Festival Workshops Day

On the first day of the Shakespeare in Queens Park Festival (SiQPF) this year, a Festival Workshops Day will introduce over 800 primary and secondary school students—our audiences and perhaps artists of the future—to the skills of performance, and to the plays of Shakespeare. These workshops will be led by Queensland theatre professionals and facilitated by lecturers and students from USQ.

In the morning, primary school aged children will participate in a medieval-styled pageant, run by a team of professional artists and storytellers from USQ's Departments of Theatre and Education. Students will participate in a series of four ‘stations' of activities throughout the park, (changing every 10 minutes) where they will ‘collect' a skill or make an item for the pageant. During the final half hour of the morning, children will rehearse their groups' pageant and perform them on the main stage.

Secondary school students will participate in an afternoon of Shakespearian Workshops designed to enlighten them on the intricacies of the text and performance. There will be nine different workshops to choose from including sessions with Brisbane actor and director, Lewis Jones;  artists from Brisbane theatre companies, Frank Theatre and Zen Zen Zo; playwright Angela Betzien; Brisbane actor and USQ graduate, Nick Backstrom; Comedy of Errors Designers, Carolyn Taylor-Smith and Chris Willems; Shakespearean scholar, Dr Darryl Chalk; USQ Head of Theatre, Scott Alderdice; and a special stage combat presenation, Beware: Entrance to a Quarrel, by RAND Theatre. After a communal dinner, students will settle in for the preview performance of The Comedy of Errors followed by a symposium with the cast and director.

Thanks to the generous support from the Queensland Government Department of Education and the Arts, USQ Faculty of Education, Drink Pure Water, Eagle Boy's Pizza and Betros Bros, this year's Workshops Day promises to provide something for everyone!