ABOUT VETA

The End of an Era

After six fabulous seasons VETA will be closing its doors. Our goal was to produce actors with a set of skills that would help them navigate the professional world. We strove to show them the balance between the discipline it takes to be an actor, but also the open sense of play and the vital importance of the imagination. We have created an extended community not only of students but also faculty members and artists who have joined us over the years and we feel so grateful to have had this time with all of you. Whoever stepped through the doors at VETA could not deny its spirit.  It is hard to say good bye and even harder to try to capture our journey in just a few words.

VETA welcomed our first cohort of students in September 2018. At this point we had the students, the curriculum and the team, but we had not yet settled on a venue. We held classes in a rented studio until we had the great fortune of finding our home at Währinger Strasse 6-8. With our first cohort we had a wonderful group of incredibly international students (including America, Ireland, Estonia, Italy, France, Austria, Portugal, Macedonia, and England). We knew we were on the right track; attracting such a diverse demographic of like-minded people to join our school. They set the precedent for our fabulous Greek Theatre Productions in their performance of The Bacchae, directed by Richard Knight. The students even took a fieldtrip to Riga, Latvia for a collaboration with the students at RISEBA University (thank you Randall). The arrival of our next wonderful cohort in 2019 was swiftly followed by the onset of the Corona Virus. Our team quickly adapted online curriculum and hybrid classrooms, finding creative ways to keep the training going despite the lockdowns. Our first three main stage shows Great Expectations directed by Owen Lindsay, Animal Farm directed by Brook Hall, and Blue Stockings directed by Helen Tennison, had to be live streamed and performed for a limited audience under strict guidelines. Our students persevered and produced wonderful work. We also started our AFP evening foundation programme and have been delighted to have such incredible students coming through this programme adding to the richness of our school.  Our next cohort was nicknamed The Corona Cohort. They had to be kept small in class size but anyone who saw their performances of Isolation Games directed by Ariana Pullano and Adrienne Ferguson, The Foreigner directed by Brook Hall, Medea directed by Richard Knight, or A Monster Calls directed by Sean Aita, knows that they were mighty.  We made it through the Covid period and welcomed a fabulous new cohort who shone in their productions: Heart Beat directed by Stefanie Summer, Hecuba directed by Helen Tennison, Noises Off directed by Brook Hall and Macbeth directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones. In 2022 we welcomed another wonderful cohort whose Greek production of Electra directed by Richard Knight went on tour to Debrecen, Hungary. They also performed in Parasol directed by Stefanie Summer and Working Title: Chekhov directed by Adrienne Ferguson. We are proud to have them onstage now performing in Nell Gwynn, our final VETA Main Stage Show. In the fall of 2023 we accepted one final amazing cohort to VETA for a one-year programme, as we will be closing our doors at the end of this season. Our new cohort recently performed That’s What She Said directed by Stefanie Summer and Adrienne Ferguson and can be seen in their Greek Production at the Theater Spielraum June 24th and 25th.

Thank you to everyone who has been involved with and supported VETA over the years! A special shout out to our core team of teachers Ariana Pullano, Richard Knight, Brook Hall, and Bronwynn Mertz-Penzinger who were there from the very beginning, to Sean Aita for his invaluable contributions, and Helen Russell for guiding us all through. Thank you also to Stefanie Summer, Rosa Braber, Alan Burgon, Sonja Hanl, Thomas Toppler, Nicholas Allen, Giuseppe Ravi, Terry Chladt, Roman Hargas, and Roberta Brown and our international guests for your invaluable contribution to our programme.

We are open, we are strong, VETA

—Adrienne Ferguson, Principal