Generosity and Kindness in the Development of a Choreographic Pedagogy of Consent for Actor Training. Australasian Drama Studies, 2023(83), 191–221.
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