Co-curricular
The Addams Family opens tonight!
After six months of hard work, the College Performing Arts Production of The Addams Family opens tonight.
During Sunday’s pre-dress rehearsal, all the staff involved and I were in awe and so very proud of the cast, band and crew. This production has grown into something special that we are all very proud of.
Saturday night is sold out, but we still have tickets left for tonight, Wednesday 1 June and Thursday 2 June. You can buy tickets at the door or by going to the Bryan Brown Theatre website. You can also use your Dine and Discover vouchers to purchase tickets. So, come along and support our boys along with our female cast from Santa Sabina College and Strathfield Girls High.
The Addams Family - A New Musical (nsw.gov.au)
Rebecca Duff
Leader of Learning Performing Arts
Co-curricular Update - Supporters’ Duty
A reminder that Year 7 have been designated Supporters’ Day duty this Saturday 4 June. All boys are to report to the Upper Hodda Area between 1:45 PM and 2:00 PM to have their names marked off. Once this has been completed, boys will move to the stand located near the Crichton Building to support the College’s Second XV and First XV Rugby teams on Breen Oval. Boys will be dismissed at the conclusion of the First XV game; approximate time is 4:50 PM. Those boys playing late College fixtures at grounds located within 20 minutes’ drive from the College are expected to play their respective fixture prior to reporting to their Year Coordinator upon arrival.
Sadly, a late change to the ISA Football draw was made and as such, our First XI Football team will be playing at an away ground this Saturday. Members of the First XI squad are hopeful that Year 7 boys will find another time to come along and support them on SPC No. 2.
2022 Performing Arts Production
As many would be aware, the 2022 Performing Arts Production, The Addams Family, will take place tonight, tomorrow night and this coming Saturday. These performances will take place at the Bryan Brown Theatre located at 80 Rickard Road (corner of Rickard and Chapel Roads), Bankstown.
Having been kept abreast of the time and effort that the cast and crew have put into the preparation, I have no doubt that this will be a must-see event. Please note that Saturday night’s performance is booked out but there are still some seats available for the first two performances. I encourage members of the wider St Patrick’s College community to come out and support this event, particularly those that enjoy a good musical.
In the meantime, it would be remiss of me not to commend and thank all the boys from St Patrick’s and the girls from Strathfield Girls High and Santa Sabina College who are involved in the production. Your efforts will go a long way towards profiling our schools in a positive manner and at the same time bring you a great sense of exhilaration and achievement. There is no doubt that you will have many great memories of this event for the future. My gratitude also extends to Ms Duff, Ms Ovijach, Ms Benham, Mr Philipson, Mr Heffernan, Dr Taylor, Ms Grape, and Ms Doonan who have led the preparations and given so much of their free time to assist our students.
Steven Fochesato
Director of Co-curricular
Debate of Origin Victory
On Friday evening 27 May, St Patrick’s College hosted our neighbours and debating rivals, Santa Sabina College, for the annual Debate of Origin competition. Despite poor weather hampering the lead up events for the Saint of Origin title, Year 12 students from both schools engaged in spirited competition in netball and volleyball with SPC nabbing the win for netball and Santa Sabina victorious in volleyball. This left the Year 12 debates as the decider for this year’s crown.
With Friday the start of National Reconciliation Week and the SPC Reconciliation Round, our Debating Captain Oliver Meleca led the assembled crowd with a special Acknowledgment of Country. The SPC boys presented their traditional Debate of Origin video, this year a spirited version of The Office, lulling Santa Sabina girls into believing we were woefully underprepared for the event. SSC countered with a well-produced take off on both Romeo and Juliet and The Godfather, featuring Don Sulio’s Office with debating legend Jane Sulis.
The 7B team started the competition on the night with the topic “That classes in junior years should all be mixed ability.” Students from both teams spoke confidently, and rebuttals were focused and detailed. The students from both schools spoke well and brought lived experience to the debate. The SPC boys did incredibly well, given this was their first debate of the season (the previous three rounds were forfeits), but the SSC girls were slightly better. The Santa Sabina 7B win put pressure on the SPC 12s for the trophy itself.
Capacity crowds in both the Robson Auditorium and the College Hall created a fantastic environment for the skillful and enthusiastic Year 12 debates ahead. The topic for the evening was appropriate for the theme for the week: “That Aboriginal Studies should be a compulsory subject for all senior students.” Speakers on both sides were passionate, articulate, well-informed and clear participants in their own learning journeys. They spoke from experience about what would be the benefits to society of compulsory study of the subject, or the harm to students if forced to do yet another mandatory course. The Santa teams put forward arguments for the negative about the fact that study of indigenous experiences and perspectives are already a part of the curriculum, and that further inclusion of similar study would limit choice, prevent students from pursuing subjects that would prepare them for work, and serve to desensitise students to the needs of our indigenous brothers and sisters. The SPC boys, however, spoke eloquently as the affirmative about the fact that an education should be about more than an ATAR – that in acknowledging past mistakes, we can build a better future, that we have much to learn from our indigenous population about care for our earth, that awareness is found through education, and that we need to use education as the way to build responsible citizens of the future.
The quality of discourse was incredibly strong, with lively rebuttals and strong arguments put forward by both sides. As acknowledged by Santa Sabina’s third speaker Tiana, the deep knowledge and passion of the SPC boys was proof that a mandatory course was not needed; their education in Years 1 – 10 had prepared them more than adequately for the night’s debate. In the end, the adjudicators’ praised both teams for a grand final-worthy performance, but ultimately awarded wins to the SPC 12A and B teams. Saint Patrick’s once again holds the Saint of Origin trophy for another year!
Denise Lombardo
MIC Public Speaking and Debating
Senior Theatresports Team makes the Grand Final
Last Friday night, our senior Theatresports students Oliver Clarke, Jake Milligan, Joseph O’Brien, Matthew Gainsford and James Bellamy, travelled to Tara Anglican School for Girls where they competed in the semi-final against eight other teams.
Theatresports is a type of performance where teams create and perform (improvise) a scene on the spot using a prompt from the judges they have never heard before. It relies on quick thinking, performance skills and amazing team work to pull off one of these scenes. The result is usually highly comedic.
Our boys came a very close second, securing them a place in the Grand Final. This is the first time a College Theatresports team has made it to a grand final. The Theatresports Team comprised of Ms Armanno, Mr Donahoe and me, and we are extremely proud of the hard work these boys have put in and the talent they demonstrated on Friday night.
The Grand Final is on Sunday 12 June at 5:00 PM at the Enmore Theatre. We would love to see as many of you as possible there to support our team and enjoy a comical evening out.
Rebecca Duff
MIC Theatresports | Leader of Learning Performing Arts