Backbone Young Creators Workshops are an energetic, curious and supportive environment for Young People aged 8 to 18 to nurture and develop their imagination, creativity and collaboration skills.
Established in Brisbane over 35 years ago, Backbone has a deep history of engaging the creativity of Young People. We foster this creativity through a unique participant-led approach that centres on young artists finding their own voice, and placing them in an uplifting space with dedicated teaching artists who work professionally in the performing arts industry.
Our workshops are designed to empower young artists with the tools to tell their own stories and create their own work, to give young artists the agency to make their own creative decisions and fuel their passion for the performing arts and storytelling.
We know the valuable skills people learn through the creative arts are for life. Backbone Young Creators Workshops nurture their creativity, skills in collaboration and public speaking and boosts focus and dedication. Backbone’s Young Creators Workshops are an excellent way for young people to engage with their peers, while developing their creative & performing skills.
At Backbone, you don’t just join a drama class, you join a community!
Term 2 2024 begins Saturday 20th OF April!
Registrations are open now.
SKILL BUILDERS
Ages 8-12
Saturday 11:30AM – 1:00pm
Working with Backbone’s teaching artists, Skill Builders will take their performing skills and confidence to the next level by learning how to apply their imagination to create and perform their own stories, from their own perspectives. These energetic and educational workshops are tailored to meet the needs of each young artist while ensuring playfulness and inclusivity. Skill Builders allows young people to explore their creative potential through creative play, text & speech, movement, performance, and more.
Term 2 will focus on Voice and Character through exploring vocal performance and character creation. How can we use our voices in different ways to help create characters?
2024 TERM dates:
TERM 1: Saturday 27th January - Saturday 23rd March
TERM 2: Saturday 20th April - Saturday 22nd June
TERM 3: Saturday 13th July - Saturday 14th September
TERM 4: Saturday 5th October - Saturday 14th December
Cost:
$350/term or commit to the whole year for $1,200 ($200 discount).
We also offer a sibling discount and have limited hardship scholarship placements available.
Where?:
Workshops will take place at Backbone’s venue, Seven Hills Hub on 28 Tallowwood St, Seven Hills QLD 4170
YOUNG MAKERS
Ages 13-18
Saturday 1:30PM – 3:00PM
Participants in Young Makers will develop the skill set to collaboratively devise new work that speaks to the issues that matter to them most, highlighting collaboration as a key creative tool and life skill. With Backbone’s experienced facilitators, Young Makers will explore acting, writing, dramaturgy, and directing.
Term 2 will focus on Voice and Character through exploring proper vocal performance techniques and teachings, character creation exercises and development of improvisation skills to build performance creation and theatre making skills.
2024 TERM dates:
TERM 1: Saturday 27th January - Saturday 23rd March
TERM 2: Saturday 20th April - Saturday 22nd June
TERM 3: Saturday 13th July - Saturday 14th September
TERM 4: Saturday 5th October - Saturday 14th December
Cost:
$350/term or commit to the whole year for $1,200 ($200 discount).
We also offer a sibling discount and have limited hardship scholarship placements available.
Where?:
Workshops will take place at Backbone’s venue, Seven Hills Hub on 28 Tallowwood St, Seven Hills QLD 4170
MEET THE TEAM
LEAD FACILITATOR MARTELLE SIMON-GREEN
Martelle Simon-Green is a Meanjin-based theatre maker, who works primarily as a performer and director. Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama & Literature) , she has gone on to create and perform work both locally and internationally. In 2022, Martelle was an Artist in Residence at Backbone, writing and directing a theatrical work titled Pierrot for Backbone Festival and Fringe Brisbane. Martelle has been a performer for physical theatre ensemble NDRNCE, completing a residency at Metro Arts in 2021 for their work Tangerine Hour. In 2018, Martelle and her collaborators developed the Matilda Award Winning piece of immersive theatre La Silhouette (winner: Best Independent Production 2019 Matilda Awards, Nominated: Lord Mayor’s Award for Best New Australian Work). This work was not only presented in Australia (Backbone Festival 2018 and Brisbane Powerhouse Melt Festival 2019), La Silhouette was also presented in the UK at the Homegrown Festival 2019. More recently she has been a director and dramaturg for Dominoes and Rum (dir. Prince Brown) during its 2022 season. Martelle began as a teaching artist with Backbone Youth Arts Young Makers Program in 2021 and is developing a Youth Arts and education portfolio. Currently, Martelle is the Associate Producer and Lead Facilitator for Backbone Youth Arts.
Martelle’s creative credits include (as creator and performer unless otherwise stated): Obstacle (as Co-Director, Backbone Festival 2023), Bloom Girl (As Assistant Director, dir. Elise Lamb, Thomas Dixon Centre 2023), Pierrot (Director & Writer, Backbone Festival & Fringe Brisbane 2022) The Wilted Rose (As 2nd AD, Short Film, Dir. Elise Lamb, 2022), Dominoes and Rum (as Assistant Director, Dir. Prince Brown, 2021-22), An Intimate Evening with The Architects of Sound and Friends (as Producer, Metro Arts 2021), Tangerine Hour (Metro Arts 2021, dir. Gina Tay Limpus), La Silhouette (MELT Festival 2019, Battersea Arts Centre UK 2019, Backbone Festival 2018), STONEWALL (Metro Arts 2018), There’s No Sex ‘til the Third Act (as Director, Anywhere Festival 2018, QUT Showcase 2016), Hot Cult (Anywhere Festival 2017), Yowies! (Visual Bulk TAS 2017), AWFUL/BIG ADVENTURE (Anywhere Festival 2016, Winner of Anywhere Festival Award), 16 Days on a Sterile Hospital Floor (FAST 2016), The Moon Men (Anywhere Festival 2016, FAST 2015) and naïve. (as Writer and Director; QUT Create X 2016, Freshblood Festival 2016).
FACILITATOR MAISIE CROSDALE
Graduating from QUT with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama) with Distinction, Maisie Crosdale is an emerging Independent Theatre-Maker, Producer and Performer. Maisie has a background in classical ballet and contemporary dance and is now reconnecting how movement and theatre can work collaboratively —namely through Physical Theatre and Visual Theatre. Maisie is currently training with Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre Company, working as a facilitator with Zen Zen Zo's Teaching Team and in 2022 completed the company’s internationally renowned Creative Internship Programme. In 2022, Maisie produced and performed a new work in Brisbane and Moreton Bay’s Anywhere Festival, titled A Matter of Material – a non-verbal Puppetry and Object Theatre work focusing on sustainability and environmental conservation, which received the 2022 Queensland Communify Award. Maisie also worked with Dead Puppet Society in their 2022 Academy, Lab Programme - working with BLAT Productions as Movement Director and Puppeteer to curate a work titled Ta-Da!, which debuted at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
Maisie has also explored the world of academic research, working across two projects with QUT and Dr David Megarrity as a Research Assistant. Firstly on a project titled Sideshow where she researched the importance of authentic, young people's voices in playwriting and research, through a series of interviews with Empire Theatre Youth Arts in Dalby. Secondly, with David Megarrity’s Bear With Me by Tyrone and Lesley. A project at Metro Arts, where Maisie interviewed children, aged 3-8, and their beloved teddy bears - empowering children to be experts of their own imagination’s and articulate their identities through the form of plush toys.