Source:  The Australian (Sydney, Australia), Oct 4, 1999 p005.
                                                                              
    Title:  School trains actors to be people of many parts.(Local)

Byline: BEN HOLGATE


ACTOR David Wenham got his first big break when knocked back by NIDA as a
starry-eyed 18-year-old from Marrickville.


Instead, the star of ABC's SeaChange and the award-winning film The Boys was
accepted as one of the first degree students in Theatre Nepean's drama course
in Sydney's outer west, then considered by many as a second-rate course for
aspiring actors.


Wenham says his training -- not just in acting, but also lighting, stage
management and marketing -- made him self-sufficient in an industry renowned
for unemployment rates of 90-plus per cent.


``Nobody had even heard of the institution,'' he said about trying to get work
after graduating in 1986. ``It was really like hitting your head against a
brick wall.''


Nepean last month officially opened its new $12million Centre for Contemporary
Performance, part of the University of Western Sydney, which boasts nine
studios. It's a far cry from Wenham's days, when the one location was a tin
shed with concrete floor.


He says Nepean's emphasis on creating your own work sets it apart from other
drama schools. It was a fellow graduate who introduced him to the play The
Boys. Wenham picked it up as associate producer for the movie that many years
later helped to propel him to fame.


Leading playwright Stephen Sewell, who wrote the screenplay for The Boys, said
that newer drama schools like Nepean were ``a lot more prepared to take
risks''.


Sewell's play Sisters is part of Nepean's graduation season, which opens on
October 13 at Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf 2 venue.


Student Catherine Wright, who also has an economics degree, said young actors
were increasingly creating their own work to get a foothold in the industry.
                                                                              
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