Arts News (Music, Art,Media and Visual Arts)
End o Term 3 :
Production
Media
A Triumphant Finale for The Wizard of Oz Youth Edition!
What an incredible journey it has been as South Oakleigh College officially closed the curtain on our spectacular season of The Wizard of Oz Youth Edition. From those very first nervous auditions to taking a final bow, our stage provided a truly transformative space where students built lasting confidence, supported one another, and discovered the pure thrill of performance.
Bringing a world as rich as Oz to life requires an extraordinary collaborative effort but it’s all worth it when you see it come together. Our heartfelt gratitude goes to Director Mr Adam Platenkamp for his vision and keen eye for authentic character choices, Choreographer Kerryn Hoernel for driving such vibrant, high-energy routines, and Musical Director Sara Neep for shaping our vocal confidence and beautiful harmonies.
We are equally indebted to our wonderful assisting staff, Ms Heppel, Ms Ferguson, Mr Payet, Ms Zeimer, Ms Tatman, our recording team Mr Collidge and Mr Prewett, and Ms Close, whose puppetry brought Toto to life with absolute magic.
Backstage, our dedicated student crew operated with remarkable professionalism. In an intensely costume-heavy production, our costume team went far above and beyond, flawlessly organising 39 cast members through a dizzying number of quick changes backstage. Huge praise goes to Niharika, Ntina, Tamsyn, Michaela, and Konstance for keeping every single performer stage-ready, alongside Alex Volpert for his brilliant design and build of the Tin Man costume.
From Sound Designer Atha, graduating Year 12 Stage Managers Ezra and Danielle, and Assistant Stage Manager Abigail, through to our lighting, projection, audio, prop-making, and front-of-house teams, every cue and detail was delivered with precision and pride.
Most of all, congratulations to our phenomenal cast, whose growth from audition day to closing night was nothing short of inspiring.
Thank you to our school leadership, families, and enthusiastic audiences for championing performing arts at South Oakleigh College, we cannot wait to see everyone back on-stage next year!
Phillip Clark
Theatre Manager
Woodwork
Technology
Year 9 Wood Tech students have designed and built toy cars for a child as part of their first assignment. It has been a lot of fun to watch their work come to life, and now students can take them home.
As you can see from the photos, there is a lot of variation between designs. They started with drawings, then cut and shaped the wood.
Wheels were cut with the laser cutter or on the drill press, and students learned to fit the axles. They have learned to cut, shape and finish the wood with paint and varnish.
Visual Arts
RAMBLINGS OF A YARD DUTY TEACHER - From one end of the oval to the other, it was absolutely heartwarming to see the sunshine out, spring in the air and the Cockatoos, Gulahs, Rosella and Rainbow lorikeets chirping in the trees and even ducks on the ground. The amazing trees provided the backdrop, while the question of the day became shoes versus no shoes.
Apparently, playing soccer in wet grass barefoot is just better because it is! Students sat in groups chatting, while others walked around, played soccer, or kicked a footy. It was one of those magical mornings where people looked up, smiled, said good morning, and even picked up rubbish unprompted.
I mentioned to one student that kicking a ball barefoot looked painful, only to get schooled on proper soccer technique: “You’re not supposed to kick it with your toe!”
Fast forward half an hour post-recess, and it is officially pouring rain. Melbourne truly is a funny place, but we’ll hold onto that little slice of spring magic!
By the time I finished this article Mrs Pelitidis confirmed the rain had stopped... back to regular programing! Welcome to Melbourne and to South Oakleigh.
Unplug, Snip and Create: Why hand-cut posters
In a world full of glowing screens, notifications and digital pixels, there’s something deeply satisfying about stepping back, picking up a pair of scissors and getting your hands dirty - pun intended - glue gets on everything!!!
Well done to the Visual Communications students in year 9 who were recently tasked with a constructive brief to produce a series of hand-cut posters to promote our upcoming Community Portrait Prize. Rather than relying on digital tools, they took time away from their devices to chat, collaborate, cut paper, and embrace the beautifully imperfect process of making things by hand. There’s a quiet joy in sitting together, getting fingers sticky with glue and discovering that a slip of the scissors or a happy mistake can lead to something wonderfully unique. We will continue to encourage the glue to return to the home trolley or in your pencils cases, to get put back after use.
Creating content offline reminds us of the value of tactile expression and face-to-face connection. Being part of the production process feels good, and as our students proved, making things by hand in FRL is simply amazing!
After talking about the importance of upper case verse lower case, hierarchy (small, medium, and large fonts) in design and vertical alignment (centre, left and right) students made sure to use all the copy (headlines & taglines, catchy opening lines meant to grab attention, body copy with paragraphs that explain details, background information, or tell a story a call to action instructions telling the audience what to do next and key Information, dates, venues, contact details or rules) and align their text on cardboard using cardboard and digital printed copy.
SOC Community Portrait Prize: Call for Entries!
Got an artistic spark?
We want to see your talent!
Create a portrait of someone from our school community whether it's a fellow student, a teacher, a friend, or a relative.
All artistic styles and mediums are welcome.
Who: Any member of the SOC community (students, teachers, friends, and relatives)
Entries Close: Thursday, 15 October
Exhibition: Downstairs Foyer on Thursday, 29 October
Look out for the hand cut posters around the school, get inspired and submit your entry.
Submitting something feels great be a part of the exhibition and show off your work!
Day in the life of an art room sticky tape holder
Art teachers have some wacky imagination when trying to restore equipment and work sustainably in the art room here at South Oakleigh College. Rooms where equipment mysteriously disappear and reappear weeks later. This is a creative piece cooked up from the perspective of the tape dispenser that had no spool!
I am a heavy black plastic sticky tape dispenser, for a while there I lacked a spool. I sat, like a paper weight being moved around the trolley in T3.
This week I became whole again, new spool, new tape and a fresh lease on life in the art room.
Ms. Gross had completely lost her mind trying to find my missing black spool. She pillaged the entire art room, in fact she searched A1, A2, A5 and T3, I watched as she went through boxes, cupboards, checked under tables and desperately lifted random objects to attempt to do the work of my perfect axle.
First, she tried a glue stick, it's could work, but it was too gummy and jammed my cradle. Then she tried a green Crayola marker cap, but it was too short and sent the roll flying. She even snapped the handle off a cheap paintbrush to use as a wooden dowel, which only resulted in the tape waddling wildly into a bucket of dirty water. She spent thirty grueling minutes trying to find a solution, growing more defeated with every failed prototype while the artwork remained unhung and Ms Gross went home.
Just as Ms. Gross was about to throw me into the recycling bin out of sheer frustration, Ms. Close found the replacement spools, a pristine, identical black plastic spool. It turned out she kept a legendary stash of retired tape dispensers in her bottom desk drawer for exactly this kind of emergency. With a satisfying click, Ms. Close dropped the replacement spool into my cradle, restoring the perfect tension. Within two minutes, Ms. Gross was furiously taping up the students' drawings, her sanity returning with every crisp rip of the adhesive.
As an art room, we look forward to seeing artwork being hung around the school.
Forget boring old drawing with a pencil... I take that back... drawing is NOT boring. I find the word "boring" boring because its repetitive sound and frequent overuse drain it of any vivid meaning... try a different word this week!
I digress!
If you want to make art that feels like a mix of a construction site, a mad scientist’s lab and a high-speed printing factory, you need to try printmaking. Printmaking with 24 year 9 can feel a lot like that cacophony of noise, materials and tools, it is hands-on, messy, incredibly satisfying and yes, you might just need a band-aid or two before you’re done.
Before you start rolling, you need to know your gear.
Printmaking uses some of the coolest tools in the art room, starting with the bench hook, a wooden construction that hooks onto the table to stop your artwork from sliding and hopefully to keep your hands safe.
Then there is the gouge, a sharp carving tool with V-shaped and U-shaped blades that demands serious respect. You will also use a brayer to roll out thick, sticky ink and finally, the printing press, a heavy machine with steel rollers and a massive spinning wheel that crushes your paper and ink together with immense pressure. I love how excited the students are to turn the giant wheel.
Even at year 9!
One of the best projects for Year 8 is creating your own monogram, which is a stylized design of your initials like a personal logo. To do this, you will carve linoleum ( we call it lino) blocks using your gouge to scoop out the surface.
The parts you scoop away stay white (or the colour of your material) and the parts you leave behind catch the ink. We have to remember that printmaking is a mirror image, so you have to draw monogram backward on the block or your final print will come out completely reversed.
Safety is everything. We did a lot of planning and talking before we printed. We try to always carve away from yourself, keeping your free hand behind the blade so that if the gouge slips, it flies into the air instead of your thumb. Always anchor your block on the bench hook rather than holding it with your hands, and keep your fingers, hair, and loose clothing far away from the press rollers when spinning the wheel. Once you survive the carving, you get to roll the ink, crank the giant wheel of the press and peel back the paper to reveal your perfect, handmade masterpiece.
Well done - come and see the display between the lift and the canteen!
Renee Gross
VCE Visual Communications, Media and Design Technology Magazine and Gallery Facilitator - Student Leadership Staff Representative
Music News
Spring Concert
Music Department Update
Our eagerly awaited Spring Concert was held on Thursday, September 10, to a packed house of excited and enthusiastic audience members.
More than 80 students took to the stage over the course of the evening, along with a student-led backstage crew and sound and lighting team. We were treated to performances by our Concert Band, Choir, VCE Ensemble, Pop Ensemble, Jazz Band, String Ensemble, Junior Concert Band and Contemporary Bands, as well as some wonderful solo performances. The opening and closing numbers featured all students on stage together, playing wonderful music and having a great time.
Special thanks to Philip Clark, Logan Hamilton and their team, and of course to our music staff Tintin Cao, Sara Neep, Marc Law, Sam Bennett, Rachel Sifris, and Performing Arts Captains Evie and Tal, who provided their own script as hosts and did an excellent job.
We’ve had a wonderful Term 3 which has seen the musical Wizard of Oz, our VCE Showcase night and performances at the Monash Children’s Hospital Annual Conference.
SOC’s Got Talent is also happening today, September 18 – we’re looking forward to seeing a wide variety of acts, musical and otherwise!
In Term 4 we are looking forward to the return of our Strings teacher Evelyn Wang, who has been on maternity leave with her beautiful new baby. We are sad that Tintin Cao will be leaving us as he has brought his own wonderful style to the Music Department while covering for Ms Wang.
Term 4 will see a variety of other performances, an in particular we’re looking forward to the Year 12 Music Performance exams which will be held in Week 2.
We’re very excited for another big term ahead!
Aidan Prewett
Head Of Music