Aussie Youth Theatre Companies Take on the World

Adelaide-based theatre companies Patch Theatre Company, Slingsby and Windmill Theatre are the flavour of the month in the USA. All recently secured international bookings, including a season on Broadway. Robert Dunstan reports.

It could be something in the water? But regardless what the secret recipe is – Adelaide is producing youth theatre that the world wants to see.

Adelaide-based youth theatre companies Patch Theatre Company, Slingsby and Windmill Theatre have recently returned from the US where they all highlighted their work at invitation-only IPAY 2013, the annual International Performing Arts for Youth showcase in Philadelphia.

The Windmill Theatre Company marked 10 years of operation in 2012. Having already successfully toured productions of Glug and Plop! to the US it’s now set to stage Pinocchio on Broadway at New York’s New Victory Theatre in 2014.

“There’s a great interest for Australian youth theatre in the US,” Windmill Theatre’s artistic director Rosemary Myers confirms. “I have now been invited to go to Cleveland in May to do a key-note speech at their big TYA conference (major international youth theatre conference). The Americans are very, very interested in what we are doing and where our work is going. They are intrigued with what Australia, and Adelaide in particular, is doing in youth theatre and I think that’s because our work is very bold and fresh. We are quite liberal in the way we engage with young people and children.

“And as well as being keen to present our work over there, they are also very keen to engage with us to find out how we go about making our work,” she continues. “They want to know our philosophy and are beginning to realise that if you want to keep up with the young people of today, you have to tailor the work to suit that. So we’ve become flavour of the month in the US and it’s such a big country with a huge audience that we have to now make the most of it.”

So what is the secret?

“First and foremost it’s the fantastic work that the company creates and the fantastic actors we have at our disposal,” Myers suggests.

“Windmill uses some of the most talented people in the country and they are inspired because they are making work for young people. And young people are a very liberating audience because they don’t necessarily have any pre-conceived ideas about what theatre is. In that regard, we can show them what theatre can be and they are happy to go with that. That allows us to be very playful with the work we put on.”

Formed in 1972, Patch Theatre Company took out the coveted Victor Award at IPAY this year for Best Showcase Production for Me And My Shadow, with the work set for a two-week season in New York in October of this year.

“Me And My Shadow has done incredibly well,” Patch’s artistic director David Brown says. “When you are making theatre year after year and then look back, there are some shows that have something special about them and are quite timeless. And while it’s hard to define what the magic potion is that creates those shows, Me And My Shadow is certainly one that has universally engaged audiences.

“Part of that is it’s an image-based piece with very few words and has a lovely ambience about it,” Brown states. “It’s very visual – it has some wonderful images that are very perplexing but quite beguiling at the same time. So it’s wonderful to sit in an audience of young people and see how they respond to the show. And that’s particularly with kids aged from about seven onwards. Kids younger than that just accept the magic of it all.”

Although only a few years old, Slingsby have already enjoyed much success as their award winning inaugural production, The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy, which premiered in January of 2008, has since been performed 220 times in 40 venues in 25 cities on five continents.

At the International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY) conference 2013, the company presented a 10-minute excerpt of its award winning production Man Covets Bird which premiered in the 2010 Adelaide Festival. It has received critical acclaim and four awards, including the 2010 Ruby Award for Best Work.

Man Covets Bird, which will tour Scotland and England in 2014, is now being considered for a North American tour in 2015.

“It’s a very exciting time for us,” Slingsby’s Artistic Director Andy Packer says, “because it was another successful trip over to the US. We’ve been invited to IPAY for the last four years and in 2011, after attending the event in 2010, we were able to lock in a two-week season at New Victory Theatre on Broadway for Cheeseboy.

“So in 2013, we showcased Man Covets Bird and it’s been lovely to see the interest in it and that a lot of people fondly remember us for Cheeseboy. And we are also now having conversations with several performing arts centres in the US.  For example, there’s now a possibility of me directing something for Tennessee Performing Arts Center further down the track. And we’ve had great conversations with the Lincoln Center Institute, which incorporates the Julliard School, about Slingsby developing a program with them for a young audience.

“The intent would be to change the way they deliver their arts program influenced by the work we do together,” Packer adds. “We are interesting because we come from the other side of the world but also have very interesting approach to what we do in regards to youth theatre.”

patchtheatrecompany.org.au

windmill.org.au

slingsby.net.au

Originally published in the March / April 2013 edition of Stage Whispers