Sport for Jove and Seymour Centre present

HSC Symposiums

7 Mar - 6 Jun 2022

Past Event

Dive deeper into the 2022 HSC curriculum with Sport for Jove's HSC Performance Symposium series, offering an even stronger theatrical experience of key HSC texts. Students will explore major scenes and characters in performance, coupled with theatrical and dramatic analysis and curriculum-based insights into how they work.

Join Damien Ryan and the Sport for Jove team in exploring the plays' multiple meanings. In these discussions, students open up diverse critical readings, unlock language and character, and hear actors discuss the plays' famous ambiguities and challenges. Students will also have the opportunity to ask their own questions.

Don't miss this complete, hands-on experience that combines the unfiltered relationship students need with the plays' action and narrative. Each symposium ensures students are 'watching with understanding', so they develop the critical thinking skills required to write on the play under exam conditions. 

Every aspect of each HSC Symposium is geared toward the curriculum and the specific needs of students studying these plays, and detailed resource kits are included.

 

Image credit: Seiya Taguchi

"You made a difficult play accessible and meaningful to students in a short space of time. I will certainly be making a booking for next year's HSC group."
Teacher, Marian College

Payment
Find out how our school bookings process works. Full payment deadlines for each event can be found in the individual symposium sections on this page.

Workshops
Workshops can be organised through Sport for Jove. Please contact the team at info@sportforjove.com.au for further information.

Resources
Digital Student Resource Kits will be distributed following each symposium. Kits include lesson activities, an analysis of the relevant play, videos, photos and design insights.

Your visit
Find out how to get here, where to eat and when to arrive.
Find out about our COVID-Safe measures.

Risk assessment
Find our 2022 risk assessment information here.

"Banish not him thy Harry's company, banish plump Jack and banish all the world. I do. I will."

Redemption? Disgrace? Honour? Love? Glory? What sort of world do the young inherit from the old and what should we be fighting for?

Henry IV is a play made for our time. Shakespeare looks back at history to imagine his nation's future and turn an immense and kaleidoscopic national lens on that most simple and human of relationships – the family.

The play is moving, funny and thrillingly chaotic, swaying on a tightrope of irrational thought and behaviour while trying to maintain its sanity and balance, tumbling from conniving politics to saturnalian madness as people at every level of English society grasp for power, notoriety, fame and loyalty from those around them.

It is Shakespeare having an absolute ball with what theatre can be, and is one of the world's greatest studies in courage, crime, the nature of rebellion and the challenge of living up to our responsibilities.

Sport for Jove's brand new Henry IV performance symposium is another example of the exceptional clarity and accessibility the company is renowned for.

Times
Mon 7 Mar, 11am
Tue 8 Mar, 2pm
Wed 9 Mar, 10am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 10am performance on March 8th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 31 Jan 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:
Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary
 English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC
English Advanced Module B: Critical Study of Literature.

Content warnings
Contains coarse language, physical violence, sexual references, adult themes and prop weapons.

"Bad is the world; and all will come to nought, when such ill dealing must be seen in thought."

There is peace at last in the land of the free!

But while a gruesome war has ended and the world dances, one dangerous mind is still in the trenches, his language weaponised and targeted on every point of weakness around him. He will take no prisoners on his rampage to the top.

Richard of Gloucester is a master of words, a great rhetorician who narrates his own story, tells us what comes next, always turns up at the scenes of his own crimes, and gloats and unpicks his chaotic masterpieces like a contemporary narcissist obsessed with how the thrill of attention can feel for a man who has always been fixed by the gaze of ridicule. But as Richard will learn too late, this story is not his to tell.

Shakespeare carries his audience steadily upward from the dirty political mire and mess to the birds-eye view of politics that the tyrant can rarely see – this Richard is a mere cog in a wheel of destruction that will necessarily purge his rotten realm. This is a tale of curses, dreams and fate, and its sidelined and disenfranchised women will prove its truest storytellers.

Don’t miss Sport for Jove's brand new performance symposium focused on one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

Times
Thu 10 Mar, 11am
Fri 11 Mar, 10am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on March 11th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 31 Jan 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:

Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Advanced Module A: Textual Conversations.

Content
Contains coarse language, physical violence, sexual references, adult themes, prop weapons, and loud noises.

"…a pound of flesh…nearest his heart…so says the bond…"

The Merchant of Venice is an eternally relevant study of justice, mercy and religious division.

It's a story Shakespeare couldn't resist: an unfathomable sadness in a man's heart… the mysterious terrors of the ocean… hate crime and religious intolerance… money, money, money and our willingness to gamble with our lives… things that still hurt and hinder us to this day in our struggle to know the difference between mercy and justice.

The Merchant of Venice features some of Shakespeare's most extraordinary characters - like Portia, the brilliant young woman who dresses as a man to save a merchant's life, or Bassanio, the man with nothing who would have it all at any cost, or Jessica, the girl who would trade her mother's and father's memories for a monkey.

And at the centre of them all, in the court of Venice, stands a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, legally demanding a pound of flesh from a man who is willing to have his heart torn out of his body as a gesture of love for his friend.

Sport for Jove's performance symposium offers a unique and thrilling opportunity for students to dissect this formidable play.

Times
Thu 17 Mar, 11am
Fri 18 Mar, 10am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on March 18th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 31 Jan 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:
Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Standard, Advanced and English Studies Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences.

Content
Contains physical violence, sexual references, adult themes and prop weapons.

"…be not afeard, the isle is full of noises…"

One of Shakespeare's truly original and most personal plays, The Tempest is a symphonic vision of forgiveness, discovery and self-discovery – famous for its language, context, enchanting characters and breathtaking theatricality, a reflection of the world's most famous playwright at the height of his powers and at the end of his remarkable career.

This tempest is not only in Prospero – the storm lies in the contradictions and ambiguities the story throws up about freedom and slavery, civilisation and barbarism, legacy and letting go, lust and chastity, youth and age, revenge and forgiveness. The sea is a place of transformation but also represents the capriciousness of nature, chaos or fate.

Sport for Jove will unpick the play with students through live performance and analysis and direct contrast and comparison with Atwood's Hag-seed in this brand new performance symposium.

Times
Mon 4 Apr, 11am
Tue 5 Apr, 10am
Wed 6 Apr, 11am
Thu 7 Apr, 11am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on April 5th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 7 Feb 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:

Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Advanced Module A: Textual Conversations.

Content
Contains physical violence, sexual references, adult themes and prop weapons.

"I think I am a human being before anything else. I don't care what other people say. I don't care what people write in books. I need to think for myself." - Nora

Who is Nora Helmer - heroic feminist, rabid neurotic, or just a selfish runaway?

With the brisk pace and plotting of a thriller, Ibsen's classic tale of intrigue, fraud and betrayal still has strong contemporary resonances for today's audiences, exposing a world where duty, power and hypocrisy rule.

The Helmers are all set to enjoy a new life in a new home. Torvald has been promoted to a senior position at the bank and Nora is delighted. At last, they can put their financial troubles behind them.

But their fragile happiness is shattered by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. As the lies that Nora has told and the risks that she has taken to protect her husband are exposed, they are forced to question just how perfect their marriage really is. Now, it seems, only a miracle will set them free.

A Doll's House was controversial when first staged in 1879 and remains so today. Sport for Jove's new performance symposium is direct, dynamic, actor-focused and visceral.

Times
Wed 11 May, 2pm

*Note 15 Feb 2022: This performance has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Wed 13 Apr 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:

Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Advanced Module B: Critical Study of Literature.

Content 
Contains sexual references and adult themes.

The Crucible, Arthur Miller's parable of mass hysteria, is a portrait of the ordinary evils latent in any society, of mindless, hysterical persecution through ignorance, fear of 'otherness' and our capacity to serve ourselves above all others, making it one of the world's most transcendent and important stories, in any age.

Damien Ryan's intensive and detailed performance symposium on the play offers a rich opportunity for students to meet the characters, look beneath the play – at its language, characters, form and theatricality – and discuss the big ideas with professional actors who have a long relationship with the play.

What does it mean to us now? Come and join the conversation. After all, we can stand back from these puritanical thinkers and feel safe from their ignorant, outdated superstitions and prejudices but Miller's very successful point is that we just can't. The belief systems and modes of persecution might change but the ignorances and willingness to hurt each other do not.

The Crucible illustrates these things at the personal, familial, judicial and political levels and asks actors to give everything they have to tell it. Sport for Jove looks forward to meeting your students in 2022.

Times
Mon 6 Jun, 10am, 2pm

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on June 6th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 11 Apr 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:
Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary
 English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Standard, Advanced and English Studies Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences.

Content
Contains physical violence, sexual references, adult themes, gender violence and prop weapons.

We are a registered COVID-Safe business with measures in place to make your next Seymour visit safe and enjoyable. You can find out more about our safety measures for the general public here and for school groups here, and we will also send safety information directly to you prior to your visit. To ensure we can reach you, we recommend checking that your contact information is up to date.

View dates and times by clicking into your chosen symposium.

York Theatre.

150 minutes (including interval).

All $30

One teacher free per 10 students; $30 for each additional teacher.

Book by clicking into your chosen symposium and following the 'book here' link.

Photography and filming prohibited.

The only authorised ticket seller for this event is Seymour Centre. If you purchase from an unauthorised seller, you risk that your tickets may be fake or invalid.

"Banish not him thy Harry's company, banish plump Jack and banish all the world. I do. I will."

Redemption? Disgrace? Honour? Love? Glory? What sort of world do the young inherit from the old and what should we be fighting for?

Henry IV is a play made for our time. Shakespeare looks back at history to imagine his nation's future and turn an immense and kaleidoscopic national lens on that most simple and human of relationships – the family.

The play is moving, funny and thrillingly chaotic, swaying on a tightrope of irrational thought and behaviour while trying to maintain its sanity and balance, tumbling from conniving politics to saturnalian madness as people at every level of English society grasp for power, notoriety, fame and loyalty from those around them.

It is Shakespeare having an absolute ball with what theatre can be, and is one of the world's greatest studies in courage, crime, the nature of rebellion and the challenge of living up to our responsibilities.

Sport for Jove's brand new Henry IV performance symposium is another example of the exceptional clarity and accessibility the company is renowned for.

Times
Mon 7 Mar, 11am
Tue 8 Mar, 2pm
Wed 9 Mar, 10am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 10am performance on March 8th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 31 Jan 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:
Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary
 English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC
English Advanced Module B: Critical Study of Literature.

Content warnings
Contains coarse language, physical violence, sexual references, adult themes and prop weapons.

"Bad is the world; and all will come to nought, when such ill dealing must be seen in thought."

There is peace at last in the land of the free!

But while a gruesome war has ended and the world dances, one dangerous mind is still in the trenches, his language weaponised and targeted on every point of weakness around him. He will take no prisoners on his rampage to the top.

Richard of Gloucester is a master of words, a great rhetorician who narrates his own story, tells us what comes next, always turns up at the scenes of his own crimes, and gloats and unpicks his chaotic masterpieces like a contemporary narcissist obsessed with how the thrill of attention can feel for a man who has always been fixed by the gaze of ridicule. But as Richard will learn too late, this story is not his to tell.

Shakespeare carries his audience steadily upward from the dirty political mire and mess to the birds-eye view of politics that the tyrant can rarely see – this Richard is a mere cog in a wheel of destruction that will necessarily purge his rotten realm. This is a tale of curses, dreams and fate, and its sidelined and disenfranchised women will prove its truest storytellers.

Don’t miss Sport for Jove's brand new performance symposium focused on one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

Times
Thu 10 Mar, 11am
Fri 11 Mar, 10am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on March 11th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 31 Jan 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:

Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Advanced Module A: Textual Conversations.

Content
Contains coarse language, physical violence, sexual references, adult themes, prop weapons, and loud noises.

"…a pound of flesh…nearest his heart…so says the bond…"

The Merchant of Venice is an eternally relevant study of justice, mercy and religious division.

It's a story Shakespeare couldn't resist: an unfathomable sadness in a man's heart… the mysterious terrors of the ocean… hate crime and religious intolerance… money, money, money and our willingness to gamble with our lives… things that still hurt and hinder us to this day in our struggle to know the difference between mercy and justice.

The Merchant of Venice features some of Shakespeare's most extraordinary characters - like Portia, the brilliant young woman who dresses as a man to save a merchant's life, or Bassanio, the man with nothing who would have it all at any cost, or Jessica, the girl who would trade her mother's and father's memories for a monkey.

And at the centre of them all, in the court of Venice, stands a Jewish moneylender, Shylock, legally demanding a pound of flesh from a man who is willing to have his heart torn out of his body as a gesture of love for his friend.

Sport for Jove's performance symposium offers a unique and thrilling opportunity for students to dissect this formidable play.

Times
Thu 17 Mar, 11am
Fri 18 Mar, 10am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on March 18th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 31 Jan 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:
Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Standard, Advanced and English Studies Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences.

Content
Contains physical violence, sexual references, adult themes and prop weapons.

"…be not afeard, the isle is full of noises…"

One of Shakespeare's truly original and most personal plays, The Tempest is a symphonic vision of forgiveness, discovery and self-discovery – famous for its language, context, enchanting characters and breathtaking theatricality, a reflection of the world's most famous playwright at the height of his powers and at the end of his remarkable career.

This tempest is not only in Prospero – the storm lies in the contradictions and ambiguities the story throws up about freedom and slavery, civilisation and barbarism, legacy and letting go, lust and chastity, youth and age, revenge and forgiveness. The sea is a place of transformation but also represents the capriciousness of nature, chaos or fate.

Sport for Jove will unpick the play with students through live performance and analysis and direct contrast and comparison with Atwood's Hag-seed in this brand new performance symposium.

Times
Mon 4 Apr, 11am
Tue 5 Apr, 10am
Wed 6 Apr, 11am
Thu 7 Apr, 11am

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on April 5th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 7 Feb 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:

Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Advanced Module A: Textual Conversations.

Content
Contains physical violence, sexual references, adult themes and prop weapons.

"I think I am a human being before anything else. I don't care what other people say. I don't care what people write in books. I need to think for myself." - Nora

Who is Nora Helmer - heroic feminist, rabid neurotic, or just a selfish runaway?

With the brisk pace and plotting of a thriller, Ibsen's classic tale of intrigue, fraud and betrayal still has strong contemporary resonances for today's audiences, exposing a world where duty, power and hypocrisy rule.

The Helmers are all set to enjoy a new life in a new home. Torvald has been promoted to a senior position at the bank and Nora is delighted. At last, they can put their financial troubles behind them.

But their fragile happiness is shattered by the arrival of an unexpected visitor. As the lies that Nora has told and the risks that she has taken to protect her husband are exposed, they are forced to question just how perfect their marriage really is. Now, it seems, only a miracle will set them free.

A Doll's House was controversial when first staged in 1879 and remains so today. Sport for Jove's new performance symposium is direct, dynamic, actor-focused and visceral.

Times
Wed 11 May, 2pm

*Note 15 Feb 2022: This performance has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Wed 13 Apr 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:

Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Advanced Module B: Critical Study of Literature.

Content 
Contains sexual references and adult themes.

The Crucible, Arthur Miller's parable of mass hysteria, is a portrait of the ordinary evils latent in any society, of mindless, hysterical persecution through ignorance, fear of 'otherness' and our capacity to serve ourselves above all others, making it one of the world's most transcendent and important stories, in any age.

Damien Ryan's intensive and detailed performance symposium on the play offers a rich opportunity for students to meet the characters, look beneath the play – at its language, characters, form and theatricality – and discuss the big ideas with professional actors who have a long relationship with the play.

What does it mean to us now? Come and join the conversation. After all, we can stand back from these puritanical thinkers and feel safe from their ignorant, outdated superstitions and prejudices but Miller's very successful point is that we just can't. The belief systems and modes of persecution might change but the ignorances and willingness to hurt each other do not.

The Crucible illustrates these things at the personal, familial, judicial and political levels and asks actors to give everything they have to tell it. Sport for Jove looks forward to meeting your students in 2022.

Times
Mon 6 Jun, 10am, 2pm

*Note 15 Feb 2022: The 2pm performance on June 6th has been cancelled.

School bookings
Click here to book. Full payment for this event is due by Mon 11 Apr 2022.

General public bookings
Click here to book.

Curriculum links
Suitable for students in years 7 to 12:
Stage 4, Stage 5 and Stage 6 Preliminary
 English and Drama.
Stage 6 HSC English Standard, Advanced and English Studies Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences.

Content
Contains physical violence, sexual references, adult themes, gender violence and prop weapons.

View dates and times by clicking into your chosen symposium.

York Theatre.

150 minutes (including interval).

All $30

One teacher free per 10 students; $30 for each additional teacher.

Book by clicking into your chosen symposium and following the 'book here' link.

Photography and filming prohibited.

The only authorised ticket seller for this event is Seymour Centre. If you purchase from an unauthorised seller, you risk that your tickets may be fake or invalid.

Payment
Find out how our school bookings process works. Full payment deadlines for each event can be found in the individual symposium sections on this page.

Workshops
Workshops can be organised through Sport for Jove. Please contact the team at info@sportforjove.com.au for further information.

Resources
Digital Student Resource Kits will be distributed following each symposium. Kits include lesson activities, an analysis of the relevant play, videos, photos and design insights.

Your visit
Find out how to get here, where to eat and when to arrive.
Find out about our COVID-Safe measures.

Risk assessment
Find our 2022 risk assessment information here.

We are a registered COVID-Safe business with measures in place to make your next Seymour visit safe and enjoyable. You can find out more about our safety measures for the general public here and for school groups here, and we will also send safety information directly to you prior to your visit. To ensure we can reach you, we recommend checking that your contact information is up to date.

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