Drama and Theatre
Away – School Play
There are some great moments as Drama and Theatre teachers that stay with us, in what we are honoured to share within our community. The lows and highs of creating and putting on a play for an incredibly diverse community like Redlands is one such moment. From bump-in to bump-out, we should be incredibly proud of these young performers, 26 cast and 3 crew who, with the aid of the infallible Friends of Drama family, brought Michael Gow’s, Away to life in a way that the Zenith Theatre in Chatswood had certainly not experienced before. Every nuanced move, every considered action and interaction resonated with each of them as they knew in this truly ensemble show, they had created something quite magical and special for their audience.
Personally, there was some incredibly beautiful imagery created, every part valued and equal as the next, as we travelled through the summer holidays of 1967, New Year’s Eve 1968 to the start of school with our three families whose stories are as unique and diverse as Australia.
There are many shout outs and many thank yous to be made, however, I feel in this forum that it would be better to say, there are no small roles, and I value and appreciate everyone in the entire cast, crew and beyond, theatre is not made in a vacuum and together we made a moving and memorable show.
I have received some beautiful emails this week, from parents and staff, praising the student work, the high quality of the acting, movements, transitions, lighting, music and costumes – thank you – here are a couple of (anonymous) snippets from them;
“To me, it highlighted one of the things I love about Redlands that sets it apart from other schools – we encourage and help our children to take risks and to support one another in striving for great goals.”
“It is a wonderful opportunity for students at Redlands to develop their performing skills in front of public audiences, to gain experience of being “in character” and seeing the world through the eyes of others, and experience the power and obligation of teamwork to make something special happen through hard work and openness to feedback.”
“The performance was truly spectacular. For the final matinee, I was sitting in the audience with XXXX dad and XXXX mum… both in floods of tears (but loving it!)”
“I am speechless. What a fantastic production, and so beautifully executed.”
“I have seen Away on multiple occasions, and the quality of this performance was extraordinary. It left me in tears at the end (not only for the ‘storyline’ but for the quality of performance for these Year 11 students).”
Here is the programme if you missed it
Theatre should make us feel something, I felt privileged to have such a hard-working cast and crew who reached for the stars and achieved well beyond. Congratulations to all involved – and let’s do it again next year!
We would certainly welcome interested parents who would like to be involved in the Friends of Drama group, please let us know, it’s a fantastic experience to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
Panto and Children’s Theatre
What a fabulous and joyous week last week was which was so Full of performances! The new unit in Year 9 this year is the Children’s Theatre and Pantomime which the students embraced with the normal Redlands vigour. Children’s theatre has a moral and works on many levels with ideas and comedy that delight the children, whilst other ideas that appeal to the adults in the audience. The Year 9s in both Mr Gidney and Mr Hawkins classes produced some hilarious scenarios with fun and clever use of props, costumes and wigs with lovely moral messages. The audiences who came across from Redlands House and the Prep School were delighted to participate, cheer, clap and engage with the style of theatre. I am absolutely resolute we should do more of this in the very near future as it was so successful. A massive thank you to the two teachers who agreed to bring the students across to be in the audience and totally embraced the experience, Chemane Huon and Georgina Knox.
Finally, following on from Mr Gidney’s article last week I would also like to thank both of the class teachers for such brilliant and positive work, that delighted the youngest members of our Redlands community!
Kathryn Smith
Acting Subject Coordinator of Drama and Theatre
ksmith@redlands.nsw.edu.au