The Arts & Technology News
Engaging in Drama
Throughout the Covid Lockdown, Drama has been a difficult subject for students to engage with. As you might imagine, acting, and learning to act, from your bedroom or living room is not a tradition of the performing arts.
However, students endured. First, by engaging with the once obsolete medium of Radio Plays. Now experiencing something of a renaissance, in the age of the podcast, radio-plays allowed students to explore acting with nothing more than their voices, and a few sound effects.
When it became uncertain at which point students would return to face-to-face learning in term 4, the year 9 drama students undertook a unit of study which might bridge the remote and classroom based learning environments. Enter, the Italian style of masked comedy; Commedia Dell’arte.
Beginning with a general overview of the performance style, and the stock characters of which it is comprised, the year 9 Drama students returned to the classroom ready to start collaborating on new devised performances, based on this long standing tradition.
The week of the 2nd of November saw these performances come to life, complete with hand-made masks, and animalistic characters, straight out of an Attenborough documentary.
In the immortal words of William Shakespeare:
“God has given you one face and you make yourselves another.”
(Hamlet; Act 3, Scene 1)
For the year 9 drama students, this is not merely a metaphor.
Pamela Fox Mr Patrick Barton
The Arts Coach - Cranbourne Campus GLB Learning Advisor
Drama Teacher - Cranbourne Campus
The 2020 St. Peter’s College Visual Art, Design and Technology Exhibition
The annual St. Peter’s College Visual Art, Design and Technology Exhibition is a culmination of work produced throughout the academic school year by Year 7 to Year 12 students who study in the field of Visual Art and Design & Technologies. This year saw the shift from presenting two separate exhibitions, to a virtual exhibition where the works of students across both campuses could be experienced by a wider audience via social media and the College website. A diverse range of outstanding art, design and technology pieces that focused on a variety of conceptual ideas such as sustainability, political and social commentary, personal and religious identity and isolation where presented.
In line with tradition, Principal Chris Black opened the virtual exhibition via video before announcing the winners of the Principals Prize for Art and the Peter Young Award for Technology.
The Principal’s Prize for Art is given to a Visual Arts student from each campus who has achieved excellence in their chosen field. This award has a strong tradition at St. Peter’s College and is held in high esteem. This year the recipient of the Principals Prize for Art from the Cranbourne Campus is Year 11 VCE Art student Claudia Berke for her work entitled ‘My Identity’. The recipient of the Principals Prize for Art from the Clyde North Campus is Year 12 VCE Studio Art student Nicole Carino for her work entitled ‘Juvenoia’.
The Peter Young Award for Technology is given to a Design & Technologies student from each campus who has achieved excellence in their chosen field. Peter Young was a founding teacher at St. Peter’s College in the Technology Faculty and the award was struck when he finished his teaching time here. This year the recipient of the Peter Young Award for Technology from the Cranbourne Campus is Year 11 VCE Product Design and Technology student Emily Andrew for her wall mounted cityscape light sculpture. The recipient of the Peter Young Award for Technology from the Clyde North Campus is Year 11 VCE Product Design and Technology student Ankit Kumar for his innovative hexagonal light fixture.
We would like to congratulate these worthy recipients and all the students for their determination and hard work to produce some truly inspiring works throughout this particularly challenging year.
Vivienne Hayes and Pamela Fox Tom Myers and Calen Robinson
– Arts Teaching and Learning Coaches – Technology Teaching and Learning Coaches