Time To Play Again In 2022
Image: The Tempest - Amy Usherwood and Drew Livington by Seiya Taguchi
Sport for Jove Theatre Company believes that teachers are unsung heroes of the pandemic for managing remote leaning. To lighten their load, the company is encouraging them to return to the theatre with their students in 2022, for seasons of Shakespeare, and mini productions of plays, in Sydney and on the Gold Coast.
Shakespeare was certainly no stranger to a pandemic - in his own lifetime the plague saw the world shut down around him, but from that came the birth of some of his greatest creativity, and works such as Venus & Adonis, King Lear and Macbeth.
Just like Shakespeare, Sport for Jove wishes to rise from their own pandemic and reinvigorate creativity in our children.
The company has been delivering innovative productions of classic texts for the past 13years and offers comprehensive education packages for teachers.
Image: Rose Riot - Emma Palmer & Drew Livingston. Phptographer: Seiya Taguchi.
Three mainstage productions from the national syllabus will be presented this year for middle and senior school students - Macbeth, Othello and Romeo & Juliet - curated based on NSW teachers’ needs.
“It is so critical that students and teachers are supported by our theatre makers in teaching these extraordinary texts and bringing them to life on stage. They are a visceral lived experience and just great human drama, and they make such a difference to our understanding of the plays,” says Sport for Jove’s Artistic Director, Damien Ryan.
Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet are being brought to the stage for the Education Season for the first time in the 2022.
In 2022 Sport for Jove is also offering Performance Symposiums under its HSC intensive programs. For the first time, students will experience the material they are studying in a live, abridged performance by professional actors bringing to life characters from the pages.
This brand new format will feature ‘mini-productions’ of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Richard III, The Merchant of Venice and Henry 4, Part 1 followed by detailed analysis and discussions.
Image: Othello
Jove’s detailed and experiential HSC Symposiums will be returning with contemporary text performances of The Crucible and Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.
The company believes that getting out of the classroom, engaging with professional live performance of the written word on stage is an important and unparalleled learning tool.
It aims to lighten the teacher workload, so accompanying each production is a free detailed Teacher Resource Kit comprising an analysis of the play, a guide to the production, lesson activities, videos, photos and design materials.
The content in these kits is curated from the years of experience which Damien Ryan has in education, professional theatre, and teaching at secondary or tertiary levels over two decades.
“Teaching these texts in high schools is easily the most rewarding professional experience I have ever had and it was also the central reason to build a theatre company for me - to give students unforgettable experiences of these works,” Ryan says.
Image: Romeo and Juliet.
Sport for Jove also offers extra-curricular opportunities for students outside of the standard production season. The Shakespeare Carnival is a state-wide performance competition for students; the Shakespeare Residency is a week-long, in-school program; and the Second Age Project is an acting training opportunity for young performers outside of school hours.
Finally, for regional schools or those unable to get students out on an excursion or have an incursion, Sport for Jove has a library full of digital offerings of its productions and symposiums.
Mainstage season.
MACBETH| Seymour Centre, 5-14 May | Riverside Theatres, 25 May-3 June. OTHELLO | Seymour Centre, 9-17 June | Riverside Theatres, 21-24 June. ROMEO & JULIET | Seymour Centre, 21 July-19 August | HOTA QLD, 7-8 September.
https://www.sportforjove.com.au/
