CREATE Centre Workshop Week

A practical Workshop exploring how Drama helps us become better listeners

Monday 11 November – 2:00pm

Mining subtext requires careful and creative listening. It’s like using a metal detector to listen deep inside the characters. It’s active. You have to seek it out. It’s really thinking about: what is my character saying? BUT what are they REALLY saying?

This two hour practical Workshop, using scripts written specifically for young people through ATYP's Foundation Commissions and Intersection Festival, will be delivered by ATYP's Education Manager and Resident Artist George Kemp and will encourage you and your students to listen carefully to what writers are telling us.

Imagining mainstream classrooms as translanguaging spaces for responding to poetry

Wednesday 13 November – 2:00pm

Building on research undertaken in both primary and secondary classrooms, this practical workshop will explore strategies for reading and responding to poetry using all the linguistic resources that students bring to the classroom.

Cultural Creation Lifecycle

Wednesday 13 November – 10:00am

Focusing on Bangarra’s Cultural Creation Lifecycle, the session will discuss on the importance of respect and awareness of First Nations cultural and creative processes and protocols in storytelling through contemporary dance theatre, and some practical tools to support the design of valuable learning experiences.

Group Devising Workshop

Wednesday 13 November – 2:00pm

Join Belvoir St Theatre for a presentation on the exciting opportunities available for Drama educators and students across New South Wales. Hear from our Head of New Work, Dom Mercer, as he introduces our 2025 season, learn about our diverse range of workshops and specialised programs from our Education Team, and enjoy a hands-on taster of our popular Group Devising Workshop.

Monday 11 November - 12:00pm

In this workshop session Educators from the Chau Chak Wing Museum will begin by leading a more traditional museum history-inquiry focussed objected-based learning experience. Participants will handle genuine museum artefacts and objects and go through the processes of historical investigation using archaeology methodology of describing, drawing and critically interpreting the object and its context. But from this initial investigation the workshop will then explore various creative storytelling responses to the objects and will invite participants to create an object biography. From there we will work together as a group to develop a story linking the objects together and to their original human owners and explore other object engagement strategies.

The Artist in Me

Tuesday 12 November – 10:00am

This workshop engages primary students in exploring the origins of ideas, guiding them through activities that encourage drawing on their own lives to inspire artwork. We’ll present early findings from our first four workshops, with interactive activities for the audience to try and take away.

We’ll also share insights from our collaboration with two Mt Druitt high schools in C3West, our annual public art initiative. This program successfully connected young people to their communities through artmaking and career pathways, offering valuable learnings we look forward to discussing.

Tuesday 12 November – 10:00am

What does a TV Week Logie Award, the death mask of Henry Lawson and Miles Franklin’s teacup all have in common? They all tell a story – and they are all on display at the State Library of NSW. This session will look at how quirky collection items at the Library can both transform student understanding of storytelling, and inspire students to think and write creatively.

Integrating Music and Literacy Through Singing

Tuesday 12 November – 2:00pm

Exploring how literacy is linked to the music curriculum and how to explicitly teach these skills using the voice as the main creative tool.

The voice is THE MOST natural and effortless way for humans to produce a sound and communicate with others. In fact, indistinguishable brain processes occur when we communicate both through speech and with music. So how can music teachers use singing to support literacy and language development? In this workshop, we’ll unpack the foundational literacy components and discover ways to effectively integrate these into a classroom music program.

Making, Performing, Appreciating

Tuesday 12 November – 2:00pm

In this workshop students will work with an STC Teaching Artist to develop their skills as actors and explore approaches to generating ideas for performance. Students will learn improvisation techniques and ways of creating narrative using elements of drama and dramatic conventions. Each group will present their devised ideas, receive feedback from their peers and direction from their Teaching Artist, to deepen their understanding and knowledge of theatre, from process to performance.

Embedding Caring for Country throughout education at the Australian Museum

Monday 11 November, 2:00pm

First Nations' voices and truth telling guide education programs at the Australian Museum. In this workshop, First Nations educators will share the collaborative process of creating and presenting education programs to a range of students. You will explore how to embed First Nations perspectives authentically throughout programs. You will then participate in our Features of Country: Weaving Plants and Fibres program where you will learn about native plants from around NSW and other parts of Australia, the uses of these plants and the cultural significance they have to First Nations Peoples. You will also learn about different weaving techniques used to make baskets, nets and carriers, and engage in hands on activities and games that introduce the skill and complex knowledge of this traditional practice. Next you will have time to practice weaving skills to create a bracelet, rope or small basket, which you get to take home.

Transcending the clichéd and the obvious ideas

Monday 11 November – 2:00pm

“but I can never think of creative ideas. I am just too literal”

This oft uttered sentiment of self-deprecation is one big obstacle for learners developing confidence, competence and motivation in their creative pursuits. However, having what feel like obvious or clichéd ideas at the beginning of any creative process, is not just normal – it is necessary. Understanding how to use them to move to more novel, innovative or lateral idea generation is the key!

This workshop will introduce a practical scaffolding tool to help teachers and students develop more divergent ideas in a particular creative experience and also the metacognition to know how to do so consistently in the future. The workshop will also provide participants with a range of pedagogical strategies they can apply to their classroom to keep empowering the creative learning and the learning about creativity.