Performing Arts

Year 9 Suitcase Series - Malthouse Theatre Excursion 

Semester 2 Theatre Skills students have been working incredibly hard on our "The Suitcase Series" creative program project run by Malthouse Theatre. 

Below is how some of our Year 9 Students felt about the unit of work and the Malthouse excursion:

The Suitcase Series is a Year 9 and 10 exclusive program where we were given the opportunity to create and perform a piece of theatre on the topic of climate change. Other schools also performed their pieces on the given prompt, truly giving our class an insight into the different interpretations of climate change. After each performance, we were given some very valuable feedback from our fellow audience members. When we finished watching everyone’s performance, we were invited to watch the mind-bending professional performance Who No Go No.

Firstly, to prepare for our performance, we utilised the stimulus images and the Who No Go No script provided by the Malthouse Theatre. We used two stimulus images as our main starting point to brainstorm possible ideas for our script. One of the stimulus images we used was a zoom-in shot of a drain in a bathroom sink, with chairs positioned around the drain, looking like a board meeting scene. 

From this image we came up with one of our key scenes in our show, where we imagined the stimulus as a very unserious government cabinet meeting, where the leaders of a country are discussing the issue of the drains not working, while more important issues (such as pollution and the global temperature rising) are ignored and considered as not important. Ultimately shaping our key idea of our piece, being society’s focus on very unserious and unimportant things, when in reality, we should instead be focusing on the important ones.

On behalf of the Year 9 Semester 2 Theatre class, we must say that performing our piece to the other schools was one the most exciting parts of this program. Being able to perform and display our ideas on a stage was an amazing opportunity! The encouragement and positive vibes from the audience created such an amazing and supportive environment to perform in! 

Apart from creating and performing, watching a professional performance like 'Who No Go No' was thought-provoking. It combined quite challenging and complex themes based around a dystopian society. When we first read the script, it was quite overwhelming and left us pretty confused. However, once seeing it performed we truly understood the underlying meaning. It was so fascinating seeing the script come alive on stage! From the insane set pieces, talented cast and lighting effects, every part of the show was well thought through! After the show we were fortunate enough to also have a Q&A with the cast who provided the audience with credible information about their journeys as actors in the industry and tips on how to pursue an acting career.

To any students looking to do this in the future, we would recommend choosing really comedic scenes whilst having an underlying message, having a clear structure as to who is responsible for what and leave plenty of time to put pieces together and practice.

Overall, the Malthouse excursion was outstanding, and being able to see the ins and outs of a theatre production was an incredibly valuable experience. We gained so much knowledge and experience, from how performances aren’t just about actors, to gaining friendships with classmates that you hadn’t previously hung out with.

- Charlotte, Ingrid and Shakima