Inaugural Drama Performance in the Fr James O'Doherty Performing Arts Theatre

There is a humorous exchange in the award winning film, “Shakespeare in Love” where Geoffrey Rush’s character, Philip Henslowe explains the vagaries of theatre:

Philip Henslowe:

Mr Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

Hugh Fennyman:

So what do we do?

Philip Henslowe:

Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.

Hugh Fennyman:

How?

Philip Henslowe:

I don't know. It's a mystery.

After a range of “insurmountable obstacles” – the scaffolding was still up in the theatre a few days before the show, rehearsals were happening at the same time as painters were painting, an illness on the day of performance, the show went on.

For the initiated, this seems to be standard fare for theatre work around the world at any given time in history. More pointedly what it does say, and this is the stuff that you need to read between the lines in the above exchange, is that there is no obstacle that a really good ensemble cast can’t overcome. This is very true of the Year 11 Drama students who acted and collaboratively worked on the direction of extracts from Sean Riley’s “Beautiful Words.”

The play in its entirety is a two hour epic which chronicles the refugee experience and is at times set in the Auschwitz Concentration camp, Taliban –ruled Kabul, the magical Pantheon Cinema and Herring Bay on the coast of Australia at the time of refugees being washed ashore.

We chose a 15 minute montage which not only weaved some of the elements of this play but also allowed us to demonstrate some of the potential that the new Performing Arts Theatre can offer. The ceiling to floor screen and powerful projector allowed movie quality scenes from “Wizard of Oz” and “Casablanca” to be presented. The moving lights sometimes acted as spotlights, threw tropical patterns on the floor while spinning patterns replicated the shadows cast by ceiling fans.

There is some state of the art technology in the new Performing Arts Theatre just waiting to be fully exploited.

But technology is nothing without a fantastic cast and full credit to the actors who also collaboratively worked on the direction:

Eamon West

Adam Nguyen

Benedict Gbala

Lorenzo Ravida

Carlos Garcia

Christian Apolloni

Phi Ai Trinh

Mr Bob Becker

Drama Teacher