Tiffany Knight

Acting on instinct

Tiffany Knight was nine when she moved from Canada to Australia and she found the new place hard to love initially.

However, her life found its ultimate path in the final year of primary school, as she recounts in her blog.

My class did a play in year six and I made people laugh. I felt like they saw past my crooked teeth, thick glasses and funny accent, my preposterous height and clumsiness. By seeing me as someone else, for the first time they saw me.

Many might believe that acting is the art of pretend, but for Ms Knight, who is studying her PhD while teaching drama as a Scholarly Fellow at Flinders, the stage is a platform for truth and revelations, with no place for fakery.

“Acting is a place where we put our vulnerabilities out there, so human beings can feel that they are not alone,” Ms Knight said. “It’s a way of connecting.”

In the three decades after her primary school epiphany, Ms Knight has racked up eight seasons of Shakespeare in Vancouver, a key role on the Battlestar Galactica TV series, and parts in a clutch of other Hollywood hits, but forsook the northern hemisphere to raise her two children in Australia.

Combining parenthood and theatre is critically important for Ms Knight.

“Becoming a parent changes everything in your life, but it can have a really positive effect on your capacity to be vulnerable, to feel a new range of emotions, and to carry that authenticity into new roles on stage,” she said.

“Flinders has had a great history with drama – it’s the oldest drama training program within an academic structure in Australia and great people have come out of the program. It’s a fantastic legacy to be part of.”