Penelope Chater

Penelope is regarded as one of Australia's most experienced professional acting teachers having taught for over 30 years. She is a graduate of both NIDA and the Drama Centre London.

She has taught for the Nimrod Theatre, NIDA, the VCA and the CPA Adelaide to name a few. She has also collaborated with various artists writing shows - most recently In the Arms of a Lion at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Penelope teaches the Stanislavsky method, derived from Uta Hagen at the HB Studio in New York and Character Analysis developed by Yat Malmgren, who established The Drama Centre in London.

Penelope established the Drama Studio in Sydney where she directed and taught for twelve years.

Character Analysis was conceived by movement theorist Rudolph Laban and further developed by Yat Malmgren. Yat's students included Anthony Hopkins, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Connery, Colin Firth, Paul Bethany and director, Peter Brook. This technique addresses character types and Penny is one of the most respected and hailed teachers of Yat's work.

Penny's Philosophy

An actor is a virtuoso performer who needs unimpeded access to their inner depths both physically and emotionally, to be in free flow. They need to be highly tuned beings - physically, vocally and psychologically - to inhabit any character they may wish to become. Character Analysis is a unique, detailed, rigorous diagnostic tool that enables such transformation.

Character Analysis gives actors a unique language to interpret and understand oneself and others - both in life and art. It is a vehicle for embodying direction - a distinctive, multifaceted palette from which to draw on - so that you could potentially 'shift on a nuance'.