Eisteddfod News
It's All Happening in Drama!
Tuesday 22 May saw Year 11 Drama perform at the Cowra Eisteddfod in the Open Skit section. We entered two groups, both with self-devised pieces. The group which took out first place was “One Lie” and was performed by Victoria King, Seth Webb, Nicole Lowe-Tarbert and Iesha Reed. Very Highly Commended was awarded to “We Rise”, a piece which explored women’s rights. It was performed by Rebekah Lazarou, Maegan Carroll, Lucy Jones, Taisa Ridgeway, Jamaica Prouse-Mallie and Alana Bush. The students demonstrated their outstanding performance skills and were a credit to our school. This same group of students have also heard that they have been successful in their audition for the 2018 Schools Spectacular. They head to Sydney in June for their first workshop.
Congratulations must also go to Iesha Reed, Maegan Carroll and Lucy Jones who have been selected to attend the State Drama Camp in Week 10. A massive honour!
Choir Success
On Thursday May 17, 11 Cowra High students competed in the Cowra Eisteddfod. They had been rehearsing at lunch for many weeks in B14M. During these lunchtime rehearsals there was often much chatting, eating and singing. The two songs the group decided to sing were ‘City of Stars’ from La La Land and ‘This Is Me’ from The Greatest Showman. We worked particularly hard on singing in harmony. We arrived at the Cowra Civic Centre after NAPLAN had finished and the Eisteddfod volunteers were a little frantic. We walked onto the stage in blazers and ties, waited for the adjudicator’s bell to ring and started. We were told later that some members of the audience had tears in their eyes after our first song. We sang ‘This Is Me’ with gusto and received enthusiastic applause.
Congratulations to the following students on their First Place at the Cowra Eisteddfod: Emma Clements, Natasha Hagar, Jacqui Long and Zara Petty from Year 7 and Jade Blinman, Annaliese Cameron, Kiralea Carter, Katie Collins, Kayla Hall, Katelyn Judd and Madison O’Brien from Year 8.
Kerrie O’Dea
Head Teacher CAPA
Romeo & Juliet ReImagined
Wow, what an experience! I was so fortunate to be able to be a part of this wonderful collaboration between Paul Rissmann (a Scottish composer, educator and animateur with the London Symphony Orchestra) and The Arts Unit. Over the course of 5 days (5th May – 9th May) 32 student musicians from around the state and 3 teachers acting as mentors worked with Paul and re-imagined 5 small sections of music (1 minute in length) from Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev into a piece of 20 minutes. We then recorded it from memory and passed it on to the 12 dancers who then created the movement for the ballet. We came together on Saturday 12th for the first time and rehearsed it together in the morning and then performed it in the Verbruggen Hall at the Conservatorium of Music in the afternoon.
It was wonderful to be able to work and perform with Nicola Carter in Yr.11 as equals.
I have brought so many ideas back with me and I am already sharing these with other local music teachers. I have used some of these composition ideas recently in my own classes and the students responded positively.
I am most grateful to the school for supporting me with this opportunity and to the Department of Education’s Arts Unit for an experience that was enriching for both Nicola and myself.
Kerrie O’Dea
HT CAPA
https://www.facebook.com/NSWDepartmentofEducation/videos/2101757036510032/