Bringing the best in the world to WAAPA

In partnership with Minderoo Foundation, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) has announced two exciting long-term theatrical projects with world-class arts practitioners.

As part of the Minderoo Visiting Artists program, WAAPA has initiated two, three-year residencies with Australian musical theatre legend, Eddie Perfect, composer of Beetlejuice the Musical, and internationally acclaimed UK theatre company, Cheek by Jowl.

As well as delivering classes at WAAPA throughout the residencies, the visiting artists will develop new works with the students. Perfect has been commissioned to create a brand-new Australian musical theatre work for WAAPA's Music Theatre students, and Cheek by Jowl will develop and stage a new production of a classic text from the Elizabethan/Jacobean period with the Acting students.

WAAPA students rehearsing.

These projects will also involve students from a wide range of disciplines including Dance, Aboriginal Performance, Music, and Production & Design, as well as arts organisations and community groups beyond WAAPA.

Building on the success of 2022's flagship collaboration with Germany's Pina Bausch Foundation, and following six years of Minderoo Foundation's support for the Visiting Artists program, these extraordinary residencies now underway will culminate in performance seasons marking the transformational opening of ECU City in semester one, 2026.

With the move from WAAPA's current location in Mount Lawley to the new ECU City campus in the heart of Perth, WAAPA will join the ranks of renowned inner-city performing arts conservatoires such as New York’s Juilliard School, London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts.

In keeping with this aspirational move, the residencies will provide WAAPA's students with world-class training from internationally acclaimed arts practitioners. The project will conclude with the world premiere of a new Australian musical by Eddie Perfect, and Cheek by Jowl’s production of a classic text.

Minderoo Foundation's Head of Social Activation & Connection Andrew Baker said, "Minderoo Foundation is excited that artists of such a high international calibre will be coming to Perth to work with WAAPA students on unique major projects over a sustained period. We're proud to support WAAPA to offer such incredible opportunities for our best emerging artists."

Australian musical theatre legend and WAAPA graduate, Eddie Perfect, will create a new Australian musical theatre work for WAAPA's Music Theatre students.

Eddie Perfect, who graduated from WAAPA's Music Theatre course in 2001, is one of Australia's most talented and respected polymaths. Most widely known for his role as Mick Holland in Channel Ten's TV series Offspring, the award-winning lyricist, composer, playwright, musician, comedian and performer burst onto Australia's arts scene in 2008 with his hit musical comedy Shane Warne: The Musical, for which he picked up a Helpmann, Greenroom and Victorian Premier's Literary Award.

Since then, his stage works include Vivid White, The Beast, Strictly Ballroom, Songs from the Middle and King Kong Live on Broadway. His work as composer of Beetlejuice the Musical on Broadway won him a nomination for Best Original Score at the 2019 Tony Awards. It was recently announced in national media that Beetlejuice the Musical is set to make its Australian premiere at Melbourne's Regent Theatre in 2025.

Since it was founded in 1981 by director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod, Cheek by Jowl has been invited to perform in over 400 cities and 50 countries across the world, and currently produces work in English, Italian, French and Russian.

The company has established an international reputation for bringing 'fresh life to the classics using intense, vivid performances like a laser of light to set the text ablaze' (The Guardian). As co-Artistic Directors of Cheek by Jowl, Donnellan and Ormerod will share their renowned expertise with WAAPA's Acting students in a series of workshops and rehearsals that will culminate in the performance of a classic dramatic work.

WAAPA's Executive Dean, Professor David Shirley, believes these two residencies will foster deep, sustained training for the WAAPA students.

"In partnership with Minderoo Foundation, we are bringing the best in the world to WAAPA," he says. "By enabling our students to benefit from working with accomplished and highly acclaimed artists and performance practitioners, WAAPA will prove instrumental in inspiring and empowering the next generation of performance makers."

"We can't wait for the public to see the two truly remarkable performances that will celebrate WAAPA's move into ECU's brand-new city campus."

To find out more about ECU City Campus visit the website.