The Illawarra Performing Arts Centre is home to The Drama Studio, a dynamic drama school established in 1988 by Fiona Gabb-Finley. The Drama Studio offers drama classes for school students from Kindergarten through to Year 12 throughout the school year.

Classes run for 90 mins each week and follow the school term.

In Term 1, students work on a variety of different approaches to theatre performance. This is dependent on their age group. These include physical theatre, characterisation, commedia dell'arte, devising theatre, text interpretation, absurdism, teacher-in-role, storytelling, improvisation and many other styles of theatre.

In Term 2, each class begins working on a scripted workshop performance designed to demonstrate the skills they have learned throughout the term.

In Term 3, students return to learning new acting skills.

The final term of the year culminates in a production performed in the Bruce Gordon Theatre at the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre. Primary classes work together, as do high school classes.