Box Hill Tafe, Melbourne

Can I recommend something else? Swinburne and NMIT run courses that do tech. Granted, it's a combination of tech and acting, but I did it (I'm a tech and knew going in I'd have to suffer through certain aspects of Swinburne's course) and it was an excellent way to learn. They are full time, but very in depth. I started not knowing any lighting or sound design and came out being able to work professionally in a number of local venues doing both. (Again, I haven't heard much about Box Hill, but have heard a little about Holmesglen. I don't know enough about either to compare to either Swin or NMIT, but my guess is the latter are better known) Otherwise, you can look into various short courses (certificates if I recall correctly) run by some of the production companies. If you visit Julius Media for example, they run courses; Showtech does some too. As for having more experience before entering a course, there's not a lot of ways except for amateur shows and doing a certificate. However, if you sign up as a general stage hand with larger production companies (again, Showtech comes to mind), they are generally good places to start. I'm pretty sure though, that doing that would require a fairly decent background doing amateur shows. In terms of getting into small productions: I recommend highly going and volunteering for bump ins, front of house, and whatever else at the upcoming Melb Fringe Festival. This is a good way to get your face in the crowd (some of the festival people still recognise me even if I've met them once several years before seeing them a second time), experience what goes on, and make some good contacts. I did a few years of volunteering and eventually ended up being one of their paid stage managers one year, so it's definitely worthwhile checking out. Also, look into doing volunteer work with local companies. Generally it means doing FOH or admin stuff, but if you offer yourself up as a bump in/out volunteer, then you'd definitely get some experience that way. I do think perhaps that no one is willing to give you a go, because as mentioned before, tech roles require working with a lot of expensive equipment where you'd need some training in safe usage. In fact, I recall my lighting lecturer stating that legally, to do rigging you would need some formal training to do it (don't quote me on that). You might want to look at getting a rigging licence or other such licence (test and tag, etc), which would make you more employable. Again, other than having training, the best places to get experience would be with amateur groups. There's no reason why you can't travel, and then return and apply for the university/TAFE courses. Most of them prefer people with 'life experience', and all of them accept mature age students too. (The oldest person in my class - I was one year out of school at the time - was in their mid 30s) Puppets and patterns at Puppets in Melbourne