Week One - Week Two 2008

Week One: Introduction to the Unit

(An all new Children's Theatre year begins)

Welcome to Children’s Theatre. The aim of this unit aim is to extend your performance and/or production skills within the specific context of theatre created for an audience of primary school children. While the unit is relatively new, the project of making theatre for children at Murdoch is not. We shall therefore be drawing on a body of work that goes back to 1991 when Samantha Seal by Pieter Scholtz was taken to schools in the Perth metropolitan area as part of an outreach programme envisaged to make Murdoch more visible to the community it was supposed to serve. The Astounding Antics of Antoinette Ant (an adaptation with a gender inversion of another Scholtz play) followed in 1992 and this, after successful performances in the Drama Workshop, toured to Geraldton. It then seemed important to create pieces that had a Western Australian slant and, as the previous pieces had engaged with environmental issues of general concern, making the next trilogy of plays address Western Australian matters seemed to make sense.  And so The Galah’s Gambit (1993) which toured to Jurien Bay; Ningaloo Knights (1994) and The Dragon Variation (1996) all premiered in Nexus Theatre and played to over 3000 students and teachers from primary schools during their two-week seasons. The aim of the projects was to explore serious environmental themes (clear-felling of the forests of the South-West; the threat of mining to Ningaloo Reef; and the implications of uranium mining in the North of our state) through the medium of theatre with the goal of educating children (and hopefully those of us involved in producing the work as well) through entertainment. In 2000 Murdoch Children's Theatre presented The Greatest Show on Earth: A Circus Story, The Minstrel’s Tale followed in 2001 and Shakespeare at Sea (2002), Zak Zebra’s African Safari (2003), Athena Emu at the Olympics (2004), Captain Quokka’s Adventures on the High Seas (2005), The Secret of the Snottygobbles: A Fairy Story (2006) and last year The Return of the Snow Queen (2007) have all enjoyed extremely successful seasons in Nexus Theatre. Children’s Theatre regularly plays to full houses of delighted primary school children and we are consistently rewarded by extremely positive critical (and educational) responses from the teachers who accompanied them.

(Carnival improvisations based on fairy stories and...)

(...group warm-up also includes the creation of a giant machine)

Week Two: Movement and Improvisation

(Lindsay Lloyd's designs of the Captive Carousel backdrops)

(Even a night-time interpretation of the backdrops too)

The unit aims to develop all aspects of a children’s theatre production, from an initial script idea to a public performance. Students enrolled in the unit will need to display a high level of commitment and discipline when engaging in this project because of the ethical issues fore-grounded in the process and in the themes touched on in the script itself. Students are invited to participate fully in the realisation of the performance and will be asked to consider their own engagement with it from a perspective that encompasses the full range of possibilities of theatre as a medium of entertainment/instruction. Apart from using the conventional elements of theatre (a space, a script, actors, crew, lights, costumes and a set) we shall explore the potential of sound, the visual media and possibly puppetry in the devising of the project. There are opportunities, therefore, for all facets of involvement in the making of this theatre piece, although naturally you will select areas of interest or specialisation rather than attempt to cover all of them. A feature of the unit that has received a warm response from teachers is the Handbook for teachers which we devise annually. This includes activities and games that stretch across the primary school curriculum and that allow post-performance participation by the audiences. The idea is for teachers and pupils to use the production as a base for developing literary, scientific, social and mathematical skills as well as offering the students the excitement of a full theatrical production. The work in this unit is crucially ensemble based with my role as director/coordinator and the tutors’ role one of facilitation and quality control. We shall perform ultimately to an audience of children and their teachers and that requires a high degree of professionalism and responsibility to the process and the product of the entire ensemble.

(Salmiyah takes the class through a movement workshop)

(Jenny stresses the vital work ahead)

View other Notice Board entries... 2006 Children's Theatre Notice Board

...or... 2005 Children's Theatre Notice Board

Go to Children's Theatre:     My Journal     History      Notice Board     Your Work

Contact Andrew @ thechaseison@optusnet.com.au

This page last updated: 17th March 2008