Back on the road with Team H

Matilda shares the adventures of Team H over the last week – sounds exhuasting (but so fun!)

Matilda: So another big week is drawing to a close. We have had a massive week. Masterclasses and a couple of great performances of Midsummer Madness and Macbeth: Undone. Highlights include:

* it has been a challenge getting back into Actors at Work shows after 10weeks off but it has been fun to get back in front of the banners!

*the awesome lunch that we were made by the hospitality students from Bass Hill; rhubarb crumble, home-made quiche, hand-made croissants made from scratch… They were still warm!

Our gourmet lunch!!

* The wonderful costumed audience at PLC Croydon who were dressed in Shakespeare themed costumes, including a Macbeth, some witches, lots of fairies and A WALL!

* The awesome students at Merrylands who we had the most exciting ‘Shakespearean insult’ fight with ever. Such amazing, responsive, interested, intelligent students. It was a pleasure!

* Players dinner: we had a lovely dinner last night with the Team T crew before they head off for WA on Sunday! We will miss them when they go away for over a month!!!

* Learning to do the Masterclasses has been so much fun. It’s such a great program. The concentrated time that you can spend with a group, the great conversations and seeing students start to look at Shakespeare’s language differently is awesome. Already this week and last week I have seen some very funny Beatrices and Benedicks, some wicked Richard the Thirds, and some very moving Hamlets!

*Finally it’s Julia’s Birthday today! Woohoo! Here are the awesome cupcakes Bell got her and we are all enjoying!

Happy Birthday Julia!!

It’s Complicated

The Players are all looking forward to rehearsing Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, which will be hitting the Sydney Opera House stage in May this year.

While preparing to play Juliet, Matilda stumbled across this image and thought it summed up her relationship with Romeo quite nicely! What do you all think?

Postcards from Orange and Dubbo

Team H (Matilda, Huw, Julia and Anthony) have hit the road and have some tales to share.

Matilda: So we are well into our first week on the road and it’s so fun! Orange and Dubbo have been a blast. We are taking in the sights. Julia and I spent an afternoon at the Orange botanical gardens and we are hoping we will get a chance to do the Dubbo zoo!

Team H taking on Orange and Dubbo with nothing more than what's in the boot of their van!

The shows have been delightful and we have had some great questions:

Q: Why did we perform with the house lights up in the Dubbo performance centre?

A: Because the show is interactive and we want to talk to you and see you all when we are performing.

Q: Why didn’t Banquo’s son become King at the end of the play?

A: It’s a plot line that isn’t resolved in the play. The witches create the fourth apparition for Macbeth; he sees a line of kings that look like Banquo and Fleance but the play ends with Malcolm being crowned King. Banquo, Duncan and Macbeth were real people who Shakespeare used as inspiration for the play. King James liked to believe that he was descended from the real Banquo and so this would have been an in joke to the audience in Shakespeare’s day.

Also loving the Dubbo baristas and their pac-man coffee art.

Coffee art Dubbo style