lutruwita // Hobart

Alison

Stanton-Cook

DIRECTOR, SCREENWRITER

actor & acting coach

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Bio

Acting a fool. Gladly.

Hello! I am an actor and someone who teaches acting. Or as I like to think, someone who facilitates other actors to make meaningful discoveries. To begin at the beginning... (Under Milk Wood - Dylan Thomas) I was in love with acting my whole life, until I wasn't. After spending three years at Actors Centre Australia with incredible teachers, I graduated, got an agent, had lukewarm success and then dropped it like a hot potato. I was sick of it hurting me. I was sick of feeling not enough. But of course, that's not where this intro ends.

Many jobs, two daughters, one relocation back to Hobart and a wonderful partner in life later - I got bitten by the acting bug again. A passion I thought I'd expelled from my body was suddenly all I could think about. I started teaching Screen Acting at Musical Theatre Crew and it was like I was truly where I was meant to be. I have fallen for the craft, rediscovered the classic techniques, obsessively pulled apart the likes of Laban and Yat Malmgren's work until my brain has exploded. And I've felt welcomed, supported and seen. And that's how I want my students to feel. Like expanding, breathing, just BEING is absolutely enough. And everyone has a place.

My aim is to continue my creative journey in the performing arts, growing I have with my contemporaries, mentors, teachers and students. I am passionate about helping young actors feel

Matrilineal regurgitation

work

Acting Classes

Musical Theatre Crew

I began teaching Screen Acting with Musical Theatre Crew in February 2021 and the Screen Acting classes have now expanded to include a Foundations group, an Advanced class, open aged Screen Acting Intensives and soon, 2 day holiday workshops for younger aged actors.

Each term we work on scenes from a wide variety of sources selected to enhance the understanding of a certain technique or in reaction to a trend or popular genre, given students a chance to prepare for professional roles. In term 3 we shoot showreel scenes, most recently filming in the incredible Oi Studios with direction from award winning Director (and all around great guy) Rob Stanton-Cook.

For more information about Screen Acting classes in 2023, please email: hello@musicaltheatrecrew.com

Laban

The work of Laban, Yat Malmgren and William Carpenter has had a profound effect on me. I see this work (which for the sake of brevity, I'll just refer to as Laban) as a way to intimately understand your own body and it's instinctual understanding of the world.

To me, Laban is a technical understanding of the most organic process of all, being a human. It's a roadmap of what behaviours that occur when we have an outcome we want or an obstacle in our way. It's not something you can predetermine, but it deepens your understanding of a character's journey moment to moment, reaction to reaction. I have taught Laban in my Screen Acting classes and have seen the most powerful work occur when an actor understands their character's objectives through the Laban prism. Not only have they been entirely present and embodied, but the emotional journey has been so deeply experienced and truthful.

I am incredibly fortunate to have been given the gift of many hours with my mentor, Adrian Barnes who has given me years worth of his teachings and insights. I hope to run Laban workshops in Hobart and continue to enrich my understandings of this work.

I am currently investigating the possibilities of using Laban to help young actors in emotionally challenging roles, as I believe it's a way of being incredibly truthful and vulnerable but doesn't require an actor to recall their own experiences.

Intimacy Coordinator

ROE short film.

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