Year 9 Drama Excursion

The Suitcase Series

Throughout Semester 2, the Year 9 Drama students have engaged in a creative journey, collaborating on a specially commissioned script to craft a devised ensemble piece for The Suitcase Series. Celebrating its 12th year, The Suitcase Series, presented by The Malthouse Theatre, is a distinguished participatory theatre-making program tailored for Year 9 and 10 students. Merging classroom activities with live theatrical performances, this pioneering initiative provides students with a unique platform to refine and broaden their theatre-making skills while sharing their creative endeavours with students from other schools. Importantly, the program empowers them to confront and address the pressing challenge of our time: climate change. True to its name, all set and props used for their performance had to fit into a single suitcase. 

Six other schools attended on the day, and Shelford, being the largest group, concluded the performances. The girls delivered a seamless, well-structured and creative performance, incorporating pop culture references, such as the recent Barbie movie, as well as satire to offer a unique perspective on the media's portrayal of climate change. Their performance balanced comedic and serious elements, showcasing their versatility as performers. The audience praised them for their innovative use of physical theatre to depict natural elements like ocean waves and a whale fall. 

Following a lunch break, the students returned to the theatre to witness a professional production of Atlantis by Chanella Macri. This thought-provoking production anchors itself in Plato's ancient myth of a sunken city, using Atlantis as an allegory for Australia amid the current climate crisis. Drawing on Indigenous and Pasifika philosophies and storytelling traditions, the play encourages young people to embrace their role as future guardians of the environment. It was a gratifying experience for the students to see the script they had first encountered months ago come to life on stage. 

The performance was complemented by a Q&A session featuring the cast and director of the play, providing valuable insights into the creative processes involved in developing the production. Topics ranged from stagecraft and character exploration to the intricacies of the rehearsal process. This immersive encounter provided an exceptional opportunity for all involved, allowing students to showcase their talents in a nurturing environment without the pressures of competition. I am very proud of our students' achievements and commend the exemplary manner in which they represented Shelford on this wonderful occasion. 

Below are reflections about the day from some of the students involved: 

My experience on Friday was great. Reflecting now, I realise how much I have learned from this excursion, and how much I would love to do it all again. It was so interesting seeing how other schools interpreted the Atlantis script, noticing the similarities between them and how they contrasted. Shelford was chosen to perform last, so that made me nervous, but I was very excited to show what we had done to everyone else. As we were performing, everything felt like a blur, as I was trying to focus and remember which scene came next. After we performed, we were able to watch the professionals act out the real Atlantis, and it was fun seeing how they interpreted the script, compared to all these other productions. I had a really good day and it was fun to see the inside of the Malthouse Theatre and experience performing there.  - Zoe B 9C

I enjoyed watching the other schools perform and I really enjoyed performing and showing the audience our performance that was a result of all our efforts. Going to get food at lunchtime and sitting with everyone during the break was also a highlight of my day. It was challenging to not get too nervous before our performance and as we were last it was hard to focus throughout the other performances as I was just thinking about our performance. But all the nerves worked out as the performance went amazingly and was the best run through of the show we had ever done. Overall, I had a great day and really enjoyed the experience. - Jemima B 9B 

My experience at the Malthouse Theatre on Friday, was an enjoyable and inspiring day. Each school’s performance was interesting and insightful. After each performance there was a debrief of the school’s performance, I learnt so much from the debrief, I learnt things such as playmaking techniques and the thought process that goes into each school’s performance. – Sarah-Jane D 9C 

When we performed, I started the acknowledgement of country, and we went through the performance smoothly. We all remembered our cues, lines, actions and dance moves. After our performance we had lunch then watched the full performance of Atlantis. I thought it was so amazing. The professional actors were amazing, and I was so impressed how they remembered all their lines perfectly. I had a great day performing! – Olivia L 9C 

On the day of our performance, it was very scary. We all had worked so hard, and we were hoping that we could present something really good. It was not ideal going last, but it was still lots of fun to watch the other schools’ interpretations and see how they presented their work. When we performed, I could tell right from the start that it was going to be a great performance. Everyone was focused and energetic which really made all of us push to do our best. It was such a wonderful feeling taking our final bow, knowing we had worked together and performed it amazingly. I think we all really underestimated our work and what we had created. The process to get to the Malthouse was very challenging, however. It was hard to find the right scenes to use and make them all coherent, so we really had to work as a team to create something special.  Overall, everyone really enjoyed the experience because for many of us we had never done anything like this before. I think it’s safe to say that we will all miss singing the Atlantis version of the Barbie theme song every drama class.  – Annabelle W 9A 

Kelsey Holden

Drama Teacher