Homunculus Theatre Company has actively engaged, educated, and inspired student audiences throughout Australia and New Zealand for over 20 years. The company provides diverse services, including Australian curriculum-aligned primary and secondary in-school workshops, performances, artist-in-residence programs, show-doctoring sessions, and teacher professional development opportunities. Additionally, Homunculus offers roving and street theatre performances and performance outcome projects tailored for school fetes/events and regional community initiatives.
…a rich array of theatrical forms, including:
The company’s overarching mission is to foster a deep appreciation and enduring engagement with live performance, particularly among young audiences globally. Homunculus is dedicated to sharing the transformative power, aesthetic beauty, craftsmanship, and humor inherent in these diverse theatrical forms. The company firmly believes that exposure to live performing arts plays a vital role in developing social-emotional skills. This includes building resilience, fostering compassion, promoting understanding of diversity, nurturing empathy, enhancing focus, honing problem-solving abilities, improving communication skills, fostering a sense of community, and contributing to overall well-being. Homunculus Theatre Company is committed to bringing these enriching experiences to young people worldwide.
We firmly believe in the pivotal role of the Arts, and particularly drama, in a child’s education. In the 21st century, where technology dominates interactions and lifestyles, the company emphasizes the unique significance of comedy as a subject and practice that preserves elements often at risk of being overlooked.
Homunculus is dedicated to expanding students’ opportunities for play, expression, physical engagement, interpersonal connection, and real-time spatial discovery. The company’s approach is grounded in the belief that every individual has something valuable to offer, and they view comedy as a distinctive and powerful catalyst. Homunculus aims to inspire students who might otherwise be hesitant or reserved.
Homunculus considers the ability to laugh and perceive the humorous aspects of life a vital life skill. Comedy, in its various forms, serves as a medium that conceals, grants permission to play, facilitates expression, liberates inhibitions, and reveals untapped facets of individuals. The company highlights that students and audiences alike are consistently amazed by the transformations that unfold during performances. The specialized styles in which Homunculus excels are seen as capable of instilling a sense of joy, vulnerability, physical discipline, and freedom of expression in everyone involved. According to Homunculus, comedy teaches that nothing and no one should be taken too seriously. The company observes students often surprise themselves as they uncover and embrace their funnier sides through playful engagement and performance.
At Flying Fish Point State School, we are committed to teaching our students a growth mindset embodied within a Mind, Body, and Spirit pedagogy in academic, personal, and community-mindedness. Regional and Remote Queensland schools often contrast uniquely to our SEQ peers regarding remoteness, access to resources and facilities, and access to employment and further education opportunities. Many of our students live within these confines and are often coupled with low-socioeconomic living situations and legacies of family unrest and trauma.
Homunculus Theatre Company’s delivery and teaching of Commedia del Arte transcends daily poverties and gives life to a passion for the English language, Literature, the Arts, and creation and innovation.
Through Humour, our Mind falls in love with the idiosyncrasies of the English language classical literature and a realization that understanding and context of our world can shape our destinies. We are encouraged to learn, write, create, and innovate. Through Physicality, our Body moves in rhythm with our verse. Students are taught control and discipline while developing core strength and physical fitness. As a ‘sit-down’ nation, exercise and discipline have been shown to increase brain activity and functionality, which ultimately transforms into engagement in our classrooms. Through Emotion, our Spirit grows as we battle trauma and past heartache. Laughter triggers our motor neurons as new links are made in brain development. Positive self-esteem is promoted as we work together through an influx of positive emotions and feel-good moments — communication, teamwork, and focus rise amongst this strong Spirit to develop students with positivity and hope.
Finding something that delivers this Pedagogy while integrating areas of the National Curriculum in such an engaging way is exciting for our school and all schools across Regional and Remote Queensland. Homunculus Theatre Co. is this whole package.
Amelia Jenkins, Principal, Flying Fish Point State School, Queensland.