Performer · theatre-maker · teacher

About Jon Bode

My father used to fire men twice his size in a foundry. They’d refuse the offered chair, “I’d rather stand”, as intimidation. He’d put his feet on the desk and recline. I grew up understanding that what happens between the words is the play. I’ve spent a career proving it, and eight years teaching it to primary school kids.

I trained in musical theatre at WAAPA and spent thirty years performing: Melbourne Theatre Company, the Australian Shakespeare Company, opera and musical theatre across Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA, including Opera Australia and its national schools tours. With Patch Theatre Company I helped devise original works for children from scratch, and learned that making something from nothing is a craft that can be taught. That inquiry continues in my work with Dave Brown and The PaperBoats: build a strong story engine, then give curiosity and unexpected connections room to change the work.

Standing in an Adelaide Festival audience one night, I watched the physical theatre company DV8 and it changed how I think about movement. That thread led to Frantic Assembly, and eventually into my own classrooms. For the past eight years I’ve also been a VIT-registered Performing Arts specialist, currently teaching every year level from Prep to Year 6 across three Victorian primary schools. Everything in these workshops has been built, tested and rebuilt in real school halls, with real classes, on real wet Tuesdays.

I also perform through Extraordinary Acts, my professional performance company. When your students hear a professional voice at full volume in their school hall, that’s where it comes from.