Artspace

Festival of Voices - Young Tasmania Sings Concert

By Estelle Levy, Morris Music Teacher

The Morris Maestros and Years 7/8 Choir spent much of Term 2 busily preparing for the Festival of Voices (FoV) event, Young Tasmania Sings.  Tuesday evening, July 5, saw 45, Years 5-8 Friends' Choral students joining forces with other choral students across Hobart to perform an exciting program of music at the beautiful Federation Concert Hall. 

The FoV, Young Tasmania Sings concert was an absolute celebration of Australian choral music, specifically featuring several Tasmanian composers. The massed choir was conducted by esteemed Brisbane choral conductor, Kate Albury, who had the students in fits of laughter one minute and creating moving sonorous melodies the next! 

Two of the massed choir items were accompanied by the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra. Experiencing this highly professional youth orchestra performing from the close vantage point of the massed choir, was the highlight for many of our Friends' choral performers, many of whom have just started learning an orchestral instrument.

At the conclusion of the concert, students, parents and teachers alike were incredibly proud of the musicality, professionalism and engagement displayed by our young singers.

Friends' students and staff particularly enjoyed reconnecting with former Friends' Music Teacher, Kerry Bennett, who was coordinating the event. 

An acknowledgment and thanks goes out to the team of Friends' students from Years 4-12 who gave up several weekends and afternoons early in Term 1, to record the vocal teaching tracks for the FoV repertoire, which participating schools used to help their students prepare for the event. 

Embroidery Skills Are Not a Forgotten Art!

By Jane Smith, Head of Technology Faculty

During Semeter 1, the Year 8 Foods and Textiles class have been working with textiles. They have learnt hand embroidery stitches, including revising the basic of running stitch and backstitch and can now do chain stitch, a  ‘whipped’ back stitch and a ‘laced’ running stitch. Some students have even learnt how to do satin stitch and lazy daisy stitch.

Students have also become a lot more skilled in machine sewing and can safely and competently use an overlocker. They have constructed drawstring backpacks that highlight their embroidery design skills as a culminating performance.

Below are some photos of students at work and also some of the stunning design work.

The Show Must Go On!

By Tammy Giblin, Head of Arts Faculty

Senior Drama and Theatre students are acutely aware of the challenges facing the Arts industry locally, nationally and around the globe. As our usual annual program of evening shows unfolds, students and staff are navigating with impressive flexibility, the changing guidelines and impacts of unexpected illness on our lives and theatrical plans.

The TCE Theatre Performance class was the first class to overcome a difficult first term of having their peers away from lessons. They worked hard to bring together an in-class performance of their contemporary production of Sophocles’, Antigone, adapted by  Jane Montgomery Griffiths. Provoking their audience with the statement 'This is just politics. It's not personal’, we watched as characters wrestled with Antigone’s beliefs in what is right and those in power’s beliefs in what is best for the community.

This term has seen the IB Theatre classes step up and both the Years 11 and 12 cohorts shared their ensemble pieces with audiences of family and friends.

The Year 12’s production of Laura Lomas’ Chaos was an apt piece for our times. A series of vignettes drew the audience into multiple stories peppered with big questions about the state of our planet, our care for each other and our hopes for the future.  We were delighted this performance coincided with the visit from the Quaker Values Committee. 

In entertaining contrast to this, the Year 11 class presented Jonathan Rand’s quirky comedy, Check Please at the end of May. This piece required the students to move quickly, in and out of differing scenarios set in a restaurant, providing the audience with a glimpse into the funny, sometimes perilous world of hilarious and often awkward, first dates. 

Pictured above: Yota Nakadoi, Archie Ballard, Poppy Leach and Hannah Hookway in Check Please. Photo: T Giblin, May 2022

Most recently, the TCE Year 11 Drama class delighted audiences with Kristen Doherty’s The Dream, blending the familiar characters from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with contemporary characters from an Athenian High School. The audience enjoyed the unfolding love triangle and humorous blend of modern and Elizabethan language as the magical world meets the real world. 

Pictured above: Sophie Tilyard, Harry Ortuso, Brianna Gillespie and Zoe O’Brien. Photo: N. Collins, 2022

We look forward to culminating Higher Level Solo Theatre Projects from the Year 12 IB Theatre class on September 14 and the exam production from the TCE Theatre Performance class on October 17, 18, 19. 

Star Actor Visits the School

Alumna, Sarah Wadsley (2008), dropped into the Year 12 theatre performance recently to share her experiences of getting into drama school, beginning work as an actor in Sydney, and now her life in New York working on the TV show Law and Order. Year 12 students were appreciative of hearing about Sarah’s acting pathway and her generosity and honesty in exploring what is challenging and rewarding about pursuing your passion.