Breaking barriers: CDU TAFE’s largest female student cohort leads the way in live production

It’s girls to the front for this year’s Certificate IV in Live Production and Technical Services, with the Charles Darwin University (CDU) TAFE course marking the enrolment of its largest ever female student cohort in what is traditionally a male-dominated field.  

Almost three quarters of primary workers (including artistic directors, stage managers and light, sound and performing arts technicians) within Australia’s live music sector are male (73 per cent), according to a 2023 report by the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Communications and the Arts. 

CDU student Swahnnya De Almeida is looking to turn those numbers around.  

The Sri Lanka-born, Territory-based creative clocked a more than decade long career in science and teaching before recently taking a year off to pursue her first love - the performing arts. 

Volunteering across productions with the Darwin Chorale, Darwin Fringe Festival and performing as the lead in the Darwin Theatre Company’s Romeo and Juliet, she recently finished her “biggest gig to date,” volunteering as Assistant Stage Manager for Mary Poppins – the Broadway Musical (Superstar Productions) managing a two-story set with 150+ props. 

Enrolling in the Cert IV in Live Production and Technical Services was a way to formalise her skills. 

“We’re three and a half weeks in and having done a couple of higher education degrees, I'm really appreciating how hands on and job ready the CDU TAFE course is - there's a big difference there,” she said. 

Acknowledging the technical industry and live production field as still “very male dominated,” she noted achieving gender parity in the workplace wasn’t only important in the creative arts, but in all aspects of Australia’s workforce. 

“And that's the same in terms of diversity as well,” she continued.  

“Australia is so culturally and linguistically diverse, we should have that reflected back in our workplaces - that's only going to feed back into more inclusivity in terms of workplace practices which is a good thing for everyone.”

It's a sentiment echoed by CDU Faculty of Arts and Society Lecturer in Technical Production, Angus Robson. 

"This level of female representation is well overdue and speaks to an exciting cultural shift in live production, a shift CDU is proud to lead,” he said.

CDU is a proud sponsor of Brown’s Mart’s 2025 Education Program.