Letters from regional Victoria

During this leg of their tour, The Players travelled to Mallacoota, Orbost, Lakes Entrace, Cann River and Sale. Each performance was met with enthusiastic students who eagerly asked questions and participated in the performances.

Upon finishing this particular leg of their tour, The Players received the below letters and drawings from Mallacoota P 12 College, thanking Bell Shakespeare and the Hansen Little Foundation for the opportunity to have a formative learning experience, provided through a live theatre experience. We are delighted to share the below letters with you.

We all agreed this was one of our favourite shows we've ever done. For such a small crowd they had absolutely no hesitation laughing and interacting with us, all while listening & giving us their full attention. The teachers were all laughing along as well and expressed their deep appreciation to us after the show, saying they were so thankful we could make it all the way to Cann River. We only realised when we were packing up that we'd spent 30 minutes answering questions - but it felt like it went so quickly to all of us! After the show a student named Jay Jay came up to Ollie & said "you really inspired me." Cann River will be a special memory we'll all be holding very close to our hearts.

Location: Cann River

We noticed throughout the show some of the kids up towards the back were standing at times to see better. I think it was often in Andy's death moments where he ends up on the ground. They were all super keen to interact with us and whenever we looked out into the crowd there were so many eyes all transfixed on the show! Even the younger ones seemed to follow along with the story. This week has made us more adaptable to different audiences, always making sure to take the kids along with us on the ride. Lots of questions afterwards, plus more kids coming up to chat with us on their way out! Hansen Little, parting is such sweet sorrow.

Location: Sale

Such a great show!! The school was so sweet - the teachers were all very lovely and said the kids were really excited for the performance. We all had really lovely chats to all the kids before the show. There were lots of kids who kept answering our questions when we spoke to the audience and there was one kid in the front who kept shouting out “more violence” which was ever so slightly disturbing but it seemed more of an exclamation of excitement rather than sinisterness (we hope). But they all seemed to really enjoy the show and as always with the primary school shows, we had many questions afterwards. One question in particular we enjoyed was when one kid asked why all the deaths in R+J were just stabbing and why he wasn’t more creative with his deaths - probably the first kid we’ve encountered to question Shakespeare’s creativity...

Location: Lakes Entrance