The Arts

Catholic Performing Arts Festival

We have come to the end of what has been an exceptional display of talent from St Norbert College in the 2019 Performing Arts Festival for Catholic Schools and Colleges.

At the start of the term, the College Guitar Ensemble, Guitar Quartet and String Ensemble experienced great success. The Guitar Ensembles, both directed by Mr Don Neander performed on Friday 2 August at the Don Russell Performing Arts Centre and continued their great form over the last few years to take out two more Excellence Certificates to add to their growing collection. And in their first ever performance off campus, the String Ensemble, directed by Ms Megan Partridge, also received an Excellence Certificate in the Secondary Strings section at Trinity College on Monday 12 August.

The largest musical section of the Festival is the contemporary bands and our Year 11 Certificate II bands (14:25 and The Zingers) and the Year 12 Certificate III band (Skinny Elephants) provided some awesome sets on Monday 5 August at Prendiville Catholic College. Particular congratulations go to The Zingers who received an Excellence Certificate and to the Skinny Elephants who were awarded the first Outstanding Certificate in the Festival for St Norbert College in 2019. Special thanks to go to Ms Matilda Jenkins for her work with these bands in preparation for the show.

The College Concert Band had the opportunity to showcase their talents at the Churchlands Concert Hall stage on Monday 26 August. The ensemble played very well and received excellent feedback from a number of parents and other music teachers present, but were unlucky to not walk away with a certificate this year. To bring us to the conclusion of the festival, the choral section saw our College Chorale and Senior Vocal Ensemble perform at Trinity College on Friday 2 September. Looking to improve on their results from 2018, both ensembles sang beautifully and again received a very supportive response from the audience. Both groups were awarded Excellence Certificates, an improved result that came down to the hard work of all of the students and their director, Ms Elysia Murphy.

In addition to the College ensembles and bands that performed so well, well done to the following students for their performances in the Instrumental Solo/Duet section throughout the Festival:

Further congratulations to the following students who were awarded an Outstanding Certificate in the Instrumental Solo/Duet section of the Festival:

We are so very proud of everyone’s achievements throughout the festival in Dance, Drama and Music! Thank you to all of the students for your dedication and commitment, to the parents for your continued support and to all of the staff and the College’s leadership team for your hard work to help provide these opportunities for our students. Particular thanks to Mrs Katherine Freind for the tireless work that she puts into the festival behind the scenes both in the lead up to and during what is an incredibly busy festival!

Mr C Beins (Head of Learning Area – The Arts)

Drama Night

The Junior and Senior Drama clubs have been working very hard for many weeks in order to be ready for Drama night. We will be presenting two shows on the same night . 'Romeo to Go' and 'Little Women, Wrath of the Undead'. Tickets are $5 and are available from Mrs Friend in the Performing Arts area.

The show starts at 7.30pm on Tuesday 17 September and will finish at approximately 9pm.

The two shows you will see will then be heading to Darlington on Sunday afternoon to compete in the Independent Theatre Associations’ One Act Drama Festival. The Junior Drama Club won this competition last year so we are hoping to be able to replicate this again this year. There is a very tough field this year, so we hope to do well.

The Junior and Senior Drama clubs are not auditioned.  Anyone can join and we welcome people who want to be involved. It is great to win competitions but it is equally important to be able to gain some confidence, to step out of your comfort zone and to feel supported by your friends on stage. Not all the students in drama club want to be actors, but the fantastic benefits of working on a show together are excellent reasons for joining.

We hope to see you on Tuesday night.

Ms K Hilton (Teacher of Drama)