Thrilling and Moving Shakespeare
Sport for Jove theatre company previews their 2023 season in NSW, QLD and beyond.
Kids do it effortlessly, they make and they believe. Adults can so easily forget the value of both. Theatre is all about making and thrives only on believing.
After the tumultuousness of the last couple of years, felt deeply in all schools, 2023 is a chance to come together and celebrate the joy of theatre. So, what’s on?
A killer new production of Macbeth which wowed audiences in 2022 with its detail, spectacle, great performances and thrilling fights returns, playing a 4-week season at Seymour and Riverside. Macbeth... MAKE a better world, set the time free, silence the dark heart of tyranny. And Tyrants… careful what you BELIEVE! ... the world can prove a riddle.
The moving Romeo & Juliet returns. It has been hailed as one of Jove’s best productions – visually divine, provocatively staged, a transporting world and honesty that deeply affected audiences. Romeo & Juliet … MAKE friends, turn hate to love, soar above a common bound. BELIEVE in your children, hear their voices, set them free.
And it’s finally a double bill of history plays that Artistic Director, Damien Ryan has always wanted to bring to the stage for students and teachers – Henry IV, Part I and Richard III. Politics is always personal and chaos is contagious in that mad place called merry England!
Henry IV, Part I … MAKE something of yourself, MAKE sense of it all before it’s too late. BELIEVE in yourself, underdogs bark loudest.
Richard III. … MAKE it all up as you go along…that’s politics in the big, bad world. BELIEVE there is another way, believe the past will haunt the future.
Sport for Jove wants to deliver quality productions that are committed to the authentic transformation of a text to stage and ensure that teachers attending will have the support they need.
Accompanying each production is a detailed (and free!) Teacher Resource Kit. It comprises an analysis of the play, a guide to the production, lesson activities, videos, photos and design materials. These materials are available for all shows and appropriate for multiple year levels from Stages 4-6.
Damien Ryan has compiled the report drawing on his extensive professional theatre career, work as a High School teacher, a lecturer at tertiary level, and two decades of creating work with young artists.
“Teaching these texts in high schools is easily the most rewarding professional experience I have 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.
Sport for Jove has other extra-curricular opportunities for students. The Shakespeare Carnival is a state-wide performance competition for students; the Shakespeare Residency is a week-long, in-school program; and our Youth Workshops are an opportunity for young performers in acting training outside of school hours. We can also tailor courses or experiences.
Finally, if you are a regional school, or unable to get students out on an excursion or have an incursion- Sport for Jove have a library full of digital offerings of our productions and symposiums.
Sport for Jove Is back in 2023 with one of our best seasons ever and looking forward to coming together and making believe with you again in theatres, schools and backstage.
MACBETH - Riverside Theatres, 11-19 May | Seymour Centre, 24 May- 2 June
ROMEO & JULIET - Riverside Theatres, 28-30 June | Seymour Centre, 2-18 August | HOTA QLD, 20-21 July.
