Award-winning theatre works to tour Qld schools in 2018

Queensland Music Festival (QMF) has revealed its 2018 Youth Touring program that will bring some of Australia’s most exciting award-winning artists and works into Queensland schools. To ensure small and remote schools have access to performances and workshops, QMF is offering much lower minimum booking numbers when compared with similar organisations.

Representing the Premier and Minister for the Arts at the launch of the program, Minister for Education Kate Jones said QMF’s reinvigorated Youth Touring program continued the important tradition of touring arts experiences to ignite creativity and imagination in the developing minds of Queensland school children.

QMF Artistic Director Katie Noonan said her team had scoured the country for the best possible productions, and was working with some of the country’s most innovative companies to adapt work for school audiences.

"The quality of the work we will be bringing into schools in 2018 is so exciting. We have listened to teachers and ensured the program meets curriculum needs and surpasses expectations.”

A reworking of the powerful Australian play Black Diggers; two works by internationally acclaimed hip hop artist and theatre maker Candy Bowers; and some marvellous prehistoric megafauna all feature in the 2018 Youth Touring program, which will explore social, environmental, cultural and historical perspectives through high quality performances and workshops. Youth Touring recognises the powerful way in which STEAM can enhance student engagement in key learning areas.

The first term of 2018 will kick off with an interactive hip hop show for primary schools, MC Platypus and Queen Koala starring Candy and Kim Bowers, whose show Hot Brown Honey has won awards and attracted international acclaim.

Helpmann Award-winner Candy Bowers will also bring her one-woman show Definitely Beautiful into high schools. Based on her workshops with teenagers of diverse backgrounds and inspired by poet and civil rights activist Audre Lorde, this simple work looks at media, representation, and more.

Rounding off term one for secondary schools is Ruby Moon, a haunting tale set in Australian suburbia by internationally renowned playwright Matt Cameron, while Detective Smart and the Mathematical Underpants will encourage primary students to apply their maths and critical thinking skills to solve a mystery.

For primary schools in term two, a diverse cast will bring 100,000 years of Australian music, dance and storytelling to life in the exciting, uplifting Future Dreaming and Animania, based on the Australian National Science Curriculum, will help students understand the similarities between humans and animals, such as complex communication, passing of culture, empathy and self-awareness, through humour, puppetry, circus and slam poetry.

In term three, students of all ages can enjoy a mix of ancient and cutting-edge music in The Didjeribone Show (a cross between a didgeridoo and a trombone) by internationally renowned didgeridoo performer Adrian Fabila Tjupurrula aka Tjupurru. Students will learn to use live samples and looping to create songs and soundscapes that crisscross music genres, tradition and technology.

Junkyard Beats, an energetic, interactive drumming, dance, theatre and comedy performance that transforms household objects and junk into musical instruments while teaching students of all ages about recycling, sustainability, and mental and physical health, will finish off the school year.