ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare

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Performance

“I saw Shakespeare, it wasn’t hard, and don’t tell anyone but I may have even liked it.” This is the sort of thing we hear from students after this show.The dramatic style mirrors the nar- rative, creating an exciting ride for our young audiences.They are drawn into reckless abandon, a world of period costumes, playful sword fights and comedic characters, as Romeo and Juliet fall in love.Then of course the joy and frivolity ruptures and fades as the tragedy sets in. Both the actors and students all fall together.

Workshop

Students are guided to ask questions and talk about the performance; what they understood, what they liked or didn’t like. We often hear the comment that Romeo and Juliet is
a play about ‘two dumb teenagers’ and lust.We explore this idea so students see how an idea that seems to be an off- hand comment, could form the basis of a valid reading.Then we challenge this idea by looking at different portrayals of the main characters that might make the love-at-first-sight nar- rative more appealing.Where time and the level of the group permits, we also look at how creative choices can be used to explore essay prompts such as “Who is to blame?” and “Is love or hate the more powerful force?”

O teach me how I should forget to think”

Prices:

Short performance $10.50 + GST per student
(minimum total fee $1050 + GST)

Short performance + workshop $12.50 + GST per student
(minimum total fee $1250 + GST)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare

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In investigating the historical Caesar and the foundations of modern democracy, we look at honour, power and language in the game of politics.

Did Caesar’s despotism or his perceived fragility make him a target for assassination? Are honour and integrity qualities our leaders require, or can they simply frame these concepts for their own political advantage?

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

MEASURE FOR MEASURE by William Shakespeare

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What happens when a stickler for law and order is left in charge? Set in Vienna, Measure for Measure is an ambiguous tragicomedy that can be seen to pokes fun at and investigates the darker side of the superficiality of love, morality, power and corruption using comic façade, costumes and mistaken identity.

For example: If the law hath slept, who was it in bed with? Is the law for the good of the people or are certain people using it for their own good?

“The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept”

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

BOMBSHELLS by Joanna Murray Smith

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The young woman who needs the dress, the mother fraying at the edges, the older woman who remains a sexual being: comedic stereotypes of women who inhabit our world that explode into deeper truths about being unseen.

In a world of empowered women why does the idea of marrying a taller older man persist? Sometimes the feminist project overlooks the plight of the less radical. Many young people and women feel rejected by feminism: perhaps exploring the invisibility of ‘normal’ women is what is needed to achieve gender equality.

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE by Tennessee Williams

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Two sisters who have lived very different lives, one life founded on a crumbling veneer of aristocratic beauty and whimsy, the other on the brutality and honesty of the working class, reunite leading to a clash of personalities and ideas. In the comparison one can’t but notice a common thread about the beautiful fragility with which we construct our realities.

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

MEDEA by Euripides

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The tale of Medea’s vicious revenge killing of her children strikes at symbols deeply rooted in our culture. Medea is a feminist hero – cutting off patriarchal power at is source as she steals Jason’s heirs. Equally she is a demon witch and personification of the havoc wreaked by uncontrolled emotions.

The workshop explores key characters scenes as well as questions about the chorus and stylistics of Greek drama

Of all creatures that have life and will, we women are the most wretched

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

COSI by Louis Nowra

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Cosi invites audiences to share Lewis’ journey as he overcomes his prejudice regarding mental health and discovers the power in the silliness of a Mozart Opera. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam moratorium, Lewis’ friends are trying to stop the suffering of thousands while he is learning about a different kind of politics. Sometimes art that is not political can have a political effect as it brings us together to play and laugh. Sometimes the unheard voices are not those that cry out under oppression but those who have simply been forgotten.

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

TWELVE ANGRY MEN by Reginald Rose

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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 about the defendant is that they are poor, 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.

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller

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(Studied in comparison to The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham)

At first glance the contrast between the comedy of one and the high drama horror of the other is glaring. But there are obvious similarities too. Both are set in small-town frontier communities, riddled with political alliances and hidden tales of infidelity, resulting in a woman being scapegoated. Both explore deceit, guilt, and the loss of identity.

Contrasting ‘The Crucible’ and ‘The Dress Maker’ exposes elements their stylistic differences. The hysteria in The Crucible has farcelike qualities as did McCarthy’s own ‘witch trials’. The grotesque comedy of ‘The Dressmaker’ is counterpointed and sharpened by sitting against the backdrop of tragic and sinister aspects of ‘The Crucible’.

Our workshops will explore some of these themes as well as examining points of comparison between the two texts’ characters.

Because it is my face, and it is yours

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

PHOTOGRAPH 51 by Anna Ziegler

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(Studied in comparison to The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood)

Various feminist movements comment that history is really HIS-story; the stories of men told at the expense of the female voice: if Homer’s Odyssey can be thought of as the father of all stories, Atwood’s ‘Penelopiad’ weaves a new archetypal womens’ tale. Atwood has been a powerful force in writing the female voice and has undoubtedly been an inspiration to Ziegler in her own efforts to tell the stories

of contemporary women. Photograph 51 rewrites the story of the discovery of DNA, highlighting the role of Rosalind Franklin in a discovery conventionally attributed to James Watson and Francis Crick.

Franklin and Penelope are not the same archetypal woman but despite being thousands of years apart, there are frighteningly common threads of sexism that only become obvious when we continue the project of telling HER-stories.

Price (ex GST)

$17 per student (minimum total fee $1,700)

Reserve your spotNO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED