Brisbane Festival 2024 Youth and Education Program
Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Brisbane.
Brisbane Festival is unlike anything else you can experience in the world. We redefine what an International Arts Festival looks and feels like, staying ahead of the game and bringing the next generation with us.
The curated multi-arts program presents a bold program transporting our audience beyond the everyday through captivating performances and installations from across the world.
Brisbane Festival acknowledges this country’s First Nations people and with their leadership and guidance, we celebrate that deep cultural legacy. We create a rich multi-arts program made by and with our local Indigenous community.
Check out our curated list of vibrant and inclusive shows that fit curriculum for K-12 and tertiary audiences to get the most out of the Brisbane Festival experience.
Visit www.brisbanefestival.com.au for more in-depth program information.
#DRAMA
#Rachel Burke’s Fancy Long Legs
World Premiere
Thu 12 – Sun 22 Sep
Adapted for the stage by Naomi Price
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
- La Boite Theatre
Year Levels:
- Primary Years (and Secondary if studying Children’s Theatre)
Style/Form:
- Children’s Theatre, Musical Theatre, Literary Adaptation.
Themes:
- Self-discovery, friendship, accessibility and disability, neurodiversity.
Fancy Long Legs is a brand-new glittery and vibrant musical adventure for children, based on a new picture book by Brisbane’s international tinsel and craft icon, Rachel Burke. Fancy Long Legs has been created with accessibility at its core to ensure the theatre experience is welcoming, safe and inclusive for all.
Presented by Brisbane Festival, La Boite Theatre and Little Red Company.
#Adrift
Wed 11 – Sat 28 Sep
by Counterpilot
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
- Metro Arts
Year Levels:
- 11-12
Style/Form:
- Visual Theatre, Linear and Non-Linear Forms, Contemporary Performance, Technology in Performance
Senior Units:
- Unit One: Share, Unit Three: Share.
Themes:
- Isolation, environment, climate change, community, relationships, collaboration
Part mystery, part game, Adrift is a participatory theatre work that brings audience members together to uncover a story exploring feelings of isolation and our fraught relationship with nature in the face of a potential mass extinction event. Set in an infinite ocean, floating in the unknowable spaces between each other, together we create worlds, uncover mysteries, and fill in the blanks in each other’s stories.
Presented by Brisbane Festival & Metro Arts.
#Meet Your Maker
World Premiere
Sat 31 Aug – Sat 7 Sep
by Alethea Beetson
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
- Underground Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse
Year Levels:
- 10-12
Style/Form:
- Contemporary Performance, Contemporary Political Theatre, One Person Show, Magical Realism, Linear and Non-Linear Forms, Play with Songs.
Senior Units:
- Unit One: Share, Unit Two: Reflect, Unit Three: Challenge.
Themes :
- Self-determination, the music industry, colonisation, grief, First Nations perspectives, sobriety and mental health.
Welcome to the Land Back Era
In an other-time, we get to see what might happen if we had gone down the other path all those years ago, if Indigenous pop culture was the norm and not the token, our music the revered and not the stolen. By imagining a new world into being, we might just open the door to it. Turn the dial up to eleven.
Presented by Brisbane Festival, Blak Social & Brisbane Powerhouse.
#Straight From The Strait
World Premiere
Wed 28 – Sat 31 Aug
Written by Norah Bagiri
Composed by Rubina Kimiia
Directed by Nadine McDonald-Dowd
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
- Playhouse, QPAC
Year Levels:
- 9-12
Style/Form:
- Musical Theatre, Verbatim/Real World Stories, Ensemble Theatre.
Senior Units:
- Unit One: Share
Themes:
- Celebration of culture, community, perseverance, colonisation, First Nations perspectives.
In 1968, Torres Strait railwaymen broke the world record for laying track in one day. Straight from the Strait dramatises migration by Islander workers who became the backbone of major Top End infrastructure projects during the 1960s and is an important Australian story not well known outside the Strait. It presents and celebrates important cultural history, using song, dance, audio-visuals, traditional languages (Meriam Mir and Kala Lagaw Ya) and Yumpla Tok of the Torres Strait.
Presented by Opera Queensland, Yumpla Nerkep Foundation and Queensland Performing Arts Centre, in association with Brisbane Festival.
#Grimm
Australian Premiere
Fri 30 Aug – Sun 6 Oct
Tales from the Brothers Grimm
Adapted and created by Shake & Stir
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
- Cremorne Theatre, QPAC.
Year Levels:
- 9-12
Style/Form:
- Transformation and Adaptation, Magical Realism, Gothic Theatre, Visual Theatre, Ensemble Performance
Senior Units:
- Unit Two: Reflect, Unit Four: Transform
Themes:
- Fairy tales, questioning attitudes, values and beliefs, consequences of actions, social responsibility.
Happily, ever after? Never.
GRIMM, the latest tour de force from Shake & Stir Theatre Co beckons you into a world where fairytales are reimagined with a profound intensity. Be warned - these bedtime stories may cause nightmares…
Presented by Shake & Stir Theatre Co, Brisbane Festival, and Queensland Performing Arts Centre
#Trent Dalton’s Love Stories
World Premiere
Tues 10 – Sun 29 Sep
Adapted by Tim McGarry with additional writing and story by Trent Dalton and Fiona Franzmann. Directed by Sam Strong.
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
- Playhouse, QPAC
Year Levels:
- 11-12
Style/Form:
- Verbatim Theatre, Cinematic Theatre, Contemporary Performance, Linear and Non-Linear Forms, Ensemble Performance.
Senior Units:
- Unit One: Share, Unit Four: Transform
Themes:
- Love, relationships, community, the human condition.
Love Stories invites you to immerse yourself in a smorgasbord of real-life tales straight from the vibrant streets of Brisbane as captured by Trent Dalton on his sky-blue 1960s Olivetti typewriter. This extraordinary show celebrates the profound power of community, connection, and the multicultural tapestry that defines this city.
Presented by Brisbane Festival and Queensland Performing Arts Centre
#GURR ERA OP
Queensland Premiere
Wed 11 – Sat 14 Sep
by Ghenoa Gela with Force Majeure and ILBIJERRI Theatre Company
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
- Underground Theatre, Brisbane
Year Levels:
- 9-12
Style/Form:
- Contemporary Performance, Contemporary Political Theatre, Physical Theatre, Linear and Non-Linear Forms, Collage and Documentary Drama.
Senior Units:
- Unit One: Share, Unit Three: Challenge
Themes:
- Climate change, First Nations perspectives, ancestral stories, celebrating culture, call to action, colonisation, displacement.
Join four mainland-born Torres Strait Islander women as they battle against the rising tide threatening their home, culture and identity. GURR ERA OP (“the face of the sea” in Meriam Mir). A celebratory sharing of culture and a call to action in the face of climate devastation, interweaving hybrid Torres Strait Islander contemporary storytelling, movement and spoken word.
Presented by Brisbane Festival
#DANCE
#Lighting the Dark
Thu 12 – Sat 14 Sep
by Dancenorth Australia
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
-Thomas Dixon Centre
Year Levels:
- 7-12
Style/Form:
- Contemporary Performance, Dance Theatre, Magical Realism.
Senior Units:
- Unit Two: Moving through environments, Unit Three: Moving statements
Themes:
- Inclusivity, imagination, accessibility and disability, hopes and dreams.
Inspired by Chris’ real life heroes Banksy, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, Hero’s Journey illuminates Chris’ profoundly moving and life affirming adventure through the Dworld. Join Chris, a champion of inclusivity, as he traverses individual and universal truths in a dance to the very centre of what it means to be human.
Presented by Brisbane Festival
#Private View
Queensland Premiere
Wed 18 – Sat 21 Sep
by Restless Dance Theatre
IMPORTANT INFO
Venue:
-Powerhouse Theatre, Brisbane
Year Levels:
- 9-12
Style/Form:
- Dance Theatre, Contemporary Performance, Linear and Non-Linear Forms.
Senior Units:
- Unit Two: Moving through environments, Unit Three: Moving statements
Themes:
- Love and intimacy, accessibility and disability.
Content warning:
- Contains sexual references, nudity, and theatrical haze.
4 rooms, 4 diverse experiences.
Most people are sexual beings; having a physical or intellectual disability doesn’t change your sexuality and your desire to express it. Yet, the subject of people with intellectual disability having romantic dreams and sexual desires is still taboo. Private View invites audiences to become voyeurs; to observe people in their domestic spaces and discover their romantic dreams and hidden desires.
Presented by Brisbane Festival