MTC Launches Sharing the Light Initiative with $5 Tickets for Schools

The first of the four key components of Melbourne Theatre Company's Sharing the Light initiative, supported by Crown Resorts Foundation, has begun rolling out with $5 tickets to all MTC mainstage and education productions now available to eligible schools.

The Crown Resorts' Student Theatre Pass provides disadvantaged schools across the state, who perhaps otherwise wouldn't have access to mainstage theatre, with subsidised $5 tickets to experience live productions from Victoria's flagship theatre company.

Over 250 secondary schools across Victoria have been contacted with the offer, which also grants access to $5 tickets for designated pre-show talks to further enhance students' experience and understanding of theatre. Schools in outlying areas can also apply for a travel cost subsidy, further reducing geographical disadvantage so often faced by regional schools.

MTC Executive Director Virginia Lovett said, 'MTC is dedicated to removing barriers that prevent some young people from experiencing world-class theatre, and giving more students access to the unique learning opportunities we provide. With the support of Crown Resorts Foundation, our Sharing the Light initiative is enabling us to do just that by making unforgettable experiences much more affordable.'

'We want to see a new generation participating in transformative artistic and cultural experiences that could inform and influence their education, and potentially their lives, and we hope that relationships developed through this new subsidised ticket program lead to long-term affiliations with school communities across the state.'

MTC's Sharing the Light initiative will be accompanied by a longitudinal study facilitated by the School of Cultural Communication at the University of Melbourne.

MTC's 2015 Education Production for secondary school students is the acclaimed Swedish play, I CALL MY BROTHERS by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles, which will play in the Lawler at Southbank Theatre from 16 April - 1 May. Recreating 24 hours in the mind of a young Arab man following a terrorist attack, this thought-provoking play deals with issues of identity and belonging, prejudice and racial profiling.

Directed by Nadja Kostich, I CALL MY BROTHERS, will also tour to regional Victorian secondary schools from 4 - 15 May in partnership with Regional Arts Victoria, to Geelong Performing Arts Centre on 18 May and to Launceston College in Tasmania on 20 May.

Later in the year THE BOY AT THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING, by internationally acclaimed Tasmanian writer Finegan Kruckemeyer, will play to family audiences during the school holidays and have an education season for upper primary and lower secondary in the first week of term four. Director Peter Houghton will take audiences young and old on this imaginative extra-terrestrial adventure.

I CALL MY BROTHERS and MTC mainstage productions ENDGAME and THE WEIR also feature on the VCE Theatre Studies and Drama playlists. MTC Education provides extensive teachers resources to compliment the study of these plays as well as enrichment experiences such as pre-show talks and post show Q&As hosted by the cast and creative teams behind each production.