Rate My Professor Helen Trenos

Dr Helen Trenos is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry within the Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University, where she serves as Course Lead for the Bachelor of Creative Arts and Acting Major Lead for Theatre Arts. She earned her PhD in English and Cultural Studies from the University of Western Australia in 2009 and a Master's degree from Edith Cowan University. Previously, she held the position of Head of Theatre and Program Director for Theatre at the University of Tasmania's School of Creative Arts, along with adjunct lecturer and professorial roles. Trenos directs student productions at Curtin’s Hayman Theatre, including Finegan Kruckemeyer's At Sea, Staring Up (2025), Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector (2024), and Andrew Bovell's When the Rain Stops Falling (2023). She leads professional development initiatives such as Ignite Mentoring and facilitates student-directed theatre projects through Curtin Extra programs.

Trenos’s academic interests encompass theatre performance, actor creativity, pedagogy, and experiential learning. Her principal publication is the book Creativity: the Actor in Performance (2014), which provides insights into the creative processes essential for actors during live performances. She has also published the article Creatics (2010) and contributed analyses of contemporary theatre to The Conversation, including a review of a production of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Demonstrating expertise in actor training, collaborative learning, and faculty development, Trenos integrates scholarly research with practical theatre practice, significantly shaping theatre education and supporting emerging artists in Australia.