Theatre brings safety training to life

24 July 2020

Acting Consulting Training (ACT AUSTRALIA) delivered the play ‘NIMROD’ for the Australian Defence Force as part of the Senior Leader’s Forum in Henderson, WA and more recently as a catalyst for cultural reset of the Explosive Ordnance (EO) safety culture within Defence.

Extending the reset, ACT will also be performing the play on day one of Parari 2017. NIMROD will use re-created footage and the live performances of actors set over 30 years, to highlight the importance of best practice culture within EO safety.

Director of ACT AUSTRALIA, Mrs Susan Fleming explained 'the play highlights the critical importance of best practice in safety and the impact of culture on decision-making. This is an approach to ‘lessons learned’ that is highly engaging, with great impact.'

ACT AUSTRALIA brought the global best practice platform of industrial theatre productions including NIMROD to Australia under a licence agreement with UK-based AKT Productions in London five years ago.

'We are the sole licensee outside the UK and the experience we have had working in the UK and in Australia with major hazard industries confirms that the emotional impact of theatre, offers increased knowledge and understanding about the impact of culture on safety,' Mrs Fleming said.

SOCOPS and the ADF Fuels Symposium were the first Defence audiences to experience the work, in Canberra.

'We are delighted to bring NIMROD to Parari. It’s an excellent opportunity to broaden the scope of the EO cultural reset, engaging people from across the Australian and international EO community,' Mrs Fleming said.

ACT AUSTRALIA were supported by the Centre for Defence Industry Capability (CDIC) to showcase NIMROD at the senior Defence forum at Henderson (Western Australia), so that more critical stakeholders in Defence and defence industry contractors could experience the theatre-based workshop model.

'This was pivotal in our exposure to Defence, and was the catalyst for further development of our relationships in Defence. The grant and expertise provided by CDIC has enabled the pilot phase to be fast-tracked to actual contracts in under a year,' Mrs Fleming said.

'We are well-supported by our relationships with the CDIC in WA and look forward to continuing that relationship to increase our work in Western Australia,' Mrs Fleming said.

ACT AUSTRALIA will also support Defence with the internationally accredited Leading Incident Investigations training, using actors to engage an increase skills in this critical area. The International Institute of Chemical Engineers peer-reviewed and accredited the program in 2016 and 2017.

ACT AUSTRALIA provides employment to more than 40 actors, directors and facilitators across Australia with the head office in Perth and offices in Brisbane and Sydney.  ACT provides learning and development that covers theatre-based learning workshops and filmed productions. The team include specialists in risk and incident investigation, human resources, human factors, health and safety, mental health and innovation.