Nerds Rule in Windmill Theatre's SCHOOL DANCE at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, April 10-20

Nerds rule in School Dance, the new comedy by Australia's Windmill Theatre. At Arts Centre Melbourne's Playhouse from Wednesday 10 - Saturday 20 April as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, School Dance tells the story of three awkward teenage boys and their quest for social acceptance at high school. With a killer '80s soundtrack and smorgasbord of '80s pop culture references from The Smurfs to My Little Pony, School Dance is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for young and old.

A show that will resonate with anyone who has felt awkward or unnoticed, School Dance follows three boys - Matt, Luke and Jonathan - on their way to their first school dance. Fuelled by a diet of raging hormones and mee goreng noodles, they exist in a misfit realm, navigating the complex waters of high school with little success. However, when one of the boys literally becomes invisible they will have to band together in the face of social suicide in order to bring him back from the Land of Invisible Teens.

From synchronised BMX bike riding to sooth-saying unicorns, School Dance has been heralded as a hilarious and game-changing new work of contemporary Australian theatre. School Dance premiered in the 2012 Adelaide Festival and was named 2012 Ruby Award for Best Work.

Windmill's Artistic Director and School Dance director, Rose Myers collaborated with writer Matthew Whittet, designer Jonathon Oxlade and composer Luke Smiles - who also play the three male leads.

"Adolescence can be a very complex time to navigate, but as well as being painful it is very funny and the pathos in this work, the fact that we all relate to it on some level, means we want these characters to win," Rose Myers said. "You want to transcend and take that journey with them."

A big fan of the '80s teen flick, Matthew Whittet explores the excitement, joy and terror of being a teenager.

"There's always something so exciting about school dances," Matthew Whittet says. "Whether it was being out at night and seeing your boring school hall transform into a balloon-filled, streamer-strewn dance pit, or the promise of maybe seeing the girl you had the most ginormous crush on, or even just being able to boogie to your favourite song in the whole world with all your friends there. They were always moments of the most enormous joy and the most pitiful desperation."

The cast will be performing at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival Launch at 11am Thursday 21 February in The Famous Spiegeltent, Arts Centre Melbourne.

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