Special Production Issue

A message from our Performing Arts teacher, Kirsty Wolters

An “extraordinary” performance!

Our WPS students never cease to amaze me with the talent, teamwork and confidence they show on stage during our whole school productions! Congratulations to every one of our Prep to Year 6 students on their November 2nd dynamic performance of “Aladdin Jr”. Having seen all the scenes acted, dances danced, and songs sung during school rehearsals, I knew our entire cast were capable of giving an entertaining and engaging performance. However, I also knew that they had faced the disappointment of a last-minute cancellation the previous week, resulting in the unexpected challenge of changes to the casting and blocking of scenes on the actual performance day.

Instead of being unsettled by the changes, our cast extended the learning experience by drawing on their reserves of resilience, gratitude, kindness and bravery to thrive and produce their individual and collective best-ever performances. After the first couple of scenes, it soon became apparent that there would be no need for prompting forgotten lines or reminding students of entrance cues, so I threw my directing duties to the wind, sat back in the front row with Nieta and laughed and applauded along with our enthusiastic audience. (Well, with the exception of directing some slightly confused monkeys😊).

Yesterday, when students were asked to reflect on their recent stage experience, it was heart-warming to hear stories about how good they felt about overcoming nerves, hearing the audience’s applause, helping a cast mate find props, problem-solving costume mishaps, receiving a big congratulatory hug from friends and family – or simply realising that this was something they wanted to do again, and again. The students were also particularly proud and excited after listening to a review of their show on 3AW’s “Weekend Break” (5/11/22) where the radio host, Peter “Grubby” Stubbs, described the production as “extraordinary” and said he was “blown away” by the performances. (Many thanks, Peter Stubbs!).

It has been a delight working with such a caring, talented and enthusiastic cast of students. I will particularly miss our Year 6 students who will next year share their many talents with their secondary schools. The way they eagerly understudied, supported and encouraged one another during rehearsals, and the way they spontaneously sang and danced in public without a care – whether at interschool sporting events, on bus trips, queuing to perform in the Victorian State Schools Spectacular at John Cain Arena, or attempting to reduce the nerves of others while lining up for adventure activities on camp – has set a wonderful example for our junior students in how to embrace the joy of musical performance.

Thank you!

While bigger schools have a large production team to assist on performance night, at WPS it is mainly the staff, along with some very helpful past-students, who run the show - allowing parents to enjoy watching their children on stage. So, many thanks to our amazing and caring staff who literally planned and called the tech cues (Katie), assisted with lead cast rehearsal supervision (Greg), shared and helped fit students with their own amazing costume collection (Eliza), packed and drove the props truck (Rick), escorted students to the stage (Sally), supervised - and calmed - students in the backstage dressing rooms (Kylie, Penny, Maria, Davide, Amy, Nikki, Andrew, Eliza, Claire and Nieta), checked the tickets, sold programs and shifted into admin overdrive notifying families about last minute changes (Cherise), balanced the books (Elisha), ironed class costumes (Jo), provided food for hungry colleagues (Nieta, Nikki and the team) and rehearsed their young students again and again (all staff – particularly Steph!).

Thank you, too, to our supportive parent community who helped make the magic happen. Thank you for loaning and creating props, assisting with costume fittings, taking rehearsal photos, applying makeup, organising cast tees, transporting sets and hire costumes and providing kind words of support.

Production helpers are all warmly invited to attend a “Thank You” morning tea at school with staff next Thursday at 11am. Please let me know if you can come!

Check out the photos on the Performing Arts Page!

Kirsty Wolters

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There is not much that I can add to that heartfelt reflection of Kirsty's. The memories our students make in events like productions is lifelong. They remember the fun at rehearsals, the unexpected friendships they formed, the frustration when things went wrong, the team spirit they felt and the glory on the night when you overcome those hurdles and nerves. They take that with them into high school and for some it will be just the beginning of their artistic journey. As I said on the night, the core of our work will always be Literacy and Numeracy, but I believe in that education in the public sector should not mean our student miss out of other important areas, like The Arts. And, speaking to the George Wood Centre Manager after the show, he was totally blown away by the professional standard of our performance. All done whilst maintaining our school values of kindness, respect, resilience and responbility during the flood crisis. He also commented on how amazed he was by the audiences engagement during the show. I told him that I was not surprised. Our school community celebrates together in our students achievements. He said he had never seen such an interactive audience.

The fact that we had several past students asking to come and help is a tribute to our schools culture and to Kirsty. Her patience, kindness and passion makes her not only a great director/producer but also a great teacher. The combination of the two is unstoppable.

Warrandyte Primary School - Alert

Resilience - Respect - Kindness - Responsibility

Issue 16 · 11 Nov 2022

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