Musical Theatre Educator - Denis Follington

In 1983, something was happening in the Western states – the birth of a training course focused entirely on the Musical Theatre. There was no music theatre education in the country, and after starting the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Dr Geoff Gibbs made the creation of the course his next goal.

For nearly 20 years, Denis Follington was on the staff of this much sought Musical Theatre BA at WAAPA. The course has graduated students including Meow Meow, Eddie Perfect, Lisa McCune, Dean Bryant, Lucy Durack, Rodney Dobson, Carmel Dean and Simon Gleeson. In 1997, he took the helm and steered the course for another 3 years as Head of the department.

The course garnered a national reputation for producing graduates who were prepared, focused, knowledgable and dependable. WAAPA graduates walked into the country’s commercial musicals – and proved themselves adept at television and plays too.

Impressed with the success of the course at WAAPA, he was lured by Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore to build a Music Theatre course of their own, attracting students from around the world.

STAGES spoke to Denis about the essentials of such an education, the history of the course at WAAPA and his first cast recording of a Broadway show.