NEW_2025_SchoolsPrograms_2pagerQR by waytco7

OUR VALUES

WAYTCo is an arts organisation that transforms lives. Though theatre and creativity, young Western Australians gain skills and insights into themselves and the world. Leadership, collaboration, communication, and initiative are all learned through the renowned training and performance opportunities that WAYTCo provides. Multi-award-winning and nationally recognised, this company has been creating pathways for youth for more than 40 years. Notable alumni include Tim Minchin, Katherine Langford, and Nadia Mitsopoulos. Some of WAYTCo’s many awards include: 2023 FUSE International, Best of Children & Families; 2019 Museum and Galleries National Award; 2019 Martin Sim’s Award and two-time winner of the FRINGE WORLD ECU Performing Arts Award.

In 2025, we are offering a suite of industry leading, highly customisable youth theatre programs. Students and educators can join us for our highly demanding Arts Industry workshops, which can be tailored to specific areas of drama and the drama curriculum. There is also Create

Your Own (Candidate’s Choice), Deviser’s Playground and our multi-award winning production ARCO.

Finally as part of WAYTCo’s mission to make theatre education opportunities more accessible to all, we are offering Act Belong Commit Drama Hubs and Incursions, alongside our partner Healthway.

Browse our Education program for 2025 and do not hesitate to contact our Producer if you have any questions.

Amelia Burke, Artistic Director

MEMBERSHIPS

YOUTH MEMBERSHIPS

Youth Membership gives you access to the full range of WAYTCo’s outstanding performance and skill development opportunities. It also provides a place of belonging, one in which you can develop as a person and find your voice.

Benefits include casting/crewing opportunities, discounted tickets and passes to masterclasses & courses; scholarship options, and the opportunity to nominate for the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC)

NextGen MEMBERSHIP

Too old for Youth Membership but still keen to be part of the Company? By taking out a NEXTGEN Membership, you play an active role in fostering the next generation of creatives.

Benefits include engagement event, Opening Night tickets, eligible to nominate for the Board of Management, access to exclusive events, offers and giveaways, and the unique joy of helping to raise the next generation of artists.

$40 from your NEXTGEN subscription fee will be used to sponsor a youth member in need.

“AMELIA BURKE’S WORKSHOPS OFFERED A GATEWAY TO A WORLD WHERE TECHNIQUE MEETS EXPRESSION, WHERE DISCOMFORT BRINGS GROWTH, AND WHERE STUDENTS EVOLVE INTO NOT JUST PERFORMERS BUT STORYTELLERS. THE IMPACT OF THESE WORKSHOPS WILL LINGER, GUIDING THESE YOUNG PERFORMERS AS THEY TREAD THE BOARDS, ARMED WITH NEWFOUND WISDOM AND INSIGHT.

SANTA MARIA COLLEGE

SPECIALIST PROGRAMS

The programs below may be booked as one-off or multi-week deliveries, and can be accessed in excursion format, involving visit to our custom designed studio in the heart of the CBD, or as incursion/s.

DRAMA WORKSHOPS

As WA’s leading youth theatre company, WAYTCo can offer your students insights and practical experience in specific areas of drama and the drama curriculum. We are experts in youth practice and can tailor the workshops to your curriculum need. Our Teaching Artists are fun and engaging, bringing industry experience that will enrich your program and leave your students grinning!

Choose From (or let us know what you need!):

• Aboriginal Theatre

• Physical Theatre

• Acting a Monologue

• Voice

• Devising

• Comedy

• Puppetry

• ATAR Drama

• Scriptwriting

CREATE YOUR OWN

Want to help your students stand out in their practical examination? Create Your Own is designed to help ATAR Drama students develop outstanding original pieces for Candidate’s Choice. Leaning into WAYTCo’s award-winning reputation for devised works, the program taps our practice of devising safely with young people whilst achieving excellence. Our Teaching Artists can guide your students to make their original ideas a reality, providing expert dramaturgical support alongside devising activities. Practitioners covered: Antonin Artaud, Frantic Assembly, Steven Berkoff, Jacques Lecoq, Jerzy Grotowski and Complicité. Approach and content is aligned with current ATAR Drama course Aims and Assessment Criteria, and standard structure and group size can be tailored to need.

Prepare your students to take on their exams with skill and confidence, whilst maintaining a sense of fun and a love of theatre!

DEVISER’S PLAYGROUND

Highly customisable, for all secondary year groups

Are you seeking a fresh idea for your school’s production? Taking place over one to two terms, students work together with Artistic Director Amelia Burke to create a new devised work. Our team will work with you throughout the whole process; from choosing the initial theme and ideas, to creating the devising methodology and rehearsal plan, through to getting everyone ready for Opening Night!

This offering is best booked as a multi-week program. It can be accessed in excursion format, involving visits to our Perth-based studio, or as incursion/s.

“WE HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH WA YOUTH THEATRE COMPANY... [AND] THIS HAS BEEN AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN FROM INDUSTRY, NETWORK, CREATE ORIGINAL WORK, WHILST FINANCIALLY SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL ARTS INDUSTRY.

I 100% WILL BE AIMING TO DO THIS AGAIN IN FUTURE YEARS.”

~ RENEE MILLER, DRAMA TEACHER, ST GEORGE’S

ACT BELONG COMMIT

ABC DRAM INCURSIONS

Act Belong Commit drama incursions are available, free of charge, to Perth Metropolitan secondary schools at the low end of the ICSEA scale.

Centred on performance and theatre-making, and delivered by professional working theatre artists, this program is an opportunity to boost student interest in school drama and creative learning more broadly.

Schools can request a wide range of content, including circus and puppetry skills, and our team will work with you to set learning intentions and ensure curriculum links.

We emphasise creating a safe environment where students of all backgrounds and abilities can thrive and be extended.

Standard programs are 1 hour per week x 8 weeks

ABC DRAMA HUBS

For eligible schools seeking to deepen their relationship with WAYTCo, subject to resource availability

Act Belong Commit Drama Hubs serve to embed WAYTCo, and its highly qualified teaching artists, in strategically located schools across the Perth Metropolitan Area. Current and previous locations include: Bassendean, Mirrabooka, Girrawheen and Swan View. Hubs provide theatre extension activities to students from Years 6 to 12 at no cost. Run after school, the program consists of 2x 1hr workshop/ week over eight weeks of the term. The final week of program will often involve a gentle showing for family and friends.

Hubs centre on long-term engagement (beyond a single term) and the building of rapport with participants to achieve meaningful impact. Get in touch if this sounds like your school!

The thirty secondary schools scoring lowest on the Index of cultural & socio-educational advantage (ICSEA) are deemed eligible for these programs. Fully funded by our partner Healthway.

“IT’S A PLACE WHERE THEY CAN LAUGH, BE FREE TO BE SILLY, CONNECT TO PEOPLE LIKE THEM AND INVENT WHO THEY WOULD LIKE TO BE. THEIR PERFORMANCE CONFIDENCE HAS RISEN WITH EACH TERM AND WE SEE THIS TRANSLATING INTO THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES. THINGS THAT MAKE THE WAYTCO DRAMA HUBS STAND APART FROM ITS CONTEMPORARIES. “ - PARENT , 2024 HUB PROGRAMMY 11YO DAUGHT

“I HAVE WITNESSED A LEAP IN CONFIDENCE, ACTING SKILL AND COMMITMENT OF THE STUDENTS THAT ATTENDED [DRAMA HUB]. THEY WERE MORE LIKELY TO EXTEND THEMSELVES, TAKE ON CHALLENGING ROLES AND TO DIRECT OTHERS.” ~

WORLD CLASS PRODUCTION

ARCO | JNR & SNR

Performance + Artist Q & A

ARCO Jnr for children aged 7-13, 50min runtime ARCO Snr for youth aged 13+, 60min runtime

Keen to bring award-winning theatre right into the heart of your school? WAYTCo’s original show about life with autism is now available in schools. After a whirlwind two years of regional, national, and international touring (Best of Children & Family Award, FUSE International 2023), team ARCO is keen to shift mindsets locally by introducing a low-fi version, especially for the classroom!

Created by self-described ‘Autistic Gentleman’ Adam Kelly, and James Berlyn, ARCO takes a heartfelt look at the life and struggles of someone trying to make connections with the people and world around them. Featuring the whimsical animations of neurodiverse artist Ben Hollingsworth, ARCO is a story of yearning and optimism which shares the message that we are acceptable in our entirety; just the way we are.

For more information about ARCO, go to: www.waytco.com/schools-communities/specialistprograms/arco-schools

“AUTISM’S NOT SIMPLY SOMETHING THAT EFFECTS HOW I FUNCTION, IT IS HOW I FUNCTION, HOW I AM WIRED. ASKING ME HOW AUTISM FEELS IS PRETTY MUCH LIKE ASKING A FISH IT IT KNOWS IT’S IN WATER...”

~ ADAM KELLY, PERFORMER & CO-CREATOR, ARCO ~

BIOGRAPHIES: Sample of WAYTCo Teaching Artists

Asha Cornelia Cluer (She/Her) is an arts educator, theatre maker and actor from Boorloo. A graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (UK), she worked as an actor in the West End and for UK No.1 touring shows. Selected theatre credits: Twelfth Night (Fremantle Theatre Co), Conception (Blue Room), ZOG (Freckle), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oddsocks), Macbeth (Bristol Old Vic Studio), Who Cares (Royal Court). As a facilitator, Asha’s work includes Ngalaka Daa 2023 (Yirra Yaakin-WAYTCo), and regular workshops for WAYTCo, Black Swan State Theatre Company, & Emergent Academy. In the UK, she worked for Mountview Academy of Performing Arts, Arts University Bournemouth, Teaching London: LDBS SCITT & Young Actors Theatre Islington.

Emily Stokoe (She/They) holds an Advanced Diploma of Stage Management (WAAPA, 2011) and a Bachelor of Arts Screen Studies - Producing and Production Design from The WA Screen Academy (2012). Emily works across live production and screen in a multitude of roles, including Stage and Production Management, Producing and Tour coordination. She has worked for companies such as STRUT Dance, The Last Great Hunt, Black Swan State Theatre Company, WAYTCo, Strut & Fret, Co3 and Artrage Fringe World Festival, as well as various independent productions and for local government and education institutions. Emily is the resident Stage Manager for Barking Gecko Theatre and has most recently been working with Perth Festival as the Project Co-ordinator for the Beaufort St Lit Crawl.

Simone Detourbet (She/Her) is a Malak Malak & Gooniyandi woman from Darwin, now Perth-based where she is an emerging actor, writer and director. In 2016 she completed the Aboriginal Theatre & Screen Performance Course at WAAPA. Acting credits: Conversations With the Dead (Yirra Yaakin, 2017), Less Light (2018), Grace (2019), I Feel Fine (2019), City of Gold (Black Swan-Sydney Theatre, 2022). Directing: Let Me Finish (Assistant Director, 2018/19), WAYTCo’s 24hr Play Generator (Director of 1x short play, 2021). Simone has also participated in several artist

residencies and in 2018 was a key creative for a documentary filmed in Rwanda. Simone is passionate about the development of young people, especially those who are First Nations, underrepresented or disadvantaged.

Shaun Johnston (he/him) is a Perth / Boorloo-based performer, teaching artist and performance-maker with a movement practice that incorporates acting, physical theatre, contemporary dance and modern martial arts. ]

Shaun is a graduate of WAAPA’s Bachelor of Performing Arts (2019) majoring in Performance-Making, and of their Bachelor of Performing Arts Honours (2022) majoring in Dance and graduating with First Class Honours. While studying, Shaun was a member of LINK Dance Company (2022), and performed in In Your God ( James Welsby & Michael Whaites) and Something About Love (Sue Peacock). He has recently returned from a professional development in Germany, where he danced in the ‘b12 fall’ workshop festival & completed a month-long intensive in clown with Arthaus Berlin. Shaun is a certified Pilates instructor with a qualification through Polestar Pilates.

Matthew Erren (He/Him) is an Perth/Boorloo based Lighting Designer graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Art majoring in Lighting Design (2019). Matthew has spent his professional career designing for Theatre, Dance and Exhibitions. Matthew Erren was nominated for PAWA Outstanding Lighting Design for his work on Catch 22 (Amelia Sagrabb Projects, Blue Room Theatre). Recently Matthew has been Lighting Designer: Made in Boorloo (WAYTCo), 24 Hour Play Generator (WAYTco), Lighting Designer: Ignorance was Bliss (Enneagon Movement), Associate Lighting Designer: Brothers Wreck (Mark Howett, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company) ,Associate Lighting Designer: Dirty Birds (Paul Jackson, Black Swan State Theatre Company). Previous designs include: Catch 22 (Amelia Sagrabb Projects), Hell is Other People (Monkey Brain Theatre Company), The Effect (Fremantle Theatre Company), Everything Flickers (Stop Drop + Roll Theatre) Pursuit (Enneagon Movement).

Amelia Burke (She/Her) is a director who fuses her love of live performance with a passion for making work with young people. She has worked as a teaching artist and director for a variety of arts companies across the country. For NIDA Open, she directed and devised a version of Company Three’s Brainstorm and a new production of Lachlan Philpott’s Bustown. In 2022, Amelia directed and devised Meet My Grandies with a cast of young actors for La Mama for Kids and the Victorian Seniors Festival. She is a graduate of the BPA (Performance Making) from WAAPA and the MFA (Directing) from NIDA. ALL WAYTCO STAFF & TEACHING ARTISTS ARE CLOSELY SCREENED. WE ROUTINELY PROVIDE WWCC CARD COPIES.

PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS

Partner support is vital to WAYTCo sustainability and underpins the Company’s capacity to provide exceptional theatre arts opportunities to West Australian youth. We are ever so grateful for the support of: