October 2019 AWESOME International Arts Festival PICA Perth
April 2019 Fairbridge Festival
April 2019 Fishtrap Theatre, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre
March 2019 Regional Residencies Narrogin Arts & Margaret River PAC
…As a grown up I loved the chance to see tennis racquets as birds and fish, cricket bats as telescopes and a myriad of ways to get up close and personal with a fitball. The music was cleverly matched to the action on stage adding to the suspension of reality. Congratulations to the team, this was a fun show with lessons for all on how to have fun. (Audience member)
…Another thing that was good about this show is its humour. It wasn’t just people doing tricks all day. There was a story to it. It also was a very real concept, showing someone using resilience to overcome her fear of trying new things. This actually happens in real life. (Sacha Bott 8 yrs, Seesaw Magazine)
Olivia is sometimes awkward, definitely curious, and a little lonely. She is new, she wants to make friends, and most of all she wants to be able to catch a tennis ball! Can our plucky heroine overcome her fear of ‘dropping the ball’ that threatens to bounce her into the side lines? Watch and cheer on as Olivia turns her world into a game she can play!
CATCH! is an action-packed, interactive adventure for little ones, their families and their friends that uses balls, racquets and all things sporty to tell a story about a young girl learning how to play, make friends and overcoming her nervous fears about sport.
Circus, Theatre & Puppetry meet in this high energy, playful and imaginative take on our love of sport. Our cast jump, roll, bounce and throw as they learn to ‘look before they leap’ while ‘having a ball’. CATCH! is all about making friends and becoming a team.
Co-created by award-winning writer/director Sally Richardson with some of our most exciting circus and puppetry performers and designers, CATCH! is fresh, playful, fun-filled and ‘thoughtful’ circus theatre work for younger audiences and their families that explores our relationship to competition.
This work was developed in partnership with the active and generous support of staff and students from Falcon PS, South Halls Head PS, Narrogin PS & St. Thomas More PS (Margaret River).
MAXIMA are committed to exploring how we can support early childhood development and younger audience’s engagement with performance in inventive and fresh ways. How we learn, understand and deal with difference, our varying abilities, and be open to discovering new ways of seeing ourselves and each other.
Suitable for Ages 3+ Curriculum links: Focus Years K-2
Learning areas: Health and Physical education, The Arts
General capabilities: Critical and Creative thinking, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Understanding
Production images: Emma Fishwick
Yvan Karlsson, Ella Hetherington (Awesome Festival), Isabella Stone, Jessica Smart, Georgia Webb & Karla Scott (Awesome Festival)
Writer/director/producer: Sally Richardson
Lighting/sound design/associate direction: Joe Lui
Production design: Sara Chirichilli
Puppetry direction: Yvan Karlsson
Stage manager: Sally Davies
Executive Producer: Guy Boyce (for MANPAC)
Co-development partners: Narrogin Arts & Margaret River Performing Arts Centre
Production design creative development: Bryan Woltjen
Additional development cast: Maya Tregonning & Tanya Brown
This project has been assisted through LOFT, an initiative of The Blue Room Theatre, supported by the State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, Peel Health Campus, MANPAC Patrons program & Circuitwest.
MAXIMA thanks our partners for their support