In 2011, Melbourne Theatre Company is introducing a new format to its ever popular Education Program, which has been running since 1962, and reaches up to 15,000 students annually across Victoria.

This year, two critically acclaimed productions Random and Australia! The Show! will feature in the program. 

The decision was made to phase out the Explorations component of the Education Program and replace it with two full-scale productions. Traditionally, Explorations offered students a condensed version of a classic play which stopped and started to discuss key elements of the production.

Research indicates that students gained much more when they see a play in its entirety, leaving them with a lasting impression of the experience and a taste for live theatre. The new format hopes to move away from a classroom style atmosphere of theatre learning and offer youth a more enriching theatrical experience - cutting-edge theatre, written for the real stage.

Random and Australia! The Show! are designed to complement the VCE Drama curriculum.

Enabling these exciting changes to the Education Program is MTC’s multi-faceted Lawler Studio. In addition to Random and Australia! The Show!, the Lawler Studio Season has three productions on offer, to which MTC Education provides group discounts to students and schools wanting to experience innovative theatre up-close and personal.

‘The year is my last as Artistic Director of Melbourne Theatre Company and therefore my last chance to welcome teachers and students to MTC’s Education Program. When I took over
eleven years ago, the program was a lively and important focus within the Company’s activities and, as I head for the door, it occurs to me that it might have become even more vital. Our increasingly digital world offers students all sorts of artistic experiences, instantly, casually and on demand. Many of the great works of art, including many plays and performances, are just a few mouse clicks away. No doubt this is a great boon to education – O brave new world! – yet there’s a profound difference between seeing a performance on a flat screen and experiencing it coming at you in all three vivid dimensions, filling your senses.’ says MTC Artistic Director Simon Phillips.

Highlights from the 2011 MTC Education Program include:

• The MTC Ambassador Program returns after a hugely successful pilot program last year. 25 students will gain free and exclusive access to MTC productions and rub shoulders with cast members and creatives that bring theatre to life.
• Pre-show talks led by an experienced VCE assessor with a focus on VCE Drama or Theatre Studies, and Post-show Q&A sessions with members of the cast and creative teams of Random, Australia! The Show!, Next to Normal and Hamlet.
• MTC Productions HQ Tours and MTC Theatre Tours (Theatre Tours are new to the 2011 Program)
• Solo Performance Workshops and Monologue Performance Workshops
• Free tickets for disadvantaged students
• Travel subsidies for regional and remote schools
• Discounted tickets and school group discounts for
• MTC’s Mainstage Season
• Teacher’s notes
• Costume hire

For more information on the 2011 MTC Education Program or to obtain a PDF copy of the brochure visit the MTC website.