Performing Arts News

Year 12 Excursion to Belvoir Theatre

It has been a very positive start to the year for both our academic and co-curricular Drama programs. 

Last Tuesday, 7th February, our Year 12 Drama class travelled to Belvoir Theatre to watch onsite screenings of archival footage of two past productions. Students sat in the Downstage Belvoir Theatre and studiously took notes on Lally Katz’s Neighbourhood Watch (2011) and Alana Valentine’s Parramatta Girls (2007). The benefits of this excursion are already apparent, given the high standard of work produced this week in their first HSC assessment. The excursion is the start of a very productive partnership with Belvoir aiming to provide students with enriching and exciting opportunities. 

Senior Production 2023

This year we are looking to stage Xanadu – the Musical. Get your leg warmers ready and back comb your hair to great heights. Auditions are still in progress and rehearsals will begin in Week 4.

Excursion Dates for the Diary- Term 1

• Friday 31st March – Year 11 and 12 Drama - excursion, Into the Woods at Belvoir.

Stage 5 Drama – Intersection Festival ATYP

In addition to our unit on ‘Theatre for Children’, we have entered the ATYP festival, ‘Intersection’. 

About Intersection Intersection Festival is an exciting program that gives students the opportunity to perform short plays by leading young Australian playwrights. A creative reimagining of our popular Voices Project and Intersection script series, this Festival provides teachers with new Australian plays to work on with their students. As the national youth theatre company, Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) is committed to commissioning and developing plays that excite young actors and speak to young audiences. 

These vibrant and surprising short plays are born out of our annual National Studio which, since 2010, has been supporting leading emerging playwrights and their practice. Each year, 20 writers aged 18–26 are selected from all over Australia to spend a week in rural NSW. During the residency the writers are mentored by some of the nation’s leading playwrights and dramaturgs through masterclasses, small group tutorials and one-on-one sessions in a formative creative experience. Over the course of the week these writers create a short script for the stage. This year, the theme for the scripts is "Undercurrent".

This is our second year of the Intersection Festival: a celebration of new Australian playwriting delivered in partnership with Australian high schools and youth theatre companies. The festival empowers teachers to engage with new work. They curate the collection of short plays that interest them – choosing and reading the scripts for their students to work on, supporting their students through the rehearsal and performance process and filming the performances. ATYP will choose a performance of each script to be showcased at Intersection Festival in August; a collaborative and professional performance experience for young people at our home, the Rebel Theatre at Pier 2/3. These new plays connect emerging writers with emerging performers. They shine a light on the contemporary issues, challenges and situations that young people recognise, in fresh and exciting ways. We invite you to discover the worlds and stories within them, as imagined by the next generation of Australian playwrights and performers. 

Student News

Congratulations to the following students:

• Reagan Lloyd (Year 12) who has been accepted into highly competitive ‘Young Belvoir Theatre Club’
• Emily Monks (Year 11) who has been accepted into the ‘The Upstage Club @ Riverside Theatre’

Mrs Cindy Pecovnik

Head of Performing Arts