Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Goat Track Theatre is more than just a theatre company operating out of the Vonda Youngman Community Centre on Tamborine Mountain— it has grown into a widespread force for positivity in youth across Queensland, winning multiple awards and changing countless more young lives through art and expression. Andrew Wright, artistic director and CEO, takes us back to where it all started and shares his insights into just how beneficial a program like this can be to the community, and perhaps the world.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How did Goat Track Theatre get started?
Louise Bahnson, my wife, and I are co-founders of the company. We started it in 2009. For the full duration, she’s been the general manager here. We’ve both been teacher-artists in the community.
What was your original inspiration to start Goat Track Theatre?
We were schoolteachers, and it was great working in schools, but we wanted to broaden the impact of our work. You’re working with creative minds, and often those creative minds are not fully valued in a school system. That’s probably our major focus, growing the greatness of children and young people, and one of the key reasons that people come to us is to increase their confidence. Standing up in front of people and performing is very much an act of courage in a way.
What kind of programs does Goat Track offer?
We work with young people from the ages of 5 to about 25. We have two lots of primary school programming, prep to year 3, and then year 4 to year 6. Each unit is completely different, so they might do be doing clowning one term, mask work the next, improvisational work the next, stagecraft the next. When it gets to secondary school, our Fast Track program runs from 13 to 18 years of age, and it is production-based, so the kids are putting on shows, they do two per year. One of the things that makes Goat Track unique is the focus we have on creating new work and giving voice to young people rather than trotting out tired pieces of work that the kids have come across four times by the time they finish high school. Our performers have performed at the Commonwealth Games, they’ve been hired professionally to go to Woodford Folk Festival and perform there… you’ll see our performers out and performing at all sorts of different events. We’ve got campuses across South-east Queensland. We’re Queensland’s largest youth theatre and we started here on Tamborine mountain.
Are your programs more based on learning and classes, or more on performances and shows?
Fast Track, for instance, has two seasons a year. That’s more than a lot of professional artists do, and we also have larger scale projects like Crash, which toured the state, as did Icarus Chronicles. We have shows sometimes that we’ll put on with older youth, 16 to 25, and those will be complete performances. We have one later this year called Galileo which is being performed by 16 to 25-year olds, and it’s going to be performed around the region. There’s no class involved in that, we just get together and create the show.
Which of the programs that Goat Track offers do you think is more popular?
The Goat Track Kids program is definitely popular. Kids walk in here and they go “Oh my god, there’s all these other kids just like me! That’s my tribe.” People think about theatre kids and think they must be extroverted, but it’s not true. Many of them are introverted, they just want a way to express themselves. We do youth advocacy work as well. The social plan that was created for kids, we worked with the council to create that. We constantly get called in to work on youth-based projects, because we’re not just experts in working with theatre, we’re experts in working with young people.
What goes into an average class here?
Traditionally for the older kids, what goes into a class is you’re going through the stages of creating a production, and that can be the conception of an idea through to the creation and workshopping of that idea, and then the writing and directing, the rehearsing and the performing of it.
In a typical Goat Track Kids class, there would be a bit of a warm-up and we always dance before we start so everyone gets a bit loose. Then some games that are relevant to the things we’re exploring. Then we go into a key idea that we might be exploring and we have sequenced learning experiences around that, then the kids get the chance to perform. One of the things that make us different in the Goat Track Kids program, is that our focus is on making sure that every kid performs every week. If you go to groups where you’ve got three leads and the rest of them are sitting around watching the teacher work with the leads, what benefit is in it for the other 17 kids in the room?
Louise and I moved up to the mountain in 2000. I’d always wanted to live here. I think one of the things is that it really is a community. There’s a lot of things for kids to do on the mountain, and as someone who works with young people, I think that’s great. It’s a good place to raise a family, you’re still close enough to go to Brisbane or the Gold Coast, but there is certainly a sense of safety, security and care up here. And look, it’s a beautiful place. I always say when I’m overseas that I live in one of the best countries in the world, in one of the best states in that country, and in one of the most beautiful places in that state.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
What do you think Goat Track Theatre really provides to the area?
I think it provides a quality educational facility. It provides a safe space for children and young people, a social space, a creative and artistic space. We won “Best Team and Culture” of any youth activity in Australia in the ‘What’s On 4 Kids Awards’ and were shortlisted for a lot of others. When you think about that, we’re providing something of international standard in our backyard.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
The positive transformation of kids is probably the thing I enjoy the most. I enjoy the fact I get to go to work in a place where we play. We get to do something we love every day, with kids that we love, families that we love, and we get to use a tool like theatre that we love. That’s a blessing. How many people get to go to work and get a standing ovation?
Is there anything else you’d like to go on the record?
Just an invitation for kids to come along and see what we do. I think there’s that thing about kids thinking that theatre is a certain thing and then realising it’s more than their expectations.
We are always looking for new topics for our blog. If there’s something you like to see more of, email your suggestions to: social@professionalsserendipity.com.au, or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com.
