About

HOMUNCULUS:

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.

WE SPECIALISE IN

…a rich array of theatrical forms, including:

Commedia Dell’Arte
Physical Theatre/Comedy
Full-Face Non-Verbal Mask Theatre
Traditional & Contemporary Clowning
Non-verbal Communication & Mime
Slapstick & Stage Combat
Absurdism, Melodrama, Political Satire & Brecht
Shakespeare & Clowns In Shakespeare

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.

VITAL LEARNING

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.

EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES

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.

COMEDY FOR LIFE

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.

HUMOUR BUILDS CONFIDENCE. CONFIDENCE BUILDS STRENGTH. STRENGTH BUILDS ABILITY. ABILITY GIVES FLOW.

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.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Drama teachers are committed to liaising with the broader community to enhance our students’ learning experiences in the classroom, so when we find an industry expert of the caliber of Clint Bolster, artistic director of Homunculus Theatre Company, we want to shout it out to the world. Clint’s pedagogy is unique and inspiring, resulting from 15 years of experience. Homunculus Theatre Company can level students to an equal playing field, giving all permission to ‘play.’ This liberates all to express themselves in a safe and fun environment. In this age of technology, live drama experiences are vital for our young people to encounter “joy, vulnerability, physical discipline, and freedom of expression.” Comedy balances the fearful world that is the 21st century. It is essential to offer these learning experiences to assist our students in developing a more positive slant on our human condition.

Queensland drama teachers must fight for live performances where live humans in space speak to other live humans, and it needs to be physical Theatre. Physical Theatre is our savior because heavy language art is easy to access through live streams, computers, and so on – and this misses that extraordinary atmosphere and sense of shared curiosity that Theatre gives. Homunculus Theatre Company’s performances provide opportunities to see the artistic and creative form of physical Theatre, e.g., Masked Theatre, Absurd, Clowning, Commedia dell’Arte, and these styles concentrate on comedy and non-verbal communication. There is no other Brisbane company that explores this universal language, e.g:

nonverbal communication of attitudes and emotions and manipulation of the immediate social situation,
nonverbal communication as a support and complement to verbal communication, and
nonverbal communication as a replacement for language.
In these times of government cuts, drama teachers must support those companies that exhibit the future of Theatre.

Homunculus Theatre Company offers Primary and secondary students more than just a performance, i.e., meeting the actors, workshops, tutorials, and in-school Residencies, something that a teacher cannot deliver in the same manner. Providing role models for our students cannot be undervalued, particularly when young people are mainly exposed to female teachers. Corinda SHS has had the opportunity to see two of Homunculus’s shows, “The Spirit of the Mask” and “20 Lazzis in a Hat,” and met Clint, Nick Cilento, and Allie Wilde. These performances entertained the students from years 7 to 12 and seemed to unite them; such is the power of comedy. Just as thrilling was question time when the students were exposed to the actors, their passion for performing, why they are committed to it, the hard work that goes into it, and when they found drama was their calling. This was extraordinarily inspirational and prompted some very heartfelt responses from the students.

Homunculus Theatre Company’s workshops allow our students to be expressive, show more of themselves, and give them the tools to create generous, responsible, and authentic drama. Students are inherently curious and learn much from industry artists because they represent people committed to developing these live 3-D experiences. It would be hard to find a company with this kind of longevity. It is a testament to the company delivering curriculum-relevant learning experiences that ready our drama students for the new world of live Theatre.

Corinda SHS’s year ten drama class participated in a day workshop with Clint, and by the end of the day, they celebrated how much they had developed. The workshop opened the world of non-verbal communication. They acknowledged how afraid they felt initially, being spontaneous, taking risks, and laughing at themselves. Their anxiety about ‘letting go’ is partly due to age, but it is also a direct result of not participating in the comedy exercises and games that Clint offered. These learning experiences, delivered by Clint, come from years of experience including, e.g., working with mentors and fellow actors as well as abled and disabled students and international professional companies, e.g., Vamos Theatre Company UK. This workshop provided terrific professional development for the teachers as well; in fact, this day workshop opened our eyes to the importance of providing these learning experiences for the emotional health of our students.

Homunculus Theatre Company is committed to building relationships with Queensland schools. Clint’s commitment to designing experiences that suit the context and students of the school cannot be underestimated. Drama teachers have this resource that breaks down many barriers and makes our students comfortable, opening many doors for communication. Corinda SHS has chosen Homunculus to be our Theatre Company in residence, firstly because Corinda values physical Theatre being the lifeline of drama and because of the quantifiable results in student development after a workshop run by Clint. He delivers expert tuition of the critical and challenging skills needed for the ensemble comedy. It is not simple but complex Theatre that evokes thought.

Drama Practitioner Clint Bolster and Homunculus is the ‘face of’ Masked Theatre, and it is a alive, modern, engaging face that can connect with all grades, genders, cultures, and abilities. Clint’s use of Masked Theatre allows students to engage in a socially aware style of Theatre that can be hard to access in a general classroom. Schools across the state may not always have access to resources such as masks. So, allowing Homunculus to demonstrate this art form would capture the audience and build their appreciation for the endless opportunities to manipulate non-verbal communication in drama.

For drama teachers, ‘building relationships with the wider community’ and ‘connecting to the world’ is our mantra; this is one company we can access and build a relationship with. (Read Padua College’s comments on “20 Lazzis in a Hat” on Homunculus’s Website for motivation.) This is one expert who creates theatrical performances and produces a theoretical discourse that informs his practical work. Drama teachers know that Theatre helps us to develop our creativity. The Foundation for Young Australia analyzed 4.2 million job adverts for entry-level jobs and found a 150% increase in creative thinking and a 65% increase in creativity. The link between drama and creative thinking and creativity, as explored in physical Theatre, is endless. As our education system increasingly emphasizes science, technology, engineering, and math, we cannot forget the importance of art. Let’s put the “STE(A)M” back in “STEM!”