Richard II from Richard II Act 5, Scene 5 performed by Maitland Schnaars 

This week on Speak The Speech, we are joined by one of Western Australia’s premier Indigenous contemporary theatre artists, Maitland Schnaars. In this episode, Maitland discusses his role in the 2022 touring production of The Comedy of Errors and the physicality of Shakespeare’s works. He also shares his experience of working in contemporary and traditional Noongar dance, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company’s production of Hecate, and what it would be like to tour Noongar language works out of Country. Maitland Schnaars co-founded the international theatre company Corazon de Vaca and has performed and co-created a number of their productions, both in Spain and in Perth, Australia. He has recently performed in productions for Black Swan Theatre Company, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company, a co-production for Queensland Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre Company, a national tour for Tasmania Performs and assistant directed and performed for WAYTCO (Western Australian Youth Theatre Company).  

He has worked with many independent theatre companies in Perth and continues to work with artists from various backgrounds such as dance, multimedia and music. In 2016, he won Performing Arts WA Best Actor award. He is also a member of Wadumbah Noongah Dance Group.  

Find out more about Bell Shakespeare online: https://www.bellshakespeare.com.au/ and follow us on socials @bellshakespeare