FAIRFAX YOUTH INITIATIVE REPORT

Beginning in Swan Hill in 1997, the Fairfax Youth Initiative is held annually in memory of George Fairfax, who grew up in Nangiloc, a small town in the Mallee region of Victoria. St Mary MacKillop College has been involved for many of those years and this year, nine of our students, Calyssa Baber, Trinity Sutton, Benjamin Nelson, Scarlett Benham, Noah Fleming, Bailey Bowd, Zion Rodriguez, Catherine Morpeth,  and Jessica Burge represented our school by participating in an immersive week of performance workshops, experiences and performances with over 100 students from right across the country.  They have had an incredible week of performing arts right here in Swan Hill!

Here is a summary written by the students of their experience at the Fairfax Youth Initiative:

We had the opportunity to meet with many talented artists, including Rinske Ginsberg, Lachlan Woods, Mark Leahy, Nate Gilkes, Anthony Crowley, Kayla Hamill, Aimee Volkofsky and Laura Burzacott. During Shakespeare, we practised conveying our emotions through tone rather than body language, as well as learning how to pronounce words from Old English.  We also created insults based on quotes from Shakespeare, some of which included “Thy Toad spotted TRAITOR!” and “You are not worthy of the wet gravel road beneath your feet!”. We took our inspiration from our surroundings at the Pioneer Settlement. After we had finished our masterclasses, we began rehearsals for our performance, ‘Square Pegged’. This was a devised piece based on the idea of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, and focused on “what is normal?” 

Our performance involved many things, including pieces from the Marruk Project, interviews in the style of videos, comedy, songs, dance scenes and many more. 

When we weren’t taking classes or rehearsing the show, we participated in many activities. Creating a scene in an hour was a highlight for many of us. We also had an exclusive showing of the new movie Theatre Camp, which was very fitting. We connected as a group and it was an amazing way to meet new people. There was singing, dancing and plenty of games. Our square pegged group mixed with the Marruk and War of the Worlds kids every morning and night for meals. Fairfax was filled with people of every age and we weren’t confined to who was in our group. The main idea was to teach us to think outside of the box and not be confined to the definition of normal. Fairfax built our confidence and skills. The week was so much fun and it’s something that we all would recommend getting involved in.