Artist in Residency Programs
'This is My World' - an Artist in Residency at Kilvington Grammar School in Melbourne 2019
During February and March 2019, we was invited to guide the years 3 & 4 through a stop-motion animation, followed by a visual theatre journey, exploring Art, Music, Digital Technology and Drama. This all culminated in a live theatre performance held at Kilvington School on 28 March 2019. The creative journey encouraged the development of brand new new skills, techniques and ideas with imaginative expression of thought on a journey that explored the Earth, Mind, Heart and Body through the eyes of these primary school children. You can enjoy some of the images below or find some of the making of the stop-motion animation films here!
Tanglin Trust School, Singapore; Wellington College, Shanghai & Bangkok International Preparatory School, Thailand in 2018
In January 2018, I was invited to work on a production of Homer's "Odyssey", which involved the students of Tanglin Trust High School drama department in Singapore. Using acting, dance, music, puppetry and shadow theatre, the students pulled out all stops to pull together a beautiful modern rendition of this ancient Greek tale. You can view a short video clip from the rehearsals here or view the performance video below.
Following Singapore, we worked on a short residency at Wellington College in Shanghai in March 2018. The brief I was given was to conduct workshops for the high school and then prepare a theatre piece on the theme of the 1939 Billie Holiday song 'Strange Fruit'. Written by New York teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem and published in 1937, it protested American racism, particularly the 1930 lynching of three African Americans in Marion, Indiana. You can view a clip from the performance here!
'Icarus' was produced at Bangkok International Preparatory School in June 2018. The brief was for the students to design and construct a giant minotaur out of rattan (cane) and paper. We also built large winged birds and shadow puppets to recount the story to the final fall of Icarus.
Previous Primary School Programs
“ When the students came up with stories and engaged in the creative process, what they produced and what I think they learnt from the whole ten-week program was quite amazing. When you watched what they were doing this morning and the level of anticipation when they were looking at their own stories and looking at the way their puppet plays had been edited for the final projection, I felt that the students achieved something really special. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this group of children do something to such a high level.
Jan Warhurst, Teacher, Curl Curl Primary School, Sydney, Australia
To see the culmination of this work this morning I was blown away. It was absolutely amazing. The time that’s been involved is not just a matter of getting up there and putting a puppet show together, making some cut-outs - the kids took the time, they researched their stories, they discussed it, they then had to break it down and bring it into a workable size.
I’ve seen them doing that and the engagement they’ve had and the level of learning and involvement has been absolutely superb. The children in year six were able to make their work understandable to most of the grades. The discussions continued after the performances were shown, right outside the hall, through the playground and all the way back to the classrooms. That shows that it was powerful in itself. We’re just delighted to have been involved as a school.
Jeff Ballinger, Deputy Principal, Curl Curl Primary School, Sydney, Australia
Jan Warhurst, Teacher, Curl Curl Primary School, Sydney, Australia
To see the culmination of this work this morning I was blown away. It was absolutely amazing. The time that’s been involved is not just a matter of getting up there and putting a puppet show together, making some cut-outs - the kids took the time, they researched their stories, they discussed it, they then had to break it down and bring it into a workable size.
I’ve seen them doing that and the engagement they’ve had and the level of learning and involvement has been absolutely superb. The children in year six were able to make their work understandable to most of the grades. The discussions continued after the performances were shown, right outside the hall, through the playground and all the way back to the classrooms. That shows that it was powerful in itself. We’re just delighted to have been involved as a school.
Jeff Ballinger, Deputy Principal, Curl Curl Primary School, Sydney, Australia
Previous High School Programs
The high school class was a group of Year 9 and 10 students, from a lower-middle socio-economic group in southern Sydney. They were mainly from Muslim, Lebanese and SE Asian backgrounds and for all of them it was the first time being exposed to historical material from a creative perspective. We began the ten-week project with simple ‘world of paper’ exercises, where the students had to portray their heroes or famous people they respect by building them out of brown paper and bringing them to life by firstly injecting breath into the character.
The topics we covered were tolerance, resilience, leadership, becoming everyday heroes at school, which was really valuable. The group of kids I have really struggle in doing the right thing at the right time. They often felt the world was against them and didn’t know what to do about it. Even just being able to discuss their problems in class and turn these into their puppetry projects really helped them as well.
Isabel Clarke (Teacher) Strathfield High School, Sydney, Australia
The medium gave them the opportunity to ‘speak’. Using a pen and paper is something they find difficult to do and it’s something that is challenging and in some ways in the past they have failed in terms of how people measure them, but here they can see success through, so their learning was successful and therefore was most engaging for them.
Greg Lucas (Assistant Principal) Strathfield High School, Sydney, Australia
The topics we covered were tolerance, resilience, leadership, becoming everyday heroes at school, which was really valuable. The group of kids I have really struggle in doing the right thing at the right time. They often felt the world was against them and didn’t know what to do about it. Even just being able to discuss their problems in class and turn these into their puppetry projects really helped them as well.
Isabel Clarke (Teacher) Strathfield High School, Sydney, Australia
The medium gave them the opportunity to ‘speak’. Using a pen and paper is something they find difficult to do and it’s something that is challenging and in some ways in the past they have failed in terms of how people measure them, but here they can see success through, so their learning was successful and therefore was most engaging for them.
Greg Lucas (Assistant Principal) Strathfield High School, Sydney, Australia