Tate Street Primary School: Old Stories, New Learning

Western Edge Youth Arts and Tate Street Primary School are thrilled to present King Lear & Macbeth at Geelong Performing Arts Centre on Wednesday 27 July at 7pm.

Following on from the epic success of Tales of Troy (2009) and The Odyssey (2010) this year the wonderful Tate Street Primary School year 5 and 6 students will present original versions of Shakespeare's great tragedies set in a futuristic Australia. 

For further information, please contact us.

Our thanks to Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Arts Victoria and City of Maribyrnong for supporting this project.

Project Background

The project is an exploration of Shakespeare's poetry alongside modern text to generate learning outcomes in moral education, the humanities, and English literature and language. Western Edge will employ a sophisticated pedagogy that uses process drama integrated with literature and physical theatre to engage students in story and character so that they own and understand the material. Performing arts skills, including the development of oral language skills, are integrated into this process that makes extensive use of interactive teacher/artist demonstration and performance to engage and inspire students. The project will involve the development of a performance script through a workshop process that integrates students’ creative writing and the rehearsal and performance of a complex theatre piece. An artist-maker will work with students to create design components for the performance. The project will involve all students in Grades 5 and 6. This cohort contains a number of students with learning or behavioural difficulties, such as students on an autistic spectrum. Western Edge has found in previous programs that it is possible to engage such students through an arts process enabling them to achieve significant learning outcomes and integrating them into their peer group.