Frederick Copperwaite
Frederick Copperwaite has been active in the theatre since 1978 and has extensive experience, working variously, as an actor, theatre director, theatre producer, dramaturge and acting teacher, both in Australia and abroad.
He has performed in over 100 plays and his numerous television and film credits include work with international actors and film makers such as Julie Christie, William Hurt, Richard Obrien, SammoHung, Bill Butler, Keifer Sutherland and Jackie Chan.
Frederick is a co-founder and artistic director of the NSW based Aboriginal performing arts company, Mooghalin Performing Arts. He has worked as an arts educator with the Bell Shakespeare Company since 2007 and since 2011 he has been head of Theatre and Screen Performance Studies at Eora College of Aboriginal Studies, Centre for Visual and Performing Arts in Redfern NSW.
I have known Ira Seidenstein personally and professionally for almost 30 years. We have worked together on a number of exciting, groundbreaking new theatre projects in that time. We have acted together, directed together, written and devised together and taught together. One of the great joys of my own long and diverse career is to have had the opportunity to have worked with Ira and to have shared so many wonderful experiences in the theatre with him.
Not only is Ira a uniquely gifted and experienced performer but he is also a master teacher, whose complete commitment to deepening and broadening his own theatre practice serves as a continual source of inspiration to those who are lucky enough to have the opportunity to study and learn from him.
All those who take his classes come away with a real and practical respect for what it means to devote your life to the work. Ira's classes successfully balance the very important exploration and application of performance technique with an easy fun sense of self-discovery, artistic freedom, and creative fluidity.