English News 

Ruby Moon  

On Wednesday the 19 May, Nossal High School staged its first live Unit 3 Theatre Studies Production. This is Nossal’s second class of Unit 3 Theatre Studies, with last year’s inaugural group doing much of the work in a virtual space. It was incredibly exciting to be able to stage a live show with a live audience during these uncertain times. 

The Ruby Moon performance is a key outcome for Unit 3 Theatre Studies, where students are required to interpret a script and need to work in two of the following areas: acting, directing, costume design, lighting design, makeup design, prop design or sound design. Students then use these two production roles as a lens to interpret the play for an audience.  The students undertake a rigorous research process and close reading exercises that are used to devise a range of creative possibilities. Following this, students experiment with the different creative possibilities until they collectively decide on a vision that will work across all production roles and the needs of the show.  

The students have been undertaking this work for the past 15 weeks which cumulated in a visually stunning and professional performance by Gabby Rota, Mila Vargas and Lydia Schuller. The performance was in an Australian Gothic Theatre Style aimed at making the audience question reality and feel a certain uneasiness throughout the performance.  From all accounts, the students certainly achieved their aim with the play.  

The students were supported by the Unit 1 Theatre class who provided technical and show support throughout the day.    

Upcoming Excursion

Excitingly Term 3, for Year 9 English, involves a live theatre experience at the Arts Centre Melbourne.  Students are booked to attend Bell Shakespeare’s interpretation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream a production, which promises to be quite magical.  As well as providing students with a wonderful theatrical experience, this production will be used to support our students in class, study of Shakespeare’s problematic comedy The Merchant of Venice. 

After the performance, students will be directed to explore the city of Melbourne using the lens of First Nation Australian poetry to develop their understanding of the different meanings of place in the twenty-first century city.

To facilitate this excursion, we are calling for up to four volunteers to assist staff in their supervision of students. We are going to the theatre on 22 July, meeting students at 10.00am at the Arts Centre Melbourne and dismissing the group from the event at 2.30pm. 

Following the excursion, there is a Careers Expo occurring at Nossal High School in the evening.

If you are able to volunteer, we would be most grateful if you were to email your expression of interest to Mr Woon. shane.woon@nossalhs.vic.edu.au

Shane Woon 

Theatre Studies Teacher

PESA News

"The Plain English Speaking Awards (PESA) 2021 was held at Nossal High School again this year, with Namira Rahman taking on the important role of MC. Contestants from a variety of schools across Melbourne participated, including our own Joel Siaw and Lola Sargasso. 

The first round of the competition consisted of prepared speeches about a topic that contestants were passionate about. My personal favourite was a speech titled "Go With The Flow", a speech reminding us to do what we feel is right, and be ourselves in a world full of competition. Other notable speeches covered a wide array of topics such as Survival vs Living, the importance of Arts in our world, and how the progression of society is resulting in declined overall mental health. All contestants were incredible in the way that they so eloquently delivered their speeches, and how they made perfect use of the power of pausing to emphasise certain points. 

The second round was significantly harder, as contestants were required to come up with a 3-minute speech on the topic 'Change is everywhere' with only 4 minutes of preparation time. The speeches that the contestants came up with all strongly reflected the things that they believe in. However, the winner of the competition had good structure to his arguments, and was able to speak without any prompts or any cue cards, which to me is astounding, given the pressure of the competition and the fact that all eyes are on you. 

Ultimately, the winner Alexander Xing, from St Kevin's College in Toorak, was the best all-rounder, with both his speeches being riveting, engaging and well structured. I learnt a lot from watching these amazing debaters, and aspire to one day be as good as they are. I can’t wait for PESA 2022!" 

Sai Kristam

Year 10

PESA Competitors from St Kevins, Avila College, Haileybury, Firbank Grammar School, Mazenod and Nossal High School.