Dissatisfied by the state of Australian theatre, Allan Ashbolt, Peter Finch, Sydney John Kay,

Colin Scrimgeour and John Wiltshire founded the Mercury Theatre in Sydney in 1946.
Subsequently the Mercury Theatre School was formed, where Allan Ashbolt lectured
students on theatre history and Peter Finch taught Stanislavsky- based acting. The Mercury
Theatre closed its operation in 1953 (Parsons 1995: 363– 64). Hayes Gordon, an
American actor who had studied acting with Lee Strasberg and Sanford Meisner in New
York, contributed to the post-war development of Australian actor training. Gordon taught
acting from the time he arrived in Australia in 1952. He was brought to Australia by J. C.
Williamson to star in Kiss Me Kate. Im- porting lead actors and even complete casts to
Australia from the US and Britain to perform in major productions was common practice
at the time (Parsons 1995: 18). Gordon commenced his teaching in Australia by giving
backstage classes for the
cast of Kiss Me Kate. These classes eventually grew into the Ensemble Theatre, which he
established in Sydney, in 1958. Hayes Gordon directed over 60 produc- tions for the
Ensemble Theatre and classes were held at the theatre at the week- ends. At this time the
classes were in acting theory, conducted solely by Gordon. Students were expected to find
their own voice and movement teachers, as the facilities at the theatre did not support
these types of classes.² Actors attending classes provided virtually all the casts in
Ensemble Theatre productions. In 1973 Gordon formalised the classes and established the
school, subsequently named the Ensemble Studios (Ensemble Studios website n.d.). The
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) is Australia’s most famous drama school. It is
an independent