Performing Arts

Professional Play Reading at Bunjil Place- contributing to community.

On Thursday afternoon a group of students seized the exciting opportunity to take part in a professional cold reading and feedback session for the new verbatim play ONLY PLAYERS. The play, written by David Williams and produced by Alternative Facts with support from The Seymour Centre, explores the experiences of teachers who are teaching Shakespeare and questions if it is still relevant. This opportunity allowed students to work alongside the playwright as well as professional actors, producers and staff at Bunjil Place with a focus on capturing student voice to inform and support the final development of the play.

Our students; Kayla, Mackenzie, Jon, Tahna, Sophie and Sarah proudly represented Cranbourne Secondary College as they contributed significant insight into the script, themes and dialogue. Sarah spoke beautifully about how much she enjoyed the way the play weaved monologues from various Shakespeare plays throughout the dialogue. Kayla offered constructive feedback to the playwright about how it made her consider different perspectives and Sophie encouraged him to show more teacher/student interactions as she felt this was one of the strengths of the play.

Surprisingly, a highlight shared by all students was their interest in hearing the experiences of teachers and how teachers prepare for lessons. Students enjoyed learning about the preparation that goes into lessons and recognised this was something they had never really considered before. The discussions around empathy and recognising our shared humanity were poignant and authentic providing valuable student feedback for everyone in the room.