Year 11

Congratulations to our 2023 Senior School leaders

A warm congratulations to all of the Yr 11 students who were selected to be a part of the 2023 Secondary School Leadership Team.  I am confident that all our selected captains will represent our cohort with pride and will do a wonderful job leading the senior school and our cohort for the remainder of their secondary school journey. A new tradition of the entire school gathering in Liggins Quad was established, to greet the new Senior Leadership Team for 2023. Our new School Captains, Josie Simpson and Dan Close, rang the Liggins bell to close the celebration, symbolising their readiness to lead the Redlands senior school in 2023. 

For the students who missed out on a leadership position,  I encourage them to explore servant leadership and remind themselves of their Prefect title and continue to take up opportunities to lead activities and volunteer for events over the next 12 months. 

“A leader is best when people barely know they exist, when their work is done, their aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” Lao Tzu – Chinese Philosopher. 

Blackmores Bridge Run

Well done to all the Year 11 students who participated in Sunday’s Bridge Run to raise money for Beyond Blue. A big thank you to Finn Woodward for taking the lead with this initiative. 

House Spirit Day Photos

A ‘Strange’ Evening at the Theatre.

Yr 11 English Extension 1 Excursion to The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

This year, the Yr 11 English Extension 1 course has focused on studying ‘Texts and Transformations’, a unit where we have compared different manifestations of the same narrative over time. In doing this, we looked at how these manifestations of narratives can simultaneously challenge and reflect the values of their society.

In Term 2, we studied Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Rouben Mamoulian’s subsequent film adaptation Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), unpacking how they each reflect and challenge the social values relative to their respective zeitgeists, and how, comparatively, they illuminate the societal transformations that occurred in the intervening years. While Stevenson exposes the contradictory nature of the upper-class and affirms the fear and fascination of scientific progression experienced by the lower-middle classes of the Victorian era, Mamoulian’s later manifestation highlights the value of money in an American economy in recession and contests the normalised sexualisation of women in 1930s film culture.

In light of this, it was wonderful for us to experience the Sydney Theatre Company’s theatrical production of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, adapted and directed by Kip Williams; we were essentially witnessing another manifestation while having a great night out at the same time!

Having finished our Preliminary HSC Examinations the day before, our small cohort, though exhausted, felt like this excursion was a reward for our hard work. As we left the hazy blur of our examination week, none of us were quite sure what to expect from the production. Certainly, we were not expecting multiple large screens floating around above the stage, two actors, and a black-clad production crew sliding massive props to-and-fro across the stage: all with no intermission.

 The incredibly talented actors Matthew Backer and Ewen Leslie fulfilled the primary roles of Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde and Mr Utterson, also making quick costume changes to enter supporting roles. They were followed around by members of the stage crew, strapped with elaborate camera contraptions, projecting different angles of the scenes onto the aforementioned screens. The live footage was integrated with pre-recorded videos, in real time, and I’m still not sure how they did it! It was a dazzling display of contemporary technology, completely unlike anything that we had seen before. There were moments when we could not physically see the actors, hidden behind the wheeled set designs, but they were still visible on the screens that moved in all directions around the space. The effect was an awareness of multimedia in influencing the future of art and literature, and an experimental glimpse into the future of performance. Moreover, the narrative aligned to that of Stevenson’s for majority of the show, momentarily digressing towards the end in a colourful, humorous, modern twist.

 The play was moving in its bizarre and unique approach, offering both a traditional but also modern perspective of the narrative. The quality of production was astounding, and the actors’ performance was exceptional; I cannot imagine how tired they must have been at the end! From a studious perspective, it presented the ultimate reflection of a contemporary context; it was high tech, loud, witty, challenging, and exploding with theatrical expertise. It was something you had to experience to believe; it was so extraordinary and definitely the best way for the Year 11 English Extension 1 group to close off a fun year of learning! A BIG thank you from all of us to Mr Bentley and Mr Tod-Hill for organising the event.

– Eloise Trueman (Yr 11)

Have a wonderful break and stay safe! Bring on Yr 11 Camp in Week 1, Term 4. 

Mr Nicholas Walker
Yr 11 Year Advisor
nwalker@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9909 3133