MAKING HISTORY

Acting School Founders

Dean Carey and Stan Kouros met as actors in Melbourne, Australia, in 1979, whilst performing at the Comedy Theatre. They discovered they shared a mutual love, excitement and commitment to the arts. When Dean returned from a study and teaching tour of the United States in 1986, he had an idea to set up a centre for the continuing development and education of Australia’s professional actors.

They both set out and found the perfect venue to launch, house and nurture ACA - an 1880, heritage-listed abandoned church in the inner city suburb of Surry Hills, Sydney.

On June 27th, 1987, the doors opened. Without any government or private sponsorship, ACA remains to this day completely self-sustaining and self-supporting. The actors, students, teachers, administration staff and the technicians all came. ACA was what it set out to be – a hub of connection, a generator of ideas and initiatives, a place to come to study, to grow, to learn and to extend oneself in every way possible. Artistic education and development requires a highly specialised and specific environment in which to flourish. Since 1987, ACA has pursued its vision and continues to expand and develop and integrate all that’s necessary to maintain a performing arts centre of education and excellence.

Over the early years of ACA’s growth, a number of deeply passionate and committed industry members contributed enormously to the development and evolution of ACA. These people include:

Paul Weingott
Ross McGregor
Richard Hayes-Marshall
Liz Burton
Aarne Neeme
Tanya Gerstle
Chrissie Koltai
Deborah Paul

We wish to express our deep and sincere thanks to them all. For some, their careers led them in new directions. For others, they stayed on the teaching staff for up to 18 years and helped influence and steer ACA into the Company it is today. We are so grateful to have attracted such genuine, caring and nurturing artists.