Artspace

Jasper's Photo

Year 12 Art production student Jasper Maxwell O'Brien was recently selected as a finalist in the student category of the Headon Photo festival in Sydney. Twenty finalists were selected from around the country.  Headon is an international photo festival with exhibitions from featured artists and competition categories exhibited at various venues around Sydney. Jaspers work was exhibited at the Paddington Reservoir Gardens which also showcased several exhibitions from renowned international photographers. For more information about the Head On photo festival, visit their website

Dramatic News

Situated in the middle of the Commercial Road campus, The Bill & Marjorie Oats Theatre is a busy classroom and theatre. Over the course of the year, students from Years 7-12 share their work with family and friends. The Clemes students undertaking the Tasmanian Certificate of Education present published works. The experience of performing to a public audience is not only part of their assessment, but one that brings great satisfaction to the cast and crew as a culmination of many weeks of work. Earlier this year, the Year 12 Theatre Performance class amused audiences with a farce, Heir to a Misfortune (Maxwell, 2001). This classic who done it drama, based around who will inherit the family money, contained many farcical conventions and proved most enjoyable for both performers and their audiences. Alongside the actors, students undertaking the Technical Theatre course built and painted the set and operated the lighting and sound for the shows. This term, Year 11 present Bamboozled! (Brill, 1981). Featuring well known Commedia del’arte characters such as Pantelone, Columbina and Arlecchino, this comedy provides an excellent vehicle for the cast to explore physical slapstick comedy and verbal repartee.

                                                Tammy Giblin, Head of Arts Faculty.

Shrek The Musical Jr. 

This year’s 5-8 Musical was Shrek the Musical Junior and it was held in the Farrall Centre on 25 and 26 May. The show involved over 100 performers and crew members from across all sections of the School and was widely attended by our supportive community over the three performances. Highlights were the charisma and humour of our leads as Donkey, Shrek and Fiona, the fabulous vocal and dancing skill of our ensemble, and the professional stage management of the tech crew. These projects always take a lot of effort from everyone involved, including the supporting families, but it was a joy to see The Farrall Centre transformed once again into a theatre. A big thank you to the creative dreamers Adele Harding, Kerry Bennett, Marty Crerar and David Szoka. Special thank you to the generous and talented parents that designed, made, solved and found costumes, props and set. We look forward to the possible productions in the future. 

Visit from BJ Brooks

We recently welcomed American composer BJ Brooks to the School. Several staff and students met BJ when attending a band camp in Texas in 2016. BJ worked with Friends’ School ensembles and students, and his music was featured in a concert in The Farrall Centre on Friday 1 June. The concert, The Willows of Winter, saw seven school and community bands, including our own wind ensemble, come together to perform BJ’s music as well as other repertoire. The audience packed the auditorium with everyone present delighted to be part of such a community music-making event.