Production wrap

by Karoline Kuti, Preshil Music Coordinator

Last week Emulation Hall in Canterbury was the scene of murder and mayhem as Preshil’s 2017 production Unmurdered! finally took to the stage.

Cast members looked incredible in 1920s dress, with makeup and hair by students Anja Margach, Amaya Barrett, Audrey Robinson and Anika Blamey. The set of Bygone Days Artists’ Retreat was ingeniously designed and built by Year 9 students together with teachers Anthony Cavagna and Eliana Horn. Bronte Howell’s program, T-shirts and overall assistance made all the difference, as did Mat O’Connor’s lighting of the stage and Michelle Berner's amplification of the sound. Choreographer Julie Fleming’s dedication to her craft and rehearsing of the dancers meant that our kids had a great time and looked good too!

Maddie Irvine made the Facebook presence exciting and enticing, Judy O’Donnell made sure we all had tickets and Allona Goren kept us fed with the help of Jansy Robinson, Lisa Moyle and Karen Moulieris, Maria Cervi and Anthony Cavagna.

The lead-up to our first show, a Matinee which included our upper primary as well as Year 7 students, was an intense period of rehearsing, organising and setting up. Our small school community rallied as always to provide catering, transport, props, costumes and moral support - and that was just for the rehearsal period! By the Premiere, we had a strong team supporting our amazing students to do their absolute best and it really showed. The script had been developed over the past year and new characters were born, music was written and our actors were inspired to surpass their own expectations of themselves. Paul O’Leary, Michelle Berner and I have been consistently amazed by what these kids can do.

THE CAST

Under Paul’s incredible direction:

- Liv Carlisle was the most fabulously detestable writer Dash Reznor

- Lucinda Greene calmed us all as the Retreat’s cook Amelia Easby

- Audrey Robinson created chaos as the Retreat’s owner Euphemia Strix

- Nichaud Kuti emphasised Euphemia’s lack of compassion as Bettina Sype

- Ebony Campese and Bella Moyle kept Dash Reznor on his toes as the maids, Eleanor Huth and Addelinda Swem

- butler Burt Luckstrim played by Angelo von Moller had everybody guessing

- Princess Anastasia played by Dante Moulieris, accompanied by her down-trodden sister Madelyn played by Abbie Moyle had everyone wondering what kind of establishment this was

- Antelope Twomey the poet laureate of the Earth played by Tilly Prescott was out of the box

- Allegra Holmes a Court as Astrid Anderson led the dancers in their interpretations of the poetry

- dancers Acorn Holmes a Court, Leila Edelstein and Mila Goren-Chirco were outstanding as the Vazz sisters - Viola, Vivian and Veronica

- Zoe Wickham dazzled everyone as opera diva Anna Maria Mangioni

- Ezra Justin wowed us with his sense of humour as handyman Lurvy

- and Ruby Brooks had everyone wondering who the killer was as detective Binnix, sent in to solve the murder.

The cast worked tirelessly for months to develop their characters and create new ones and, in the end, produced a show that enthralled, excited and amazed their audience. Past students and their parents came to support the cast and crew, as did many teachers and students, with rave reviews! I cannot underestimate the support of the audience in three sell-out shows.

Congratulations to all students, parents and staff for their incredible work over the past year, months, weeks. The performances were stunning and I received a huge amount of positive feedback from audience members. Putting on a show of such high quality was an enormous commitment from everyone and we can be really proud of what we achieved together. Here’s to the 2018 production, already in planning!

Making UnMurdered! a musical

by Michelle Berner, Arlington Classroom Music Teacher

From the very beginning there was interest from the cast that our production should be set in the 1920s - and that there should be music, singing and dancing. And rightly so. Every cast member in the show has shown talent in either singing, playing instruments, songwriting and dancing. I considered the strengths of individuals and wrote accordingly to suit. It was simply a matter of listening to a large collection of fabulous 1920s music while considering the mood we wanted to create at particular points in the play. Lyrics needed to double up and exaggerate the storyline, whilst the music was intended to sound stereotypical of the era. Ideas were mainly based on musicals of the time; simple and repetitive melodies accompanied by slightly complex chord patterns.

There was full intention of co-writing all of the pieces with our cast of remarkable musical minds, and the time came when we went on camp. Lyrics were thrown around and melodies took shape...we have courageous, creative minds at this School! Special thanks to Audrey Robinson, Lucinda Greene and Zoe Wickham for lyric writing and truly productive feedback. Ezra Justin wrote most of the songs he performed; he and I played with lyrics to suit his melody and chords that he played on ukulele, adding the perfect combination of engagement, intrigue, as well as comedy!

Students were approached to play the music when the arrangements for each song were finished. These talented instrumentalists put in much time and effort to rehearse and perform these original pieces. A huge thank you to the student ensemble made up of Gulliver Poole, Amelie Justin, Dante Kuti, Tilda George-Murphy, Sam Heeps, Campbell and Hamish Cowell and Will Holmes a Court.

We were extremely grateful to have some professional musicians, including some of our own instrumental staff, join us to heighten the experience for not only the students playing alongside them but for the show overall. Special thanks to these generous and gifted people - Lucas Taranto, Josh Kelly, Adrian Perger, Atilla Kuti, Katrina Holmes a Court, James Davies and Daniel McKoy.

Gulliver Poole provided an extra level of musicianship - I was able to write an elaborate and rather challenging piano score, which would require a great deal of preparation to learn and perform, and he nailed it! Many thanks to this extraordinary musician for his dedication.

I'm looking forward to working on the next production to provide even more opportunity and experience for the wonderful students at Preshil, so that they may apply their genius once more!

School Tours

The next opportunity to tour the Secondary School

will be at our Open Day on

Wednesday 21 March 2018 at 9.15am.

To book or to speak to our Registrar about

enrolling your child for 2018

please contact Nerel Ezra on 9817 6135

or at registrar@preshil.vic.edu.au