Jigsaw Theatre Company has a new artistic director, Kate Shearer. What does this mean for the future of quality theatre for children and young people in Canberra? My expectation is that Jigsaw's reputation is safe and sound.
I have to admit my bias. 30 years ago, while I was briefly chair of Canberra Children's Theatre Committee which included the legal strong-arm of today's Public Prosecutor Richard Refshauge, the decision was made to formalise the structure of The Jigsaw Company as a professional organisation in its own right. This was a high point in the work of director Carol Woodrow, the driving force behind Jigsaw and Canberra Youth Theatre, both still essential elements in the ever-swirling flux that is Canberra theatre.
From the beginning Jigsaw has been unusual, if not unique, in being funded on the one hand as an independent theatre company by the Australia Council and on the other as a provider of children's theatre experience and professional development for teachers by the ACT government school system. In other places education department teams have come and gone as state government spending has fluctuated, while independent theatre-in-education companies have relied on beating ever-increasing competition - with many consequent demises.
Jigsaw is not completely immune, but Shearer is not only an experienced actor, teacher and director, but a successful theatre company administrator, well able to put up the quality grant applications and tender bids that the Australia Council and ACT Government expect. It is, first of all, her wide ranging background and ability to integrate, in the best Jigsaw tradition, the theatrical, educational and administrative aspects of her job that gives me confidence.
As the previous director, Greg Lissaman, has moved on after 7 years, budget tightening is necessary as grants are less forthcoming and the ACT undertakes its review of expenditure. Jigsaw began with an artistic director, an administrator, a team of 5 actors/tutors including a seconded teacher, and a part-time secretary. Peter Wilkins - now Narrabundah College teacher and Canberra Times reviewer - was able to maintain this structure when he directed Jigsaw from 1980 to 1985. There were various arrangements with more or less full time staff through the directorships of Rod Wilson and Steven Champion until Lyn Wallis, whose manual for independent theatre companies In Good Company was recently reviewed in Times 2, took the reins in 1995 and made Jigsaw into a leaner company, employing actors, tutors, technical staff and writers as needed for each project. Lissaman followed this structure with a staff of 4 - artistic director, administrative director, production manager and education officer.
Shearer has herself and the position of General Manager has been advertised. Her first production for 4 to 12 year olds, Big Sister Little Brother by Mike Kenny, opens with a special school holiday showing on Friday April 28 and goes on into primary schools for a 3 week season (there are still a couple of slots left for schools to book). Her next show for secondary schools is Shopping for Shoes, employing one actor and 30 pairs of shoes, designed to challenge young people's understanding of consumerism and their concepts of theatre. Then, with HealthPact support, we will see Smokefree Showpod, a new development from the successful Burning Boards program. Taking the pressure off teachers, Showpod will run out of school with students in a 10 week program working with theatre professionals, leading to non-competitive productions involving all the performing arts - "a celebration of excellence."
The school shows also include cross-curriculum resource kits for teachers, while The Teacher's Toolbox is a professional development program, particularly for primary teachers.
Can Kate Shearer cope? Her history says absolutely yes. A performer since the age of 4, whose mother directed and acted and whose father was a history teacher (and theatre technician), Shearer has a theatre degree and graduate diploma of education from Queensland University of Technology, worked through her twenties as an actor and drama teacher in Australia, teaching actor training in Britain where at 30 she was offered directing work, and has returned each year since 2002 to work on schools' touring productions and summer school drama programs. "Being an actor," she says, "has made me a much better director" because she knows how difficult, exhausting and complex the work of an actor is. In between employment, she set up her own company, learning the management details on the way. Having only one job with a contract which says she can only work outside with Jigsaw Committee's approval, is almost easing off for this energetic woman.
In her thirties she has discovered that directing is "what I was really meant to be doing with my life". She "loves the making" of theatre, working with each different actor, caring for them individually and facilitating them to find their way into the work. Like being a teacher, I suggest. Yes, she says, but I can be strong when I need to be. I realise it is her strength combined with her energy which makes her a survivor in the uncertain world of theatre, and it is her inclusive approach which is right for The Jigsaw Company - its original name - where theatre and education work as one.
Big Sister Little Brother
Jigsaw Theatre Company
Tuggeranong Arts Centre
Friday and Saturday April 28 - 29, 10.30am, 1pm and 3pm
Tickets: $8 concession, $10 adult, $30 family (2 adults, 2 children)
Bookings: Phone 6293 1443
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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