Performing arts and the birth of WAAPA
From art, drama, dance and music to Academy of Performing Arts
Since the inception of the new College, the Principal R. G. Peter had a vision of a radically
different teacher education college, not only in its methods of teaching, but also in the design
of buildings, lecture rooms and practical spaces for students to reach their maximum potential
as modern, professional teachers, well versed in the latest technologies and teaching methods.
Unlike older, well established teachers’ colleges in Australia, Bob Peter’s vision included
separate buildings for science and mathematics, the visual and performing arts and physical
education centres alongside the traditional buildings containing lecture rooms, tutorial rooms,
staff studies and large tier-shaped lecture theatres. In the design of these new buildings, the
Principal and his teaching staff worked closely with the chief Architect, Mr Stan Hewitt.
College staff from Art (Bryant McDiven), Drama (David Hough), and Music (Alan True)
participated in the design of specialist teaching blocks for Art, Drama and Music. Interstate
and overseas visits to established performing arts institutions provided valuable information
on what to include and what to avoid in building specialist performance blocks. In addition,
the College Board had set aside special funds for the purchase of specialist acquisitions to
build significant resources in each of the performing arts areas. This included the purchase of a Goble harpsicord for the music department from the Goble factory near Oxford, which Alan
True visited during his sabbatical leave in the UK.
Before Alan True’s going on his sabbatical leave in 1974, Bob Peter commissioned him to:
investigate models of performing arts institutions in the United Kingdom. The
University of London office organised visits to the Welsh National College of Music
and Drama; Royal Northern College of Music Manchester; University of Lancaster;
University of York; Royal College of Music; Kingston Polytechnic; Dartington
College of the Arts; Leicester Polytechnic; Bulmershe College of Higher Education
and Roehampton Institute of Higher Education (Alan True, personal correspondence).
On several of these visits Alan was accompanied by Dr J. Maxwell Collins, recently
appointed as Deputy to Bob Peter, and who was also on sabbatical in England at the time.
The information gathered through these visits formed an integral part in the discussions with
the architects on the layout and design of the proposed buildings.
In time, Bryant McDiven, as one of Perth foremost artists and art educators, had planned a
suite of buildings to house areas for painting, sculpture, pottery, print making, textiles and
clothing design. A central part of the building focused on the Sydney Nolan studio, which
was officially opened by the Australian artist, who also autographed a plaque which was
placed above the door.
David Hough and Alan True collaborated closely with Stan Hewitt, the architect, who called
in frequently and took on board all their suggestions to develop the Music/Drama centre.
Bryant McDiven designed a magnificent stained-glass artwork which sat either side
of the main entrance and faced West into the setting sun. It was a talking point!”
Eventually the building went up, but not without problems. Acoustics were vital and
the music area had to be re-designed to prevent noise transfer between the practice
areas and the main studio. This was achieved admirably (Alan True, personal
correspondence).
Since the Theatre/Studio initially also functioned as a TV production area, David Hough
insisted that slide-away bleacher seating be installed to quickly free floor space for TV
production cameras that could easily be re-assembled for drama and theatre performances.
David also built up a remarkable collection of Theatre Art, including costume and set designs
from The Australian Opera Company and other drama companies, inside and outside
Australia. These designs were, and still are, displayed in the corridors surrounding the
Theatre. In addition to purchasing the Goble harpsichord, Alan also focused on building a
massive collection of recordings and musical instruments for students’ personal practice as
well as instruments for classroom teaching.
On the founding Principal’s insistence, all staff appointed to all departments in the College
had to be highly qualified professionals with excellent experience in classroom teaching. As
the college expanded, this became of particular importance in all the appointments of staff in
the visual and performance arts. Consequently, music, dance and drama appointed highly
qualified staff in their own area of expertise. They were also selected as the best teachers
to work with the students. While high professional qualifications were important, the
emphasis was on their proven experience to teach.
Within the visual arts, Bryant McDiven appointed Jennifer Allen, David Jones and Melvyn
Livesey to develop the areas of: textiles, painting and pottery, followed a year later by
Anthony Jones and Lynette Mazzilli. All were highly qualified professionals and excellent
teachers. In addition, a program of “artists-in residence” became a focal point of interest for
staff, students and the community.
In the music area, Jean Farrant transferred from Claremont Teachers College in 1971,
bringing a great deal of expertise in Early Childhood Education. In 1974, Basil Jayatilaka
was persuaded to join the team from Kuala Lumpur, where he had gained international
standing as a pianist and composer. A year later he was joined by Cornelius De Munck, who
for several years, had developed a special teaching project in the highlands of Papua New
Guinea.
David Hough worked closely with Glen Phillips, the Head of Department, to strengthen areas in the English and Drama department. They appointed staff in creative writing, literature and
drama and also developed a comprehensive “artist in residence program” to give students the
experience of working with professional artists and writers in addition to acquiring skills for
classroom teaching. In 1975, the College invited “A world authority on drama in education,
Dorothy Heathcote, … to conduct workshops for staff and students and produce video-tape
material to supplement College teaching in this area” (Mount Lawley College, 1975, p. 25).
In the middle of the decade, there was a push to move away from Teacher Education
courses. Jean Farrant was commissioned to collaborate with private musicians in the
community to create as new course aimed at private music teachers, who worked from home.
She formed a committee which included some of the best-known names in Perth, who were
also well known nationally. Consequently, “A new course, the Graduate Diploma in Primary
Music Education, was prepared to be offered, it is hoped, within the next two years, to
serve teachers” (Mount Lawley College, 1975, p. 26). Unfortunately, funding cutbacks and
the announcement by the Commonwealth Government to defer all new initiatives within
tertiary education institutions in Australia placed a temporary halt on the establishment of the
Graduate Diploma in Primary Music Education at Mount Lawley.
Two years later, in 1977, the Western Australian Post Secondary Education Committee
(WAPSEC) received two proposals from the Western Australian Institute of Technology
(WAIT) and Churchlands College to establish music studies at their respective campuses.
The WAIT proposal was a duplication of a submission which had already been approved by
the Western Australian Tertiary Education Commission and the Commission on Advanced
Education in 1975, but not implemented due to the decision by the Commonwealth
Government to put a halt on all new initiatives within tertiary education institutions.
The Partridge Committee’s 1976 report on post secondary education in Western Australia
was fairly critical about the WAIT proposal to establish a school of music. In particular it
stated:
We do not question the State’s need for a school of music which, unlike the University
of W.A. School, will have as its main function the teaching of professional musicians.
We should have thought that this school would have little or nothing in common with
most of the other schools of the Institute, and that in fact such a school might find
itself able to develop more truly, and be subject to fewer constraints, if it were not
included within the exceptionally complex and intricate organization the Institute has
become (Partridge, 1976, p. 141, section 7.16).
And again:
As we have said, we can see no particular advantages and some possible
disadvantages in such schools being absorbed into large institutions whose major
purpose is training in the technologies (p. 141, Section 7.17).
While the WAIT and Churchlands College proposals were on hold, Mount Lawley continued
its involvement in the performing arts through community programs and participation in
music concerts, creative writing workshops, poetry and drama productions. Because there
was growing to need to develop courses in music education for a range of post secondary
students across the whole state of Western Australia, Jean Farrant continued her close
association with the Music Teachers Association, to train suburban music teachers, to a
higher level, so they could teach better.
The State Government listened to this need and requested Dr Wally Neal to chair a
committee to review the post secondary needs for students in the performing arts. This
Committee reviewed the educational opportunities in the performing arts in other states,
in particular New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, while also identifying perceived
needs in Western Australia. In its report the Committee listed several possibilities which
could be adapted to Western Australia. It also provided a list of characteristics and roles of a
college of the performing arts in Western Australia. The Committee stated that:
It is of the view that the educational needs in the performing arts in Western Australia
could best be met by a new institution designed specifically for the purpose. It
recognises, however, that the establishment of a new institution would be a lengthy
and expensive process which might involve some duplication of resources that
already exist elsewhere. The Committee concludes, therefore, that the College could
initially be developed either by creating a new autonomous institution, by modifying
the role and function of an existing institution, or by creating a semi-autonomous
body within an existing institution (Neal, 1978, p. 16).
Consequently, a Performing Arts Advisory Committee under the aegis of the Western
Australian Post Secondary Education Commission was set up in October 1977 to assess and
report on the overall need for education in the performing arts and the nature and location of
the required physical facilities (The First Three Years 1977-1979 Western Australian Post
Secondary Education Commission, 1980, p. 18-19).
The Establishment of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
The Performing Arts Advisory Committee was chaired by Dolph Zink, who was also a
member of the Post Secondary Education Commission. The Zink Committee decided that, in
comparison the other States in Australia, Western Australia was:
‘deficient in its provision of educational opportunities in music, dance and theatre at
the post-secondary level’. Among their recommendations there was seen to be a need
for facilities to provide a range of programs in these fields, including courses for
students who wished to become professional performers and teachers of performance
as well as refresher and upgrading courses for teachers of performance. (The First
Three Years 1977-1979 Western Australian Post Secondary Education Commission,
1980, p. 18-19).
Based on the recommendations of the Neal Committee, it also recommended:
- That a College of the Performing Arts be established to provide post
secondary education in the area of music, dance and theatre; and - That the College be developed either by creating a new autonomous
institution, by modifying the role and function of an existing institution, or by
creating a semi-autonomous body within an existing institution. (p. 19).
The Committee also stated that the role of the College would be to provide post secondary
education in the areas of music, dance and theatre and, more specifically –
(i) to provide full-time courses for a limited number of gifted students who
aspired to careers as performers and/or as private teachers of performance;
(ii) to provide part-time courses in performance method for teacher education
students enrolled at other institutions;
(iii) to provide, mainly through part-time courses or intensive short workshops,
professional upgrading for performers and for private and institutional
teachers of performance;
(iv) to provide part-time courses and workshops for talented, mature persons
primarily interested in the performing arts as an avocational activity;
(v) in view of the dual executant/audience nature of performing arts education,
to provide enrichment courses on a wide basis as part of an adult education
program;
(vi) to offer services away from the main campus both in the metropolitan area
and in country areas in order to benefit as many sections of the community
as possible; and
(vii) to serve the entire post secondary sector by providing specialist tuition for
certain students for skills for which the individual institutions may not be
able to maintain qualified staff of limited demand. It would be hoped that a
generous system of transferrable credits would develop so that institutions
would accept such study for credit in their various courses and programs.
(p. 19).
The Post Secondary Education Commission accepted all the recommendations of the
Performing Arts Advisory Committee and submitted a report to the Minister for Education in
May 1978 (p. 19). The report was released for general distribution, so that interested
individuals and organisations would have an opportunity to comment on the proposals before
detailed plans for implementation were made.
A letter from the Premier’s Department invited every tertiary institution in the State to
prepare a submission for the establishment of an institution to teach the performing arts in
Western Australia. The Premier, Sir Charles Court, indicated that the submissions should
address all aspects of the performing arts, not just a conservatorium of music. Proposals for
new initiatives in the performing arts were to be submitted to the Performing Arts Advisory
Committee and all institutions were invited to present and defend their proposals to that
Committee.
Initial reactions within the College’s senior administrative group showed little enthusiasm,
because Mount Lawley College was established as a teacher’s college. However, the new
Deputy Director, Max Collins, the Head of English and Drama, Glen Phillips and Head of
Music, Alan True, counteracted this and indicated that “this is a wonderful idea”. In Alan
True’s words: “This is too good an opportunity to miss! We tick all the boxes. We were the
first institution in Australia to be built with a designated music wing, a dedicated drama wing,
a dedicated art wing. We were the first. Churchlands copied us. They came later. That’s
where it went and it was agreed. We should do this”.
Bob Peter became an enthusiastic supporter and asked Alan to set up three subcommittees to
prepare the proposals. Jean Farrant was put in charge of the Music Subcommittee, Bryant
McDiven in charge of the Art Committee and David Hough in charge of the Drama
Committee. All reported back to Alan True and he had the role of putting it all together. Five
separate proposals were prepared, each addressing a different area of the performing arts. But due to limited time there was no opportunity to actually bind the submissions into one book.
In Alan’s words:
We only had time to do a folder for each one and we put each section of the
submission in an overall folder. We recycled the program folder from the
performance of The Beggars Opera, which we’d done a few years earlier, because it
was there. We didn’t have to do anything extra. It saved time. We handed these out.
Then one of the panel members said: “This is wonderful! Where did you get this idea
from? We can take it apart. We can look at the music. We can look at the drama. We
can look at the art. They thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, so we
won.
After careful considerations of all the proposals, and seeing the need to establish education
courses for post secondary students, not only in music but across the whole of the performing
arts sector, the Committee concluded that the required facilities would be most effectively
provided by an institution specifically designed for the purpose. This was accepted by the
Government and Mount Lawley College was invited to prepare a detailed proposal for the
establishment on its campus of the proposed institution. In May 1979, the Commission
recommended to the Minister of Education that a Western Australian Academy of Performing
Arts be established at Mount Lawley College. The Minister accepted this recommendation,
and the Academy was officially opened on 3 December 1979, by the Premier of Western
Australia, the Hon Sir Charles Court, KCMG, OBE, MLA (Mount Lawley College, 1979, p.
18).
The Mount Lawley Teachers College Director, Dr Neil Stewart, seconded Dr J. Maxwell
Collins to be the Inaugural Acting Director of WAAPA. He threw himself into negotiations
with Perth music and drama identities and with the support of Jean Farrant. Senior leadership
positions were advertised and applications called for internationally. The first head of Music
went to David O’Neill, Organist and Master of the Choristers at St George’s Cathedral, Perth.
Nigel Rideout was appointed as the inaugural Head of Drama, and Dr Geoffrey Gibbs was
appointed as the first Principal of WAAPA.
Once highly qualified staff were appointed, the courses at WAAPA gained strong
professional approval and graduates from the various areas of the performing arts gained
national and international recognition.
It has been a long and winding road from teachers college to WAAPA. It began with a focus
on the need for quality music education in Western Australia and assisting private music
teachers to develop their teaching skills. Next came the building of specialist, stand-alone
performing arts centres within the first new teacher education college in Australia after
WWII. The involvement of the Western Australian Government in identifying post secondary
student needs for education, in the performing arts, resulted in several committees of inquiry
and resultant official reports. All tertiary institutions provided input and in the end Mount
Lawley College was given the task of establishing the Western Australian Academy of the
Performing Arts.
From here the WAAPA story developed in leaps and bounds. But that is a task to be
researched and documented by WAAPA itself. This chapter only presents the events leading
up to the formation of WAAPA.
In conclusion, it is very informative to read the contribution by Jean Farrant who worked
tirelessly toward the formation of WAAPA and was appointed as a permanent member of the
WAAPA staff. Here are her memories:
W.D.Neal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, gave Dr Neil
Stewart, Director of Mt Lawley College, a sum of money to establish the Academy. Of
immediate concern were facilities and programs needed in dance and Dr Stewart
consulted with Dame Peggy van Praagh, then Alan Alder and Lucette Aldous for
guidance. Dr Max Collins and Len McKenna were sent overseas to look at facilities
and courses for performing arts institutions.
The first course to be introduced at WAAPA was a diploma for Music Teachers. For
many years the W.A. Music Teachers’ Association had been concerned at the
standard of teaching of many private music teachers earning a living in the
community. In an effort to improve the situation they formed a committee in the
second half of the 1970s, to develop a course for the training of private music
teachers. I was a member of this committee as it was decided that this course would
be taught at Mt Lawley. All the details had been decided upon by the end of 1979 and
the diploma started at the Academy at the end of March 1980 (Annual Report, 1980,
p. 5).
There was no problem finding staff to teach the students, because it was the
brainchild of the Music Teachers’ Association. Of more importance however was the
fact that Vaughan Hanly, Concert Master of WASO at the time, was a member of the
Zink committee. He fully endorsed the recommendations it made and encouraged
other members of WASO to be peripatetic teachers for the enrolled students.
The first intake of 24 students admirably fulfilled the recommendations of the Zink
report. Seventeen were already teachers, who had decided to upgrade their teaching and performance skills. There were university graduates, and there were also school leavers looking at teaching as their future profession. Four were prepared to teach in the country, another area of need recognised by the Zink report.
The course was so successful that in later years some of these students became examiners for the Australian Music Examinations Board, contributed significantly to the curriculum of
the AMEB and were active members of the Music Teachers’ Association. As an
examiner and later Chief Examiner for the TEE (now known as ATAR) I noticed a
significant improvement in the quality of the performances and general skills of the
candidates as the years progressed.
The Australian Society of Music Education, in which I took an active role, was an
important organisation within Perth at the time and its chairman, Doris Dival, was a
member of a music committee involved in the 1979 150th celebrations for Perth. When
its affairs were wound up at the end of the year there was a surplus of funds and
Doris persuaded the committee to donate the money to the Academy for a Certificate
for Country Music Teachers. This duly happened and students were enrolled as far
away as Esperance and Ravensthorpe.
With all this interest from significant music organisations in Perth one would have
thought that the music department of the Academy would really flourish as the years
went on. However, there was the important factor that there was already a well established
tertiary music department at UWA which provided strong competition.
The Academy needed more students with talent and it was decided that a
Conservatorium of Music would be introduced at Mt Lawley with a salary for a Dean,
which would attract somebody of worth.
Alan Bonds, a string teacher in Perth, is to be congratulated that he had the inspiration to contact Richard Gill, an outstanding music educator at the prime of his career who accepted the position. Richard’s charismatic personality and very clear understanding of what was required quickly changed the scene at Mt Lawley. It entered the halcyon years when students won scholarships and became part of the opera scene at a national and international level, including Glyndebourne and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, while instrumental
students were welcomed to State orchestras around Australia. Highly trained staff
from different parts of the world were part of a very exciting music program and at
least two students completed their doctorates in music at Rochester University in
America. One of them is now a lecturer at UWA.
Jean Farrant