A guide to Australian performance for young people In Repertoire
2 3 performance
Dear reader
This guide introduces you to a range of contemporary performances from around Australia for young audiences. These works are available for international touring.
You can find out much more about the works, artists and companies at Ozarts Online (
The overview essay on pages 21–22 provides an accessible introduction to the recent history and context of performance for young people in Australia. DANCE puppetry The Editors Editors Keith Gallasch, Virginia Baxter music theatre Assistant Editor Dan Edwards Design Peter Thorn Design
Cover photographs Left Arena Theatre Company, Gamegirl, photo Jeff Busby graphic design Peter Brundle circus Top right Linsey Pollak, Making Jam, photo Jessica Ainsworth Introduction Bottom right Patch Theatre Company, Sharon, Keep Ya Hair On!, photo Amy Dowd From a very young age, Australians are blessed with the opportunity to engage with creativity through the richness and diversity of Australian Produced by RealTime for the Australia Council the Australian Government’s arts performance for young people. Our younger citizens enjoy a wide range of funding and advisory body superlative performance, including many works designed specifically for them from early childhood years through to adolescence and later as young Published by the Australia Council for the Arts adults. This guide is about works created by adult artists for and with young 372 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills people that are available for international touring. Sydney NSW 2010 Australia PO Box 788 In Australia, contemporary performance for adult audiences takes many Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 forms and traverses many genres, from plays to physical theatre and circus Tel +61 2 9215 9000 works, to music theatre, puppetry and multimedia events. This is no less the Toll free +61 1800 226 912 case with the range of performance options for young people. Some of Fax +61 2 9215 9111 Australia’s leading artists offer the very best in traditional skills and the latest [email protected] innovations in performance practice. Young audiences are being presented www.ozco.gov.au with works that both entertain and stimulate.
RealTime Film, video and digital animation, for example, have been expertly PO Box A2246 introduced into stage works for young people, reflecting the technological Sydney South NSW 1235 media-world in which they live. Exciting forays into digital animation build on +61 2 9283 2723 fax +61 2 9283 2724 a rich history and culture of puppetry realised in many different forms across [email protected] the continent. Performances for young people explore the classic themes of www.realtimearts.net childhood and adolescence, addressing themes of self and transformation, responsibility and conflict, but also introduce contemporary global issues of © Commonwealth of Australia 2004 environment, technology, race, gender, the body and cultural identity with This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by due seriousness, good humour and theatrical inventiveness. Above all, the any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth available from the Australia Council for the Arts. works in this book encourage a love of performance for its own sake as well Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Managing Editor, Australia as introducing various ways of seeing and being in the world. Council, PO Box 788 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Australia or to
In repertoire : a guide to Australian performance for young people. physical theatre
Bibliography Australia is a culturally and geographically diverse nation, and so too are the works in this book – they represent the very best of Australian performance, ISBN 1 920784 19 5. as well as tackling issues that all young people face and experience as maturing adults. This is what makes Australian performance for young 1. Performing arts – Australia. 2. Entertainers – Australia. 3. Theater – Australia. people ideal for an international audience. I. Gallasch, Keith. II. Baxter, Virginia. III Edwards, Dan. IV. Australia Council. (Series : In repertoire). Much more detail about the works, artists and companies you’ll encounter on these pages can be found at OzArts Online (
Jennifer Bott Chief Executive Officer Australia Council
4 5 Kite Theatre Patch Theatre Company Binni’s Backyard Sharon, Keep Ya Hair On! Hats off to a Huge Binni is a five-year-old girl caught The line between performers and up with telly, toys, fast food and audience is dissolved in this funky, Hit...stunning musical computer games. Forced to turn off funny, wild and wacky trilogy of her TV, Binni packs her bag, takes stories about adapting to change. talent and the tales of a her Teddy and runs away – to her Presented as a rock concert own backyard. Musically and narrative set on floating stages, visually rich, Binni’s Backyard is a Sharon, Keep Ya Hair On! features top children’s writer celebration of Indigenous and non- a mix of interactivity, children’s art, indigenous story-telling and of structured play, live music, songs [Gillian Rubinstein]...what connection to the land. and video projection. The audience 60 minutes, 5 performers becomes part of the performance a dazzling show it is! just as they would in a live studio Kite Theatre is Education television broadcast. Queensland’s early childhood 50 minutes, 5 performers The Advertiser theatre-in-education company, providing innovative shows for Adelaide-based Patch Theatre school children and families for Company has presented works at nearly 30 years. Music, comedy the Sydney Opera House, the and strong visuals are vital Victorian Arts Centre and nine components of the company’s international children’s theatre work, encouraging young festivals in the USA, Canada, audiences to explore ideas. Korea, Japan and Singapore. The Whether performing in schools or company’s repertoire has been public venues, Kite provides carefully crafted over many years by stimulating and relevant theatre. artists dedicated to developing inventive theatre for children. From the moment [the actors] leapt on stage, the cast of Binni’s Backyard had their young audience – and their older carers – entranced. Courier Mail
Terrapin Puppet Theatre
My Sister is an Alien
What happens when your sister gets squashed to the size of a strawberry, caught up in your favourite yo-yo and thrown into outer space? How does the man in the moon travel around the galaxy? ...adventure follows From the irreverent and enormously popular novel My Sister’s an Alien, adventure but there’s Terrapin has created a high-paced, humorous puppet theatre work, challenging and entertaining still time for an children 5–12 years. 55 minutes, 2 performers exploration of family Terrapin creates innovative relationships from a contemporary puppet-based theatre productions for families and adult audiences. The company kid’s eye view. tours nationally and internationally and offers workshops, master The Mercury classes and other training opportunities as well as entertainment for festivals, conferences and community events.
...a tight show with an almost Olympian juggling of puppets, worlds and costume changes by performers. Lowdown
6 7 Linsey Pollak Snuff Puppets & Acrobat
Making Jam Circus Olé
Linsey Pollak at his wildest and Featuring The Big Elephant, most musically inventive. Hear Ferocious Wild Animals, Performing bagpipes made from rubber gloves Dogs, The Parade of Cows and the and flutes, panpipes and clarinets fabulous Farelli Family’s astounding made from garden hoses. Hear aerobatic feats, Circus Olé is circus music made with dental floss, in the time-honoured tradition. carrots, satay sticks, a music stand Combining the magical creations of and a camping stool. Snuff Puppets and the physical 45–60 minutes, 1 performer virtuosity of Acrobat, it’s more fun than you’ve ever had! Performer, musical director, 60 minutes, 12 performers instrument maker/inventor and composer Linsey Pollak is acclaimed Since 1992 Snuff Puppets have for playing instruments he has made been delighting, disgusting from all manner of found objects. horrifying, challenging and His first solo show, Bang it with a entertaining crowds around the Fork, and the acclaimed children’s world. Their performances combine show Out of the Frying Pan, have giant puppets, spectacular visuals, led Pollak to develop a series of solo live music and physical theatre shows which include exciting work indoors and out. The award with digital technology. His music winning Acrobat is committed to theatre performances have toured traditional circus skills performed the world. with bravery, precision and experimentation. Both companies Linsey Pollak is one of Australia’s most brilliant... have toured internationally. [Snuff Puppets’ Scarey] is altogether the most bizarrely composer/ musicians. He is wildly innovative in the entertaining evening I’ve ever spent in the theatre. use of instruments but never lets his experimentation Wiltshire Times, UK get in the way of the musicality of a work. [Acrobat is an] astonishing Aussie troupe who defy gravity and good taste... The Courier Mail The Guardian, UK
Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image Visually brilliant, a stunning The Happy Prince production. An extraordinary, A dramatisation of Oscar Wilde’s beautiful tale of The Prince and The imaginative production offers Little Swallow, a classic story about love and giving filled with some golden moments in tenderness, compassion and gentle humour. This widely acclaimed, children’s theatre and it will award-winning production is brought to life with inventive settings, an outstanding cast and enthral adults too. extraordinary puppetry. 60 minutes, 5 performers The Sunday Times, Perth
Telling stories to children through virtuosic visual and musical images, as well as words, Kim Carpenter’s ...injects contemporary fun into Theatre of Image combines high the look and tone of [this] puppet production values with the and people production. expertise of the best Australian Winnipeg Free Press performing artists. The Happy Prince won the prestigious 2004 Helpmann Award for Best Presentation for Children.
8 9 Morganics Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts Company Crouching Bboy Hidden Dreadlocks True
Like a DJ spinning discs, Three young people contemplate Morganics morphs between sharing a flat, bringing into question characters in this first hand account their personal and cultural from the other side of “the lucky identities. They attempt to country”. Hip hop, physical theatre understand their place in the and stand-up comedy merge in an community as influenced by the autobiographical tale tracing colour of their skin. If our bonds Morganics’ journey from the with our culture have been severed, beginnings of Sydney’s hip hop True asks how we regain what has scene to a performance at the already been lost. This is unique Rock Steady Crew Anniversary in contemporary Indigenous theatre New York. The audience learns to fusing one of the world’s oldest beatbox with opportunities to rap cultures with the latest in film and breakdance. technology. 70 minutes, 1 performer 70 minutes, 5 performers
Solo artist and former member of Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous seminal Australian hip hop group Performing Arts Company is Leaping Loonies MetaBass ‘n’ Breath, Morganics dedicated to developing and (Morgan Lewis) has toured producing contemporary Drawing on circus, vaudeville and internationally and taught hip hop performances that present the silent movies, the Leaping Loonies in jails, community centres and stories of Indigenous Australians incorporate tumbling, balancing, isolated Aboriginal communities all locally and internationally. Since its vaulting, unicycling, fire juggling, Australian Theatre of the Deaf around Australia. His CDs include incorporation in 1993, the company slapstick and group acrobatics into hip hop by Aboriginal performers. has maintained a strong their highly dynamic show. With a Take Two In 2002 Morganics was highly commitment to professionalism and keen sense of Australian larrikinism, commended in the Justice Awards excellence in the arts, and has these hooligan acrobats make the A cross-cultural, gestural, romantic at New South Wales Parliament become a major contributor to the rehearsed look accidental and the comedy. A deaf Australian country House for his work with disadvant- Indigenous artistic community. difficult seem easy, providing an girl meets a deaf student from aged people in regional areas. Kooemba Jdarra has also played a entertainment package that has China at university. The poignancies key role in the ongoing wide appeal for young audiences of first contact are peppered with [Morganics] cuts together text, development and support of and their families. raucous humour as the pair slowly consciousness-raising rap, Indigenous artists and texts. 45 minutes, 3 performers realise they share common ground, story-telling and physical theatre mutually responding to tales of their into a brilliantly entertaining and The Leaping Loonies (Tim Freeman, very different backgrounds. uplifting workshop performance. Daniel Thew and Scott Grove) have 50 minutes, 3 performers City Hub performed throughout Australia, including appearances in the Rugby For 25 years Australian Theatre He’s a charming and engaging World Cup Live Sites entertainment of the Deaf has taken its unique performer. His rhymes are program in 2003 and major arts gestural, physical and visual brilliant... festivals in Sydney, Canberra and language into schools, with subject Sydney Morning Herald Brisbane as well as in pubs, clubs matter ranging from historical to and shopping centres. Their show political, and style from Brecht to for schools was awarded the Frater Beckett. The company’s most Award for excellence in school recent work for teenagers is Aliens, performances in 2000 and 2001. in which an Afghani nurse and a The Loonies have also performed Chinese acrobat flee their homes for festivals and commercial for the safety of Australia to find not promotions in Indonesia, Hong sanctuary but new torments in a Kong and South Korea. detention centre. REM Theatre Company
The Kookaburra Who Stole Partnering leading musicians, the Moon designers and performers from across Australia and around the A greedy bird falls in love with the world in cross-cultural moon and steals it from the night collaborations, REM employs an sky. All the other bush animals try evocative, challenging and to make her laugh so that she will entertaining performance style to open her beak and set the moon create simple yet resonant stories. free. Traditional clapsticks, didjeridu and Aboriginal dance combine with Utterly rapt attention was the a classical ensemble to evoke the order of the hour among several unique characteristics of Australian hundred 4 to 8 year olds animals in a score commissioned watching this bewitching blend to introduce children to the of music, mime and storytelling... instruments of the orchestra. Rarely have I seen so many small Kookaburra has been performed people so thoroughly and with major orchestras and includes happily engrossed. post-show workshops. Scotsman, UK 50 minutes, 3 performers
10 11
Back to Back Theatre
Cow
A surreal, one-man anti-adventure where a simple task is thwarted by a cheeky and explosive technological environment. Young and older audiences alike respond to the simplicity and unpredictable nature of the writing and craft of the performer, Mark Deans. 14 minutes, 1 performer
Back to Back is a company of actors with intellectual disabilities offering a unique perspective on what it is to be human and unconstrained by convention, logic or the imperative to be normal. Back to Back’s spectaculaer Soft shared The Age Critics’ Award for Creative Excellence at the 2002 Melbourne International Festival and subsequently toured to Zurich and Hamburg. Cow has enjoyed critical acclaim across Australia and in Spain, Germany and the UK.
...a gentle parody of a magic act that may have deeper meaning...Cow is well done, short and sweet. Sydney Morning Herald
[Mark Deans is] a modern day Chaplin. The Advertiser
Queensland Theatre Company Queensland Theatre Company is committed to the development of Show professional theatre for young people. Multi-award winning Imagine you threw a birthday party playwright and renowned director and nobody showed up – except Michael Gow is the company’s the coolest girl in the school! And artistic director. Show has toured she hates you. Trapped in a Queensland schools and to the rumpus room on a rainy afternoon, Sydney Opera House. The two radically different children come company’s Backseat Drivers has to terms with each other by putting toured to Korea. on a show. Through showing off, they show who they really are. 43 minutes, 2 performers An energetic and amusing Barking Gecko Hidden Dragons Monkey Baa Theatre for Young Monkey Baa is an innovative escapade...as the boy People company presenting vibrant and Have you ever seen dragons in Established in 1991, Barking entertaining theatrical experiences your dreams? Ever seen one in Gecko is Western Australia’s SPRUNG! for young people. The company’s transforms from a ‘lemon your bedroom? Billowing silk, a premier professional children’s repertoire includes works based on mystical soundscape and martial theatre company, committed to “I should never have done it. No...I the creations of some of Australia’s chicken’ – as his Popo calls him arts action transform a small boy’s creating and presenting just should never have been most skilled writers for young bedroom into a den of dragons. A inspirational and provocative caught!” Fergus Kipper is a 10 year people: Tim Winton’s The Bugalugs – into a confident dragon... young Chinese-Australian tries to theatre for young people aged old with a dream to own the Bum Thief, Gillian Rubinstein’s The come to terms with his family’s 5–17 years. The company performs greatest, fastest bicycle in the Fairy’s Wings and Morris culture through his fascination with in theatre and schools and tours world. His parents will surely buy it Gleitzman’s Worry Warts. 50 minutes of winsome family dragons. He discovers the regionally, nationally and for him? But where trouble leads, importance of his family’s cultural internationally. Fergus follows. SPRUNG! is about ...a gifted ensemble that know entertainment. roots as well as understanding that responsibilities, learning the how to entertain and engage its his own history and culture are boundaries and the joy of being audience...high energy physical The West Australian different. a kid. theatre...refreshing honesty... 55 minutes, 3 performers 60 minutes, 5 performers The Examiner
12 13 Opera Australia’s OzOpera
Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing Zeal Theatre
A delightful children’s opera about The Stones achievement, team work and having trust in yourself. Composed Two boys are charged with by Malcolm Fox, with a libretto by manslaughter after throwing rocks Jim Vilé and Sue Rider, it tells the from a freeway overpass and killing story of a serpent who sets out to a passing motorist. This is a learn singing. It is written in a highly Erth visual & physical inc powerful, fast-paced, physical accessible style featuring a range of re-telling of a true story. entertaining characters. Garden 60 minutes, 2 performers 60 minutes, 5 performers A visually powerful art installation Formed in 1989 by Stefo Nantsou, With its acclaimed arts education and a live interpretation of a Zeal Theatre specialises in creating program, OzOpera performs biological drama. Inhabited by giant original productions for teenagers throughout Victoria and New South stilt-walking insects and an aerial and adults. The company has Wales introducing children between redback spider, the performance created 35 shows for schools, the ages of 5 and 12 to the takes place in a unique theatres and festivals around the experience of opera and enhancing environment inspired by Australia’s world, including The Stones, learning in the areas of music pre-historical Gondwana period. Joyride and Tatau (a joint and drama. With a modular structure, the show production with New Zealand’s can be adapted to suit a variety of Pacific Underground). The Stones Director Christine Anketell keeps performance requirements. With has been translated into more than the simple story moving along live music from purpose-built fifteen languages and performed energetically, designer Richard instruments and no verbal throughout Australia, Asia, North Jeziorny has provided bright language, Garden is highly America and Europe. costumes and a handsome accessible and especially enjoyed flexible set. by children. ...a stunningly good piece of The Age 30 minutes, 7 performers theatre, brilliantly conceived and superbly performed... Erth’s work is based on a Eureka Street fantastical visual aesthetic using giant puppets, stilts, pyrotechnics, inflatables, abseiling and aerial rigging equipment in large-scale ...youth theatre doesn’t get better than this award-winning two-hander. Bizircus site-specific outdoor theatre and roving street performances. The Adelaide Advertiser Boyzircus company collaborates with major museums and galleries in Australia Three fly gangsta dope home boys and New Zealand. hit the pavement in a typhoon of spectacular acrobatics, funky ...fiery performers...innovative rhymes, live electronic music, DJ-ing, Australians. juggling, slapstick comedy and South China Morning Post some pretty ordinary breakdancing. 45 minutes, 4 performers ...an excellent show Polyglot Puppet Theatre For over 12 years Bizircus has Baggy Pants thrilled audiences with their comedy for younger children. and explosive acrobatic stunts. A fantastic adventure set in a Drawing on Chinese and European The Age strange world of clothing, suitable circus traditions, street theatre, for ages 5 and up. Baggy Pants is modern dance and slapstick, the an intriguing combination of troupe synthesises diverse puppetry, dance and music given traditions into its own unique rich and satisfying life through an Australian style. Bizircus creates evocative soundtrack inspired by performances that hurdle language the voices and thoughts of children and cultural barriers. who were involved in the show’s development. 55 minutes, 4 performers
Polyglot Puppet Theatre is one of the oldest puppetry companies in Australia, with a reputation for Bizarre and brilliant! Bizircus are a parody of a excellence, innovation and groundbreaking work in community circus troupe, thriving on eccentric gags rather participation. Responding to a changing cultural climate, Polyglot enriches its creativity by consulting than Moscow-style perfection. and collaborating with children.
Xpress ...[the children] are riveted from the beginning... The Herald Sun
14 15 Queensland Ballet
The Little Mermaid Dance North
One of Hans Christian Andersen’s Alice in Downunderland best loved stories is brought imaginatively to life in this full-length Follow Alice and the Mad Hatter on ballet by choreographer François a tropical adventure as the Klaus. Set to music by Grieg and wonderfully bizarre characters of other Scandinavian composers, the Alice in Wonderland are transposed ballet moves between the realms of to the forests and beaches of North Christine Johnston sea and earth. More than just a fairy Queensland. This magical dance tale, this is a ballet that appeals to work explores issues of difference, Fluff all ages. identity and belonging. 90 minutes, 23 performers 60 minutes, 7 performers The story of two strange but caring women who rescue the world’s lost As the state ballet company, Dance North’s work reflects the toys. This imaginative and visually Queensland Ballet annually rapid changes occurring in the inventive production uses music, undertakes extensive regional and world today from a North movement, design and a bizarre interstate tours. Under Artistic Queensland perspective. The collection of toys to explore the Director and Chief Choreographer, company produces contemporary crossover between traditional François Klaus, the company has dance theatre of the highest calibre playthings and digital technologies. built a strong and varied repertoire, for regional, national and Commissioned for Out of the Box, ranging from classical and modern international audiences, touring the Brisbane festival for children, works to short ballets and pieces extensively in Australia and to Fluff has since toured to the devised especially for children. Vietnam, Japan, Laos, China and Adelaide Festival Centre and the Korea. Sydney Opera House. ...charming mermaid movement 60 minutes, 3 performers vocabulary and imagery that ...magnificent costumes, detailed vividly depicts the ocean and its choreography and brilliant Christine Johnston is one of underwater world. dancing. Australia’s most innovative The Courier Mail Townsville Bulletin performance artists. Since 1988 she has created work for theatre, cabaret and film around the country. Her other productions include the highly acclaimed Decent Spinster, Pianissimo, Kransky Sisters and Madame Lark. She is partnered in Fluff by award-winning dancer Lisa O’Neill and musician Peter Nelson.
One of the most imaginative shows for the young you will find. Highly sophisticated and great fun...The children – and the adults – loved it. The Advertiser
Juxtaposing new technology with handmade toys, this performance was inspired, funny, theatrically clever and sophisticated. Lowdown
TasDance TasDance is a dynamic regionally- Fair Game based company developing innovative, challenging and Inspired by imagery from Australian accessible contemporary dance. author Carmel Bird and an 1832 The diverse stylistic range of the lithograph by Alfred Ducote in which company’s work makes it an ideal women are depicted as butterflies, vehicle for promoting contemporary leading Australian choreographers dance to young people. The Phillip Adams and Natalie Weir company also develops and tours explore themes of entrapment an annual production featuring and release. talented young dance students 80 minutes, 8 performers from around Tasmania. TasDance can’t put a foot wrong. The Examiner
16 17 HotHouse Theatre & Melbourne Expressions Dance Company Theatre Company ...their circus skills are right up Virtually Richard3 Second Childhood there with the best. What’s more, Thrilling dance theatre for Five kids new to high school secondary school dance and discover they are reincarnations of drama students. Richard is an The Flying Fruit Flies bring a famous historical characters. In a attractive but wicked rogue, with no comic story that includes physical need for love or pity. Completely priceless quality of sheer joy and theatre, they set out to try and save self-centred, he lusts only after the planet from its social and danger, excitement and personal youthfulness to their performances. environmental problems. power. Choreographed by Maggi 70 minutes, 6 performers Sietsma, this innovative multimedia show is inspired by Shakespeare’s The Age Based in Albury-Wodonga, Richard III. HotHouse Theatre is at the 80 minutes, 8 performers vanguard of regional theatre practice in Australia. It presents Radical yet accessible, Expressions quality contemporary theatre to pushes the boundaries of dance regional audiences. Second and theatre, creating works in Childhood co-producer, Melbourne which speech, dance and visual Theatre Company, is Australia’s media combine and confront each longest running professional theatre other. Founded in 1985 under the company producing a range of artistic direction of Maggi Sietsma, outstanding shows for their yearly Expressions is acclaimed for its subscription season, as well as their compelling brand of dance theatre. touring and education programs. The company has toured ...a high spirited, contemporary throughout Australia, Asia, Europe Australian work, showcasing a and North America. multi-talented creative team... The Border Mail An audacious, original, aurally and visually gripping performance... El Universal/The Herald, Mexico
Explosive dance theatre... Stuttgarter The Flying Fruit Fly Circus
Zeitung, Skipping on Stars
Germany Tightwire, trapeze, cloud swing and Arena Theatre Company shows to large-scale site-specific web are just some of the high-flying multimedia productions that techniques incorporated in the Gamegirl seamlessly combine cinema, circus magic of Skipping on Stars, theatre, animation and surround celebrating the life of Australian Featuring monsters, mayhem, a sound. Arena won the 2002 Drama Con Colleano, the world’s greatest modern day heroine and Arena’s Victoria Award for Best Performance tightwire performer. internationally acclaimed use of by a Theatre Company for Young 90 minutes, 15 to 17 performers multimedia technology, Gamegirl is People for Play Dirty and the a sophisticated live performance for 1999 ASSITEJ International Albury-Wodonga’s Flying Fruit Fly children. In a thrilling Alice in Honorary President’s Award for Circus produces contemporary Wonderland adventure, Lila “inspiring, provocative and circus performances that have encounters strange but somehow experimental ways of expressing toured nationally and internationally. familiar landscapes on her quest to a new theatrical language...” Founded during the International crack the newly released Gamegirl Year of the Child in 1979, the computer game and meet the Drama that fulfils the underlying company promotes and enhances Stranger Within. promise of what live theatre is the education and cultural 70 minutes, 5 performers supposed to be – namely alive. development of young people by Vancouver Sun, Canada providing high quality circus training. The multi-award winning Arena produces adrenaline-pumping For this theatre company at performances for young audiences least, technology has genuinely aged 5 to 25. The company tours liberated extraordinary nationally and internationally with creative energies. works varying from small in-schools The Age
18 19 Spare Parts Puppet Theatre
Grendel and the Gladiator
An action packed adventure story that leaps from the dark ages to futuristic cybergames. Drawing inspiration from the tale of Beowolf, the show employs shadow and digital puppetry and marionettes in its depiction of a quest to make things right. Perfect for 5–12 year olds and their families. 50 minutes, 3 performers
Spare Parts Puppet Theatre bring Petrushka; The Deep; Hare Brain; together traditional and and Out of the Blue. contemporary influences to create invigorating, unique and ground ...astoundingly inventive, breaking Australian puppetry funny and a novel way to learn theatre for young people. Recent about old English literature works include: H20, set in an and the curse of computer Olympic swimming pool; game addiction. Spellbound, an adaptation of The Australian ...blows your socks off with its sheer energy and physical prowess. The Age Jigsaw Theatre Company
Vin
Friends Joey and Podge are looking for a way to make money and newcomer Vincent has the answer – grow a drug crop in the back shed while their parents are Circus Oz Buzz Dance Theatre Buzz Dance Theatre has presented away. But Vin brings more to the quality contemporary dance theatre lives of Joey and Podge than With masses of energy, the Beat Cake to young audiences since 1985, anticipated. The expectations of physical artistry of ballet and the commissioning innovative, original friends and family, the ambiguity of excitement of a rock concert, Filled with crazy chefs, cooking music, conducting creative sexuality and the desire to live a Circus Oz, Australia’s premier experiments and ridiculous recipes, movement workshops and great life inform the complex contemporary circus company, sets Beat Cake juxtaposes popular and producing resources for teachers to relationships in Vin. pulses racing and adrenaline contemporary dance forms to complement performances. 55 minutes, 3 performers pumping. World renowned for create a highly accessible dance amazing physical skills and larrikin theatre work. The original score by If the reaction from the young Drawing on the creative talents of humour, Circus Oz is spontaneous, Jo19 combines elements of funk, ones is a reliable indication, artists from around Australia, hand crafted and totally bent. jazz, jive, reggae and electronica. Beat Cake is a fully baked, Jigsaw Theatre Company creates 120 minutes, 12–13 performers Using the music and movement of satisfying show with all the professional theatre for audiences our times, Buzz produces a show ingredients necessary to amuse aged 4–26 years old, aiming to Circus Oz has presented seasons that truly cooks. and divert while educating at empower young people by in twenty-four countries on five 50 minutes, 6 performers the same time. expanding their perceptions and continents. Their looting of high The West Australian understanding of theatre and and low culture has completely supporting the professional practice transformed the traditional art of of young and emerging artists. circus. From a glass opera house in the Brazilian rainforest to a 42nd Street theatre in New York, Circus Oz celebrates the strength of the group over the individual.
...a roller-coaster experience which is simultaneously comic, graceful, thrilling and therapeutic. Opera Queensland years encourages them to think throughout the state with its Moving ...a thoughtfully created little The Guardian, UK about issues such as bullying, Opera! program (designed for production which, if used to The Song Bird animal rights and the extinction of secondary schools) and The Song advantage by the schools, can species. Bird (designed for primary schools). be a meaningful door to even A brave girl fights to free the last 60 minutes, 4 performers Opera Queensland also fosters new greater experiences. remaining Song Bird from the artists through its Young and Opera Opera Curiosity Shop of the sinister Mr The company takes opera and Developing Artist Programs. Twister. This wonderful introduction music theatre to primary and to opera for children aged 5 to 12 secondary school students
20 21 Windmill Performing Arts
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
A theatrical translation of a contemporary classic by Australian writer Mem Fox. Guided by the beautiful illustrations of Julie Vivas, a talented team of designers and puppeteers bring Wilfrid’s youthful perspective to the stage through a magical combination of acrobatics and giant puppetry. 60 minutes, 7 performers
Windmill Performing Arts has performed to children and families in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, New York and Montreal. The company provides children and family audiences with a range of high quality experiences that enrich children’s participation in cultural Australian performance for of performance-making that relied quality, relevance and range. In the Australian performance for young life, education and learning. young people: an introduction on extensive research into youth case of Arena, it has laid the people crosses disciplines, blends Windmill’s touring repertoire also experience along with the shaping foundation for award-winning work, genres, and immerses and includes RiverlanD, a collaboration From innovative puppetry and of scripts by professional writers including innovative multimedia challenges its audiences. Australia with leading Indigenous artists, and dance to ground breaking circus, often associated with mainstage productions which meaningfully is renowned for its innovative circus the award-winning Twinkle Twinkle from clever literary adaptations and companies, such as Jack Davis, merge young people’s own cultural arts which, in celebrating the Little Fish. intimate solo shows to large-scale Dorothy Hewett, Nick Enright and practices (such as dirt-biking, ordinary human body achieving multimedia extravaganzas, Peta Murray. Some like Richard DJ-ing and use of electronic media) extraordinary feats, never fail to A sheer delight for audiences of Australian performance for young Tulloch have maintained a firm with contemporary performance delight children and adults alike. any age...irresistible in both its audiences resonates with the commitment to writing solely for forms. The renowned Circus Oz regularly accomplishment and its charm. It uniqueness of the country’s young audiences. Managing to suit tours internationally with its unique deserves to become a classic all landscape, Indigenous cultures, the progressive educational In recent years, these opportunities genre-bending work and the over again. multicultural and urban realities imperatives of the time, this for aesthetic engagement have Albury-Wodonga region boasts the The Australian along with quirky views of the approach placed one foot of influenced the educational famous Flying Fruit Fly Circus, everyday. Diverging from the Australian performance for young programs and ‘youth arms’ of formed in 1979 as a contemporary ...a lovely story about caring and traditions of European fairytale, the people in the professional theatre various arts organisations in training ground for young artists. valuing the past, present and conventions of didactic educational industry and one foot in education. Australia. Major companies, such But most evident in the last 15 future...its physical nature and theatre and the floss of ‘kids’ as the Queensland Ballet draw on years has been the proliferation of minimal dialogue mean it could holiday entertainment’, the work Over the years, this development, popular children’s narratives to multi-form works inspired by young have an international future. places children and young people alongside the growth of introduce traditional art forms to people’s own preferred cultural Adelaide Review at its centre – as intelligent, creative sophisticated arts education their audiences, while others create activities. As well as Arena’s and critical audiences and curricula in schools, has resulted in new stories and vernaculars to engagement with new media art co-creators. Initially developing as a contemporary view of children purposefully integrate the and music, there’s the hip hop of an Antipodean response to British and young people as artists and contemporary and the traditional. Morganic’s Crouching Bboy Hidden educational theatre models in the critics in their own right, as For instance, Dance North draws Dreadlocks, film technology in 1960s and 1970s, the artists in this aesthetically curious and innovative on the contemporary dance forms Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous field are driven by the desire to adventurers, and as discoverers of of its regional Indigenous and Performing Arts Company’s True, provide young audiences with new ways of knowing the world. In multicultural communities to and DJ-ing and breakdancing in exceptional aesthetic experiences the words of Patch Theatre’s respond to North Queensland’s Bizircus’ Boyzircus. that engage and inspire. artistic director Dave Brown, unique social and natural ‘Children are not little adults, they environment. REM Theatre This incorporation of popular street- Background are evolving beings passing Company creates cross-cultural based cultures into conventional From the 1960s on, UK through the most complex and collaborations here and overseas – performance has grown out of a practitioners like Barbara Manning, rapid developmental phases of their most recently bringing together a strong Australian focus on using Roger Chapman and David Holman lives’. As a result, performance for classical music ensemble and young people’s own stories to brought theatre-in-education young people in Australia over the Aboriginal dance and music artists. develop narrative. For some time, practices to Australia through past 30 years has grown in Opera Queensland introduces this approach, often accompanied pioneering work with companies sophistication and innovation. opera through stories about by minimalist staging, has enabled such as Salamanca Theatre everyday issues and Expressions direct communication between Company in Hobart and Magpie An engaged audience Dance Company, whose explosive performer and audience in works Theatre in Adelaide. These Many companies, such as the brand of dance theatre is especially about young people’s everyday companies and their school tours long-established Arena Theatre popular with young adults, uses experiences. Stefo Nantsou’s work were synonymous with progressive, Company and Polyglot Puppet electronic media to recast the body with Zeal Theatre, for example, high quality educational theatre. Theatre, actively seek the and stories like Shakespeare’s results in strong and edgy theatre But, Australian theatre for young involvement of children and young Richard III in new and exciting which speaks to young people people never fully adopted the people in the development and ways. Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of through compelling narrative British model of labour-intensive, evaluation of their work. This Image magically merges without resorting to pat answers or group-devised performance approach, now standard practice, performance, puppetry and digital certainties. programs based on periods of bypasses token participation in projection in classic and immersion in school classrooms. favour of creative dialogue. contemporary adaptations. Complex engagement with issues, Instead, Australian practitioners Whether through workshops, emotions, and states of being can took up the challenge of meagre interactive websites or school visits, Growing alongside the bold also be found in less realist resources and vast geographic young people’s contribution to the physicality of the country’s ventures. A recent performance distances to develop a ‘writers’ developmental phases of new work contemporary circus, dance and produced and premiered by the theatre’ for young people: a model has had a positive impact on its performance communities, 2004 Out of the Box Festival
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engaged an audience of five to cabaret-inflected performances that experience for young people and new technologies and expressing eight year olds in an extraordinary intrigue by transforming the families, facilitating intergenerational Australia’s unique intercultural large-scale puppetry adaptation of ordinary (such as toys or kitchen communication, here through an character. A highly specialised field Shaun Tan’s picture book, The Red utensils) into the extraordinary. The Aboriginal perspective. The of practice, it refines, clarifies and Tree. Directed by esteemed puppet large scale fantasias of Snuff establishment of Adelaide-based extends children’s and young master, Peter Wilson, the Puppets and Erth utilise giant Windmill Performing Arts is a people’s experiences, delivering to performance was a visual puppets, pyrotechnics and significant development in providing this most discerning of audiences interpretation of one girl’s ‘bad abseiling to create awe-inspiring professional performance for young innovative works which inspire and day’, exploring loneliness, sadness open air works. Puppetry in general people. It brings together significant delight. and the sense of failing to feel at holds a special place in artists from across Australia and one with the world. In such works, performance for young audiences from the realms of both adult and Mary Ann Hunter children and young people are in Australia, in festivals and beyond, young people’s performance invited to explore connections and through the innovative creations of practices. Mary Ann Hunter is a writer, Principal funding credits Queensland, Townsville City Council, Arts ACT; Kim Carpenter’s Polyglot Puppet Theatre – Australia find pathways for themselves in puppet theatre companies Polyglot, consultant, creative producer and Council; Erth – Australia Council, Theatre of Image – Australia Council, Arts Victoria; Queensland imaginative and multi-sensory Spare Parts and Terrapin. Intercultural connections dramaturg whose Ph.D. thesis Arena Theatre Company – Australia NSW Ministry for the Arts; Council, NSW Ministry for the Arts; Ballet – Australia Council, Arts ways. Other Australian literary In a country as culturally rich as focused on performance for young Council, Arts Victoria; Australian Expressions Dance Company – Kite Theatre – Australia Council, Queensland; Queensland Theatre adaptations have also enabled this The long-running Come Out Australia, intercultural people in Australia. Theatre of the Deaf – Australia Australia Council, Arts Queensland; Education Queensland, Playing Company – Australia Council, Arts with companies like Monkey Baa, Festival in Adelaide, Brisbane’s Out communication is facilitated by Council, NSW Ministry for the Arts; Flying Fruit Fly Circus – Australia Australia, Arts Queensland; Queensland; Snuff Puppets – Patch, Windmill and Kim of the Box Festival of Early companies developing work for References Back to Back Theatre – Australia Council, NSW Ministry for the Arts, Kooemba Jdarra – Australia Australia Council, Arts Victoria; Carpenter’s Theatre of Image Childhood, Perth’s Awesome and young audiences. This has taken Council, Arts Victoria, Department Department of Communication, Council, Arts Queensland, Spare Parts Puppet Theatre – drawing on the works of popular Melbourne’s Next Wave all provide the form of partnership projects in Dave Brown, ‘Reference, of Family and Community Services Information Technology and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia Council, ArtsWA; children’s authors such as Gillian the stimulus for creative which cultural knowledge is shared Assemblage and Interactivity: Three (Australian Government); Barking Arts (Australian Government), NSW Services; Linsey Pollak – Australia TasDance – Australia Council, Arts Rubinstein, Mem Fox and Morris professional development of the with the audience, celebrating Prongs in the Re-Invention of Gecko – Australia Council, ArtsWA; Department of Sport and Council; Monkey Baa Theatre for Tasmania; Terrapin Puppet Theatre Gleitzman to create multi-layered sector via opportunities for diversity of background and Patch’, Lowdown, 26.1 (2004) Bizircus – Australia Council, Recreation, NSW Department of Young People – NSW Ministry for – Australia Council, Arts Tasmania; performance experiences. Even networking, collaboration, experience. Kite Theatre’s ArtsWA; Buzz Dance Theatre – Education, Arts Victoria; Hothouse the Arts, Playing Australia; Opera Windmill Performing Arts – Australia when tackling the most sensitive partnership and critiquing new partnership with Kooemba Jdarra Mary Ann Hunter, ‘Contemporary Australia Council, ArtsWA; Christine Theatre/Melbourne Theatre Australia’s OzOpera – Australian Council, Arts SA topics, Australian performance for work. In similar ways, the sector in the initial development of Binni’s Australian Youth-Specific Johnston – Out of the Box Festival Company – Australia Council, Arts Government, NSW Ministry for the young people generally, and has also been well served by the Backyard created a performance in Performance and the Negotiation of of Early Childhood (QPAC), Victoria; Hothouse Theatre – Arts, Arts Victoria; Opera genuinely, deals with hope: a hope magazine, Lowdown, which, which Indigenous relationships and Change’, NJ Drama Australia Queensland Arts Council, Arts Commonwealth Department of Queensland – Australia Council, premised on the belief that children alongside national and state-based respect for the environment are Journal, 24.1 (2000) Queensland; Circus Oz – Australia Education, Science and Training, Arts Queensland; Patch Theatre and young people are resilient and organisations such as Young celebrated through a girl’s Council, Arts Victoria; Dance North NSW Ministry for the Arts; Jigsaw Company – Australia Council, positive forces for change when People’s Arts Australia, provides an newfound love of her suburban Geoffrey Milne, ‘Theatre in – Australia Council, Arts Theatre Company – Australia South Australian Youth Arts Board; respected as active decision- invaluable forum for the backyard. The Australian Theatre of education: dead or alive?’, Our makers and cultural participants. professional community’s the Deaf also investigates cross- Australian Theatre in the 1990s, communication and growth. cultural issues in its work, Veronica Kelly (ed), Rodopi, Festivals Lowdown’s editor, Tony Mack, is encompassing the experience of Amsterdam, 1998 Currently, the field of performance the Vice-President of ASSITEJ those in the deaf community as Photography credits for young people is well served by International. well as, in a recent show called Peter J. Wilson and Geoffrey Milne, an invigorating diversity of festivals. Aliens, the experience of asylum The Space Between: The Art of Page Work Photographer 12 Garden Gavin Wild Through visionary commissioning, Such is the innovative quality and seekers. Barking Gecko and Patch Puppetry and Visual Theatre in 4 Binni’s Backyard Rob Maccoll 13 The Stones Frank Razmouski major new works have been broad appeal of new performance Theatre have a number of works in Australia, Currency Press, Sydney, 4 My Sister is an Alien Glen Dickson 13 Baggy Pants Peter Marshall supported to realise their full work for young people that it often their repertoire which explore young 2004 5 Sharon, Keep Ya Hair On! Amy Dowd 14 The Little Mermaid David Kelly potential. Festival opportunities appears in mainstage festivals as Australians’ cultural connections 6 Making Jam Jessica Ainsworth 14 Fair Game Paul Scrambler have also assisted in the well. Windmill Performing Arts’ with Asia. There have also been 7 The Happy Prince Branco Gaica 15 Fluff Adam Craven development of a wide range of recent family show, RiverlanD, many Australian performances for 8 The Kookaburra Who Stole the Moon Kate Bradstreet 16 Second Childhood Jeff Busby innovative physical and puppetry premiered at the 2004 Adelaide young people which have 8 Leaping Loonies Keith Saunders 16 Virtually Richard3 Aaron Tait Photography performance styles. These include Festival before touring to other incorporated culturally-specific 8 Take Two Corrie Ancone 17 Gamegirl Jeff Busby, graphic the small and quirky, such as festivals. Inspired by the paintings artforms, such as water puppets, 9 Crouching Bboy, Hidden Dreadlocks William Jarrett design Peter Brundle Bizircus’ parody of traditional of visual artist Ian W. Abdulla and gamelan orchestras and regional 9 True Justin Nicholas 17 Skipping on Stars Jerry Galea circus, Back to Back Theatre’s based on a concept by director dance forms providing an 10 Cow Jeff Busby 18 Grendel and the Gladiator Ashley de Prazer unique one man anti-adventures in Wesley Enoch, RiverlanD explores experience of cultural exchange. 10 SPRUNG! Heidrun Löhr 19 Circus Oz Ponch Hawkes Cow with its challenge to issues surrounding the environment 10 Show Rob Maccoll 19 Beat Cake Danielle Micich, perceptions of disability and and Aboriginal culture. Like many Australian performance for young 11 Hidden Dragons James Rogers Ashley de Prazer normalcy, and Linsey Pollak’s and family shows, it provides both a people is diverse and experimental, 12 Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing Jeff Busby 20 Wilfrid Gordon MacDonald Partridge Alex Makeyev Christine Johnston’s unique good story and a quality aesthetic often merging traditional forms and 12 Boyzircus Chris Gosfield 23 Circus Oz Ponch Hawkes www.ozco.gov.au