Top Performing Arts Universities in New Zealand!

New Zealand has a number of thriving performing arts institutions with esteemed alumni working on Broadway, touring theatre, local theatre, TV and film! Below, BroadwayWorld rounds up the top performing arts schools in New Zealand. Check out the list below!

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Victoria University of Wellington

From Shakespeare to Shortland Street, from a simple chalk square to the most elaborate multimedia setting, Theatre offers the seductive possibility of getting into someone else's skin, of seeing life through a new pair of eyes.

A Bachelor of Arts (BA) major in Theatre at Victoria gives you an opportunity to understand this impulse and what it means for an individual or a society. And it offers the opportunity to act on this impulse yourself using the resources of the Theatre programme's own fully equipped theatre, Studio 77.

Wellington has New Zealand's most vibrant theatre community, alive with both mainstream and fringe performance, and, with the New Zealand International Arts Festival, hosts innovative overseas acts. It is also home to the country's most exciting and quickly expanding film industry.

Theatre at Victoria is a foundation for creativity and career paths in both stage and screen.

Learn more here.

The University of Auckland

Drama exists as texts which we can study, but is only fully realised when a dramatic text becomes live in performance. The study of drama is therefore academic (the analysis of texts) and creative (acting, designing, writing and directing).

Drama is an ideal medium for addressing issues of contemporary relevance and debate. Historical and ancient dramatic texts are also often updated to the technology and conventions of modern theatre. An understanding of historical and cultural changes in theatre is therefore necessary to all practical drama.

Study options in Drama

Drama is available for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and is co-ordinated within English, Drama and Writing Studies in the School of Humanities.

Learn more here.

Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School

The Bachelor of Performing Arts (Acting) is a three year intensive degree programme that is designed to train a Responsive Actor. This is an actor who has the courage, skill and flexibility to meet any opportunity as they build a career in the arts. As an actor in training at Toi Whakaari you will work across screen and live performance in class, studio and realised productions. You will work solo, in ensemble and in collaboration with other training artists in Design, Costume and Management.

Learn more here.

The University of Waikato

In Theatre Studies you learn about performance, the evolution of theatre and the creation of performance works.

In Aotearoa/New Zealand there are examples of many forms of theatrical performance, both established and traditional, and also new and experimental. The live encounter at the centre of a performance makes theatre unique, and it is this uniqueness which shapes the nature of Theatre Studies at Waikato.

The Theatre Studies programme uses a theory-through-practice approach to teaching and learning. A major in Theatre Studies is a rich and challenging pathway to an undergraduate Arts degree which can have a wide range of vocational applications. Many papers offer the opportunity for a focused practical study of performance, while others offer analytical approaches to the theories which have informed practice over the centuries. Two papers have public performance seasons as their main outcomes and the study process is closely linked to the process of page-to-stage, or idea-to-stage, which creates the performance.

The practical tutorials, seminars and rehearsals take place in the theatre laboratory space, The New Place Theatre/Te Tapere Hou, and/or The Playhouse Theatre at the purpose-built Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, which is also the venue for public performances.

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University of Otago

Drawing on the rich diversity of theatrical expression in different cultures and eras, Theatre Studies at Otago offers you an exciting, stimulating combination of practical skills and academic training, preparing you for a range of careers both within and beyond theatre and the performing arts.

We are a relatively small programme, which allows us to give you individual attention and allows you to test out ideas in a stimulating and creative environment.

You can take papers that allow you to explore the full range of theatrical study, from the study of Shakespeare in performance, to devising and performing your own work.

We have a fully equipped theatre (Allen Hall) and a Lunchtime Theatre programme.

Learn more here.

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