Tailor Made Workshops

To give students the best dramatic experience possible we usually employ 4 – 5 actors in our Tailor Made Workshops.

We can deliver workshops for most texts with only 2 actors for as little $900 for a group of 40 or less.

• The Merchant of Venice
• Othello
• Of Mice and Men
• The Shifting Heart
• Antigone
• Uncle Vanya
• An Inspector Calls
• Cosi
• Woman of Troy

12th Night

Riotous tomfoolery, chaotic disguise and deceitful machinations abound in Twelfth Night. Shenanigans that start out foolish resolve in serious consequences, highlighting the reality of the manipulation of human beings. As the key scenes of the play unfold, we discuss the effective impact of comedy on an audience, and its use as a vessel for serious themes and ideas.

Shakespeare’s exploration of gender is perhaps more relevant now than it ever has been. Through the device of Viola assuming the role of Cesario, gender presentation is explored more as costume rather than birthright. Through Orsino’s subsequent attraction and confusion, sexuality is explored in its uncertainty and fluidity. Twelfth Night presents a fascinating early depiction of the gender and attraction conversations we are having today.

Twelve Angry Men

When a single juror stands up against peer pressure and votes “Not Guilty” in a seemingly open and shut case it becomes clear why jurors need to deliberate and discuss the case before them. The defendant is the faceless other; all we know is that they are poor and yet the process reveals how both the jurors and the audience project their prejudices onto that person.

In addition to unpacking the narrative, the workshop investigates the construction of characters and other dramatic elements, to present a reading of the play as a study in the power of language and one’s ability to create persuasive arguments.

Medea

A woman in crisis is given an impossible choice, a god is insulted on earth and their vengeance shall be terrible to behold. If ancient Greek gods are reflections of human nature, then what do we learn about ourselves in viewing Medea and her story?

The revenge killing of her children strikes at symbols deeply rooted in our culture. Medea is a feminist hero – cutting off patriarchal power at its source; Jason’s heirs? She is a demon witch and personification of the havoc wreaked by uncontrolled emotions? Only you can decide!

Oedipus The King

Oedipus is the story of a man in power and his quest for truth. He hears the truth from different angles but in an attempt to avoid his fate, he descends into madness and self-destruction. The chorus, represents a narrative voice and/or citizens who witness and convey the key messages, from which we are to learn.

In 2025 we have an exciting new offering. We begin the session by first workshopping two versions of the chorus. One is intended to represent traditional Greek theatre, the other is a more contemporary interpretation where phones and social media symbolise a modern chorus.

Unless the school wishes us to stay focused on one or the other style of reading, we will ask students to choose which style they want for the performance. Post show, the workshop examines key characters and the themes: fate, guilt, blindness, prophecy and the quest for truth and enlightenment.

Macbeth

A tale of envy and jealousy, greed, ambition and an echo chamber of regret and the forces of manipulation that surround us. This performance brings the role of the witches into the foreground, as an almost ever-present force playing with their human puppets. The struggle of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are still at the centre of the performance but one gets the sense that it’s the supernatural and the witches’ awareness of human frailty that drives the tragedy.

Unless otherwise requested by the school, our workshop focuses on different possible readings of the lead characters. Is Macbeth a good man, who is not strong enough to stand up to his wife’s emasculating ambition?

If Lady Macbeth does manipulate him, given that he is a general, does it make sense if she does it with outright force? Is it possible the two are deeply in love and desperately want the other to get what they see is rightfully due?

Much Ado About Nothing

Shakespeare definitely called Much Ado About Nothing a comedy. The play certainly reveals the folly of being in love and in the ways we run from it. It also explores word play and darker uses of language.

Gender roles, and the behaviours of, not just Don John but also Don Pedro may, or may not, just be part of the fun. The latter of the two characters is, perhaps, a symbol of the two sides of meddling in the affairs of others. Our performance entices audiences to laugh along at seemly harmless jokes, before bringing it to our awareness that toxic humour is not as banal as it may seem.

The workshop, unless otherwise guided by schools, offers the chance to explore the idea of a period court drama, word play and the power of language. We also like to unpack the question of, if Beatrice is in fact one of Shakespeare’s empowered female roles.

Getting Inside Rainbow’s End

Together with cultural educator, Shiralee Hood, we have created an exciting and new style of program for students studying Jane Harrison’s Rainbows End. It uses immersion to help English students understand the text and support them to express themselves in written assessment tasks.

Together, Shiralee and James will guide students as key scenes are read out loud. Being in the play, exploring the characters and talking openly, in a supportive environment, will help students enormously to empathize with a narrative that might otherwise seem foreign.

Eagles Nest Is very excited to be trialing this new approach and that the idea comes from an educator familiar with the challenges of teaching Indigenous narratives.

Teacher’s Professional Development Seminar

In each session, material from the 4 different workshops is used. The ideas and activities are transferable for any theme. There is also time for group discussion of the pedagogic intentions behind activities. We want teachers to be able to implement what they learn in a variety of different school environments. The discussions may be particularly helpful as our approach may differ from how you are teaching this syllabus thus far. The other highlight of this seminar is that you will have access to all 5 facilitators of the student workshops. Each of them has different skills and approaches to teaching and writing and this seminar is the only way you can access them all in one day.

Writing About Personal Journey

The beginning of the workshop focuses on
energies and feelings. By identifying this first,
one can then learn how to transform the
different moods into performance and written
pieces. For example, in one of the games we
will look at chaos, stillness, noise and silence
and in which energy you feel more at home?
Have you felt any of these in your own personal journey?

Exercises go on to explore how word association can turn into sentences. The students will also get the chance to work with the actors, getting to discover how different feelings can also be transformed into difference movements on stage.

Writing About Play

Play is our foundation for social connection as human beings.

When we participate in play in the form of games, sports and improvisation, we strengthen our communication, and interpersonal and personal awareness. When we view play – we bond and create shared experiences through attending sports games, exhibitions and live performance.

We also agree to play by society’s rules or not and our choices, our willingness to play along or not, often effects change. The rules of society and play are not universal, they change within different contexts, time periods and countries