Regional Access Program in Broken Hill

DAY ONE - JOURNEY TO THE OUTBACK CITY

On a tiny plane, the Players and I look over a landscape of orange sand that stretches as far as the eye can see. We are on one of the two flights that leave for Broken Hill and there’s about 50 of us on the plane. When we land in Broken Hill, the dry heat is like a slap in the face, and I am impressed that such a city can exist in what essentially feels like the middle of nowhere. It makes our work at Bell Shakespeare feel even more important, that we can reach students in some of Australia’s most regional schools and provide a theatre experience that they would otherwise be unlikely to have.

DAY TWO - THE BEGINNING OF THE TOUR

The first performance of the tour is at Willyama School for years 7-11. The school has had a difficult year, having been demolished following a severe mould infestation that spread through the air conditioning system. As a result, the school has had to operate out of demountables. When we arrive at the school, we meet English teacher, Courtney who mentions that the students haven’t seen theatre since before COVID. She takes us to the English staff room where we meet all the teachers who seem very excited for us to be there. Each of The Players are kindly gifted a depiction of Shakespeare’s bust, 3D printed by Courtney's husband who teaches technology at the school.

Due to the mould problem and lack of performance facilities at the school, we are taken to Broken Hill Public School across the road. The first performance is Shakespeare is Dead for year 7. Courtney mentions that these students would be the most difficult to keep engaged. The hour clocked over and the students hesitantly walked into the room and began sitting around the border of the hall, clearly not sure how to behave in the theatre space. When The Players asked how many students had seen theatre before, only 4 students put up their hand, which supported their hesitancy in the performance space. Nonetheless, we saw the energy of the students lift when The Players asked for a volunteer to play Queen Gertrude. Students quickly pointed at Mr Barnes, a young teacher who had chosen to sit amongst the students. Like the students, even Mr Barnes seemed nervous at approaching his role, but his participation was met with enthusiastic cheers from every student in the hall and soon more and more hands were raised with students eager to be involved in the performance. Similar with the older year groups, I observed student’s ambivalence towards the performance shift to deep engagement; asking questions and shifting in their seats to get a better look.

After the performance, I ask one student what his initial thoughts were when he found out Bell Shakespeare was coming to perform, and he responds with: “well, we thought they would bring milkshakes.” I laughed, recognising the innocent reference to the local (but famous) Bell’s Diner in Broken Hill and the wordplay on SHAKE-speare. Very clever!

DAY THREE - I'VE GOT MONEY ON THE MONTAGUES

It’s day two of the tour and we journey to Broken Hill High School. To put into perspective how small Broken Hill is, the school is directly across the road from the school we performed at yesterday and shares the same campus as Willyama. We are preparing for a very hot day - typical of Broken Hill. When we arrive at the school, we are met by English teacher, Clinton, who was involved in Bell Shakespeare’s National Teacher Mentorship last year. As he guides us to the hall, he tells me how grateful he is that The Players have come to perform. He describes a very comprehensive Shakespeare curriculum that the English department has at the school, which he has clearly been a dedicated advocate for.

When the year 7s arrive, they immediately go to the back of the room and I sense that, like yesterday, the students aren’t sure how to behave in response to a performance. When Josh performs the speech “is this a dagger which I see before me?” The students begin looking to the back of the room, searching for the dagger that Macbeth refers to. When The Players introduce iambic pentameter, one student audibly says “what!?” I recall asking the same question when my teacher introduced it to me.

The students began to ease into the dynamics of the performance as student volunteers and teachers get up to perform. Like yesterday, the cheers of support for their peers and teachers as they read Shakespeare lines aloud, is heartwarming to see. At the end of the performance, 5 students, Isabelle, Tarkin, Lachlan, Will and Matthew, approach The Players. I ask Matthew what he thought of the performance: “it was better than I expected. I thought it would be boring because it’s Shakespeare, but the acting made me enjoy it.” I ask him if he would see another theatre show: “yes, it definitely made me want to go watch more theatre.”

The year 10s are a lively bunch and absolutely love the fight scenes! I hear one student yell out “I've got money on the Montagues." When Tri questions her decision to fight, the same student shouts “but you’re winning.” This very energetic audience had lots of questions: where did you get the confidence to perform like this? How do you remember the performance? What are your favourite words in Shakespeare? What is your favourite play? The Players spoke very earnestly about topics and ideas that extended beyond Shakespeare and you could tell the students hung onto every word.

The final performance of the day is The Human Experience with a grand total of 8 year 12 students. They were incredibly sweet, attentive and had a good knowledge of Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Othello. Most of the students stayed back afterwards for a chat about everything from acting, Greek mythology – and Shakespeare of course! Other questions included: did you do drama for HSC? When you perform, does your own personality come through?

DAY FOUR - WELCOME TO YABBIELAND

Today we are driving 1 hour out of Broken Hill to Menindee Central School. We arrive in Menindee where there’s a sign saying “welcome to Yabbieland." The town was the first to be established on the Darling River with a population of 560 people which was more than I expected for such a small town. Menindee Central School has 75 students in years kindergarten to year 12, with most of them living locally.

We meet Sarah (or "Sez" as the students call her) who shows us to the performance space. She mentions that the students haven't had any previous experience of theatre, but had performed with music artists at the recent Mundi Mundi Bash (which broke a 2024 world record for the most number of people doing the nutbush!) The performance space is a school hall which unfortunately does not have any air conditioning on this 43 degree day. Luckily, The Players have their adhesive ice packs.

The year 7 and 8 students are incredibly warm and attentive. I spot many students smiling and elbowing each other at exciting parts, particularly when the student volunteers, Kaden and Dante, perform the line "to be or not to be? That is the question." This is met by a rumbling applause from their peers. Years 3-6 file in afterwards and are another enthusiastic audience. I hear students whispering that they want to volunteer after two students volunteer jump up to help make the soundscape for the balcony scene in JUST ROMEO AND JULIET! Students who initially sat at the back of the audience began moving forward throughout the performance to get a better view.

What was a particular highlight of our time at Menindee was speaking with the teachers who had travelled from all over Australia to work with students there. I spoke with one teacher, Clive, who mentioned that with a high proportion of indigenous students at the school, theatre could be used as a means to look at the two-way exchange between individuals; how in the context of the theatre, this exists between the actor and audience, but can be used as a means to recognise the importance of stillness and empathetic deep listening between students.

DAY FIVE - A CELEBRATION OF THEATRE AND COMMUNITY

The heat has simmered down for our day at Broken Hill North Public School who were also recipients of the Artist in Residence, delivered earlier this year. When the students arrive at the hall, it is truly a sea of blue school uniforms. This is an amazing turnout, and definitely our largest audience. The Players again demonstrate their incredible way of engaging students by walking through the audience to speak to individual students, asking them questions and building a sense of rapport before the performance. Our contact teacher, Kate, tells us that there will be a combination of year groups, as well as the Special Education class and Intellectually Moderate class. She mentions that she’s unsure of how they’ll respond but wanted to provide them with the same opportunity. The audience is lively but engaged from the get-go. In Just Romeo and Juliet, the students were essentially screaming Shakespearean lines back at The Players:

“Did my heart love till now?”

“Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?”

The Players begin the sequence where they rehearse Romeo & Juliet and will be auditioning parts. When The Players ask if anyone wants to volunteer, nearly every student put up their hand. After the performance, Kate came over and said she was incredibly impressed by the performance and was happy with how engaged and enthusiastic the students were, particularly the Special Education and Intellectually Moderate class.

We head over to Burke Warde in the afternoon where The Players perform for approximately 100 primary students. The students here are incredibly sweet, evident of an early moment in the performance when the character of Andy comes out and asks what Rome and Juliet is about. One student raised his hand and said: “I think it’s about kindness and love…and Romeo and Juliet.” This was followed by two enthusiastic student volunteers jumping up to say the line “to be or not to be? That is the question.” One student, Declan, who though small in stature, had the vocal projection of a promising future actor. They were so proud when their peers cheered and clapped for them. I also spotted some encouraging high fives when they sat back down.

Later that day, The Players delivered a community performance at Theatre44, a small community theatre in Broken Hill. The performance has been organised by Jane from Big Sky Stories. She’s a true powerhouse of language and arts in the community and was also a participant of our National Teacher Mentorship. I meet Deb and Armando who are incredibly proud of their humble theatre. The theatre is beautiful, with aqua seats, rich red curtains and about 4 large ceiling fans – I recognise it now as common interior design of the outback! Deb tells me it’s a theatre that is a place of safety for emerging performers.

The community performance was an overwhelming success with the post-show Q&A being more like a group discussion for all 70 audience members of all ages to come together and speak about Shakespeare and theatre. Home-made baked goods were handed out after the performance and everyone stayed back to talk to The Players, including one of the Broken Hill High School teachers, Joanne, who had brought along more students and mentioned she was applying for the National Teacher Mentorship. It was a reminder of the power of performance to bring people together, and just how wonderful community is, particularly in a small outback city like Broken Hill.

DAY SIX - DIFFERENT FAMILIES, FORBIDDEN LOVE

It is the final day of the tour and we head to Railway Public School, which is the school that Jane from Big Sky Stories used to teach at. The students are very well behaved, sitting in 5 ordered lines and delivering a sing-song "good morning" to The Players. When the character of Andy asked the students what Romeo & Juliet is about, one student responds with: "different families, forbidden love." Another student shouts: "different families that date!"

The Players were encouraging of the students to feel comfortable to respond to the performance; teaching them that they didn't need to sit quietly to learn about Shakespeare, but could ask questions, laugh and make comments - much like the rawcus audiences of The Globe. The students put this into action when two students got up to perform. They were equally as responsive to The Players, reacting with loud drum rolls, applauding and cheering.

In the afternoon, we head to Morgan Street Public School and the students are just as enthusiastic about the wonderful world of JUST ROMEO AND JULIET! I noted that it was the previous school of Deb who I met at Theatre44 the night before. Every student in the hall was champing at the bit to be involved. I also couldn't tell who enjoyed it more between the students and teachers, who were having an absolute ball.

Overall, it was a wonderful final day to what has been an incredible tour. For myself especially, it was a remarkable opportunity to see Bell Shakespeare's work in action and the impact it has. Students who had never seen theatre before had their eyes opened to new worlds, themes and ideas, and teachers saw Shakespeare beyond the page. The community of Bell Shakespeare gave us so much in return. I have no doubt that Bell Shakespeare's relationship with Broken Hill will only continue.