Media Release: Windmill at Home
Windmill Theatre Co is thrilled to announce the arrival of Windmill at Home, a new digital platform that aims to bring a bit of Windmill joy into the homes and schools of audiences around South Australia and beyond.
Created in response to the effects of social distancing and isolation, Windmill at Home seeks to engage and delight audiences of all ages through the creation of bespoke digital content and activities based on Windmill’s beloved performance repertoire. Many of these materials will be created by our artists from their own homes and delivered to our audiences through the platform.
Artistic Director Rosemary Myers says, “This is a challenging time for many within our industry, especially our artists. While not being able to perform onstage is difficult, we’re taking these circumstances as a creative challenge. We asked ourselves, and our artists, ‘how can we extend on our existing work in the digital space? The answer is Windmill at Home.”
The platform includes films and videos to watch and respond to, hands-on activities to inspire and create, movement-based tasks to get children and families active and other fun things to keep young audiences engaged and support parents and teachers as they navigate through this period. The platform will launch with featured series Grug Storytime, which sees actors Ezra Juanta, Elizabeth Hay, Kidaan Zelleke and Ellen Steele present filmed readings Ted Prior’s beloved books. The company is also working with performer Zoë Dunwoodie on a series of interactive at-home workout videos inspired by Ted Prior’s book, Grug Learns to Dance. Other featured Windmill works include Beep, Baba Yaga and Creation Creation, all of which had tours and seasons either cancelled or postponed.
These new initiatives will sit alongside some of Windmill’s pre-existing digital resources and experiences, including the award-winning Girl Asleep: An Interactive Journey and Across Land and Sea, which charts the experience of asylum seekers journeying to Australia, made alongside Windmill’s production Amphibian.
Executive Producer Kaye Weeks says, “We’ve been making work in the digital space for years and we’re thrilled to be working with our creatives to bring this platform to life and to keep interacting with our audiences during this downtime for live experiences. Our artists are the lifeblood of our company, and keeping them working, engaged and creating is something we’re prioritising. We can’t wait to see what other brilliant ideas they come up with.
Windmill at Home is live now on windmill.org.au.
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