Thanks to the ongoing support of The Scully Fund, Bell Shakespeare returned to Broken Hill and Menindee for in-school performances, Artist in Residences and shows for the community. Team Titania was accompanied by Bell Shakespeare's Philanthropy & Major Gifts Manager, Ell Katte, who reported the daily activities.
Day 1 – 22 September 2025
Railway Town Public School
First day of the Broken Hill tour: Railway Town Public School. Year 2 Teacher Erin showed us to the school hall where we would soon be joined by Years 3-6 for our first performance of Bottom’s Dream. Erin spoke of the positive impact The Players had on the students during our 2024 visit, but mentioned she hadn’t seen the performance as she looks after a younger grade. Within a few minutes, it was decided that Year 2 would also join, allowing almost the whole school to experience Shakespeare.
The Q&A had some inquisitive questions which were quickly distracted once Ollie asked ‘What’s the best flavour at Bell’s Milk Bar?’. Lime spider appeared to be the consensus among the adults, and bubble gum, a clear favourite amongst the Year 3s and 4s. Only time would tell.
Big Sky Stories Young Family Community Performance
On Monday night The Players headed to Broken Hill Civic Centre to perform Bottom's Dream to an audience of kids and their families. It's rare for The Players to perform after the sun goes down, but for a community performance like this, it was well worth it. This was an opportunity for primary-aged students to see live performance regardless of the school they attend.
When we arrived, we were greeted by the very bubbly Jane Vaughn (who by chance, attended Railway Town Public School when she was a child before later teaching there for a period of her teaching career). Jane is the founder of Big Sky Stories, a non-profit dedicated to inspiring creativity, storytelling and literacy skills within the community and the organiser of this night’s performance.
When I asked Jane what inspired her to start this non-profit, she explained a startling statistic: that kids in the area are twice as likely to be considered developmentally at risk in language and cognitive skills at kindergarten age, compared to the state average. Big Sky Stories aims to combat this through their bookstore, literacy programs and arranging events like attending The Players. We were chuffed to be involved and the young people were curious and delightful. It was also very special to hear how many parents and guardians were laughing along and engaging with their kids around Shakespeare.
Whilst the audience was small (around 30 people), for each of them, this was a very special evening. The Q&A went on for a long time covering such topics as:
- What’s your favourite Shakespeare play?
- Do you have any tips for young actors?
- Can you tell us about any time things have gone wrong?
- Are you coming to my School X? Are you coming to my School Y?
This was also the point at which a kid from Broken Hill Public School informed us that this coming Friday would be “Crazy Sock Day”... an opportunity for Snug perhaps?
Day 2 – 23 September 2025
Willyama High School
You may recall from last year’s Scully Week the story of Willyama High School. Their school campus had to close due to mould, and unfortunately, the update a year later is that they’ve since discovered asbestos. For the indefinite future, Willyama High School will continue to share a campus with Broken Hill High School. Due to the restricted campus, The Players' performances took place at a third location – Broken Hill Public School, a 5-minute walk from the high school.
At 9am, the Year 7 & 8 cohort of boys and girls file into the school hall for their production of Such Sweet Sorrow. A rather chatty crowd, Ollie flexed his improv muscles and ran to the back of the hall to perform ‘the balcony scene’. This malleability of each production to the needs of each school audience was something I hadn’t fully appreciated. At the conclusion of the first performance, Willyama’s Head of English, Courtney, asks: Raise your hand if you have ever seen a play? Of the 150 students, perhaps a dozen put their hands up. Well now all of you can say you’ve seen a play. I hope this is not the last time you do.
Theatre 44
Our performance of Macbeth: The Rehearsal at Theatre 44 was a true highlight of the week and one of very few opportunities our Players take to the stage rather than the school hall. It’s hard to anticipate how an adult audience may respond to a show designed for teenagers, but this evening’s performance reinforced how comprehending Shakespeare is ageless.
As we pulled up to the theatre, we were greeted by Almondo, an avid theatre-maker who wore a pencil tucked into his newsboy hat. Whilst The Players warm up for the show, I chat with Debbie, another member of the Broken Hill Repertory Theatre who was responsible for ticking off RSVPs as audience members arrive.
“How many people are we expecting?" I asked. “I have no idea,” she said, explaining how the show has been advertised through posters on noticeboards and on their Facebook page. As attendees file in, Debbie glances each one before ticking ‘adult’, ‘senior’ or ‘child’. Spoiler alert – 59 people attended, which was essentially a sell-out season.
I got chatting with audience members as we funnelled into the theatre with a glass of wine in hand (another difference to our regular school visits). It was a delight to see some familiar faces, including Jane from Big Sky Stories, Simone, the teacher I sat with at last night’s community performance of Bottom’s Dream and a handful of students from Railway Town Public with their parents. I got chatting with some unknown faces and was surprised by just how many ‘saw the poster at Bell’s Milk bar today’ or perhaps it was ‘Giovanni’s coffee’ or 'the community board outside the supermarket'.
The Players loved this performance as much as the audience did, applauding after each performer's soliloquy, in their deep appreciation for the Shakespearean word. The post-show Q-and-A ran for nearly as long as the show. It was refreshing to have a new spectrum of questions, including:
- What were your pathways to becoming actors?
- Do you think gender swapping characters is a trend?
- Why are more productions amplifying voices with mics?
- Do you believe in the curse of the Scottish play? Answer for those wondering: Ollie doesn’t, Kate does.
- What advice would you give your younger selves?
- Who writes these plays? Shout out to Joanna Erskine!
- How did you learn to love Shakespeare or have you always loved his plays?
Day 3 – 24 September 2025
Broken Hill High School
On Wednesday, The Players and I headed out for a full day at Broken Hill High School. We were reunited with Jo Severino, a teacher from last year’s visit and a 2025 participant in Bell Shakespeare’s National Teachers Mentorship program. She’d arranged for three performances across Years 7–10, covering two Such Sweet Sorrow(s) and one Macbeth: The Rehearsal performances. This day was spectacular because the teachers were fully on board and enthusiastic about the opportunity. It seemed that the experience of last year’s visit inspired more enthusiasm in participation, in students and teachers alike.
The first performance was Such Sweet Sorrow for Year 9. They were a quiet crowd, with many students away unexpectedly. Their silence certainly was not a reflection of their enjoyment. Following the completion of the first show, two students ran up to Jo and asked, “Please can we stay for the next one?!”. Jo was of course easily convinced and the Principal signed off on the two students to stay for Macbeth: The Rehearsal.
The second performance was fabulous. The two Year 9 students who had stayed both volunteered to be the witches. A charming English teacher made a fantastic King Duncan, who died valiantly. There was a group of distracted boys who were quickly broken up about 10 minutes into the performance. It was chattiest culprit who surprised his teachers and volunteered to play Banquo’s ghost – and did a fantastic job. Most of the audience were engaged throughout, and even those for whom theatre may not be their thing got very excited during the fight scenes.
The Players and I joined the English department in their staffroom for lunch.
The final show of the day was Such Sweet Sorrow. This also marked the final time The Players would perform this play as they are nearing the end of their 6-month tour. Kate, Umai and Ollie delivered an incredibly high-energy, emotionally-fuelled closing performance. The students were engaged throughout the performance with one yelling out to Romeo "boy, just change your name”, if only it was that easy to surpass this generational feud.
We packed up the car, said farewell to Jo and headed home for a evening-off...via Bell's Milk Bar of course.
Day 4 – 25 September 2025
Menindee Central School
For the first time this week, The Players and I had a commute longer than 7 minutes. We started down the Silver City Highway for the 90-minute journey to the next town, Mendinee. During our travels, Kate taught me the etiquette of a 'trucker wave' and whilst there were few cars on the road, we were frequently crossing double lines to avoid bearded dragons, sunbathing on the warm asphalt.
We arrived in Menindee and headed to the one school located in this town of 537 people. It was the second-last day of term and in this already small school (80 students, K-12), the numbers were even fewer. We kicked off with Macbeth: The Rehearsal, where all 13 High School students joined a near-equal number of teachers in the hall for what would be The Players final performance of this play. Most of this cohort has experienced an Artist in Residence program a few weeks prior with Emily Edwards and Jake Fryer-Hornsby, which meant the students had some familiarity with the text before they saw the play. The audience was pretty reserved but the teachers were fantastic at coaxing up their confidence. During the Q-and-A, questions included "how can young people become actors like you?", "Have you always been confident speaking in front of an audience? If not, how did you grow those skills?" and "Are y'all going to go into movies where the money is at?"
Between performances, we headed to the local tuck-shop. Redsands Takeaway is the only food establishment in the town and they cater for all the school and hospital lunches. Consequently, the food wasn't ready before the next performance was scheduled to start so The Players took the car keys and I followed behind on foot with food in hand. It was nice to see this slow town at an even slower pace, making note of creative signage and impressive cactus gardens that lined the street. I was quickly reminded that it was springtime in Australia, which meant I was accompanied by territorial magpies swooping down at me. My leisurely stroll turned into a fearful run, a comic relief, I am sure, for the P-plater who drove past.
When I returned to the school hall, we were around 5 minutes into Bottom's Dream. I'm glad I didn't miss much of the performance as it would turn out to be be a highlight of the week. This play, which is normally performed to Years 3-6, entertained all remaining students, as young as 5. It truly felt that for these 19 students, this performance was the best day of their year. The cheers, laughter and audible enthusiasm were absolutely palpable. A girl named Harmony in Year 3 took on the task of playing 'the wall'. Year 2 teacher Sez was grinning ear to ear as she would have one eye on the play and the other on her students watching the performance in front of them. This was an exceptional way to round out their 200th performance of the tour.
Day 5 – 26 September 2025
Broken Hill North Public
A warm audience rounds out my time with The Players in Broken Hill. All primary students eagerly volunteered to play the wall and a symphony of audience response, including a beautifully timed "You broke the moon, good on ya". Friday's double-bill of Bottom's Dream would be the testing ground for the following week of primary holiday performances. Broken Hill North's performance was a fantastic start to the many performances of Bottom, Quince and Flute, Ollie, Kate and Umai had coming.
It was time for me to say farewell to these three mighty Players. The team kindly dropped me at the airport and, like any trip away, I began reminiscing before I'd made it onto the plane. Tash Beaumont, the researcher from the University of Sydney's CREATE Centre happened to be on the same flight. I asked her about the study with specific curiosity about the effects of returning a second time. The data is still being analysed, but in short, she said "it is absolutely worth coming back". She spoke about how for many, seeing a play or engaging with a workshop is a positive one-off experience, but to have long-term impact, you need ongoing engagement. It made me particularly grateful for the opportunity to test this idea in returning to Broken Hill for a second year in 2025.
Final Thoughts
When chatting with teachers and parents, it was clear that people in Broken Hill love their city. The pace of the town, the community-led atmosphere, and the connection to the outback were all frequently referenced as why they love living there. People were also quick to identify the challenges the community faces – whether that’s the aging population with lack of appropriate health resources, high schools closing due to mould or the frequent challenge of maintaining school attendance in teenagers across the city.
It was incredible to see how the students and community engaged with The Players in schools and in our two community performances. Every audience was unique and it was special to see the reactions and impact on those who really connected to the plays and/or the artists, especially for those who had never seen a performance. What I witnessed in Broken Hill was that the small role The Players played had an undeniable positive impact on almost every participant or every person who saw these shows. For returning schools, I suspect that these experiences have compounded, and I hope there is long-term impact for those who continue to pursue the arts or, at the very least, have a better appreciation for it.
It was a true privilege to travel with The Players and experience these programs in communities first-hand. Thank you to The Scully Fund for your continued support of our regional access program and for making it possible for an additional Bell Shakespeare team member to join the artists on tour. I've worked at Bell Shakespeare for a little over a year and have long admired the work this organisation does. I know that we have impact, I've read the reports, but to see it first hand has made me even more proud of what Bell Shakespeare does and what our supporters help make possible. Thank you to all who do.
