Theatre Kimberley - Outreach Programs

THEATRE KIMBERLEY - OUTREACH PROGRAMS

Based in Broome, Theatre Kimberley (TK) creates high-quality arts opportunities, with and for Kimberley communities, occasionally working in other regions. TK connects professional artists with local and emerging artists and community through circus, puppetry, dance and theatre.

TK offers two popular remote outreach programs. The Act Belong Commit Dragonfly Outreach Program works with various art forms in very remote towns and communities often in schools. The Big Country Puppets program works with Indigenous Ranger groups and schools using puppetry, music and First Nations languages to tell important local stories. Projects end with a performance for the whole community.

Act Belong Commit Dragonfly Outreach

Beagle Bay Community’s Sacred Heart School and Yiramalay Studio School on Leopold Downs Station, near Fitzroy Crossing, are both examples of longstanding partnerships we have built over many years.

Since 2019, Beagle Bay has hosted multi-week residencies. After the program concludes, we often invite a select group from Sacred Heart School to Broome to perform in our annual large-scale Sandfly Circus productions. This creates an exciting exchange with our Sandfly Circus students where remote community students extend their circus and performance skills and experience high-production shows.

Our partnership with Yiramalay began in 2016. Circus arts projects, always popular with Yiramalay students, are co-delivered with the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), Melbourne. In recent years, Jacky Cheng has also led two wearable art residencies, ahead of Yiramalay students travelling to Broome to perform in Worn Art Revamped - another next-level performance experience.

Big Country Puppets Outreach

Big Country Puppets, led by artist and coordinator Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman, fuses art and science. Each project is co-led by Aboriginal Rangers and community Elders, with a focus on endangered Aboriginal languages.

Aboriginal Rangers and local Elders, draw on local knowledge of Country, to choose the theatre project's location and themes.

In a recent example in February 2023, Theatre Kimberley travelled to Wananami Remote Community School in Kupungarri for a five-week residency on Ngarinyin Country, co-led by men’s Wungurr and women’s Darran.gu Wulagura Rangers.

The performance called 'Wulumara', (Ngarinyin for long-necked freshwater turtle) was narrated in Ngarinyin and English. The show focused on how the rangers protect wetlands from feral pigs, including presentations by rangers about this conservation work. The show, performed on the river's edge at night, featured shadow puppetry as well as masks and giant, small, and rod puppetry. The finale of the show featured 'Wulumara,' a hip hop song written in Ngarinyin and English by students and local linguists which was led by Broome hip-hop artist Jacob Gregory aka Lyrical Instinct. Students also performed traditional Ngarinyin dance and song.

For more information about TK's programs visit theatrekimberley.org.au

Photo Credits: Big Country Puppet : Matt Hawke, Dragonfly: Paul Bell