Production Camp

Production Camp - from a dancer’s perspective

I’m Rebecca Smedley, one of the Production Captains of our 2019 Production of ‘The Addams Family’, where I will be portraying Wednesday Addams. 

Each year the teachers and cast participate in a camp workshop, spending those few days bonding and working hard to create a cohesive group of dedicated members of all ages. This camp is ideal for welcoming the new students into our family, presenting an example of the expectations we set and kicking off rehearsals with our whole cast as we headed up to Mount Evelyn.

The camp is full on with rehearsals, the teachers working with groups and perfecting scenes. Meal time is nothing but smiles with songs playing and people singing and dancing. Nothing is as uplifting as seeing a room full of people who are just doing something they love with people they love. After a long day of rehearsing, we all gathered in the eating hall and participated in a trivia night, working in a mixed Year level group. Teamwork and competitive flair was shown as we all bonded and fought to win, rounds with musical theatre knowledge and even basic knowledge of our beloved teachers. 

After non-stop working and rehearsing the cast got together to show our hard work to everyone. As we ran through the show you could see the dedication and commitment each and every member of our production cast and team had put in. Each of the main cast blowing us away with their acting abilities and memorising of lines, the dancers continued to amaze us with their routines that they worked so hard on, that they will continue to perfect, as well as the dedication of the ensemble members being moved around on stage, constantly acting, singing and dancing. 

The Monday of Camp was April Fool’s Day and you can be sure that the students were planning something. Over the course of the camp, students from all year levels conspired and worked together secretively to play a prank on the teachers. Run by us production captains, balloons filled the rehearsal hall, chairs scattered everywhere, as all the students gathered ready to sing and dance, surprising the teachers. 

We also had the honour of learning about the plans for the technical aspect of our show, including the music and set, the talent and hard work that is being put in will help create something magical. 

Of course none of this would be possible without the hard work of our amazing Production team, teachers who put their time in for us, to make everything look as incredible as it does every year. Camp bringing us all together, starting rehearsals the right way. I know I speak for everyone when I say that I can’t wait to get back into rehearsals and put on a fantastic performance of ‘The Addams Family’ with my production family.

Bec Smedley

Production camp was such an amazing experience for the entire cast and the first stepping stone to becoming a family in 2019 and putting on spectacular shows for our audience this August.

We do a range of activities on camp and it is the time we bond and get to know each other, forming new relationships as well as the time rehearsals begin and our focus must kick in.

The production dancers are an essential part of the family and over the course of the camp we learn choreography for different sections of the show, building up our performance skills and pizzazz and having a laugh along the way as we make mistakes, but then refine them.

It was so much fun working with Jordan, an amazing and well-known choreographer, over 2 days of the camp as well as learning from our fantastic production dance teachers for 2019 Ms. Chamberlain and Ms. Taylor.

The routines have begun and being a dance captain I can already tell we have a great team this year as everyone but in their best efforts and tried again when something went wrong.

We absolutely loved showing the rest of the cast what we had learnt each day and I think they were pretty amazed.

The dancers always have an incredible bond that no one can beat or take away. We all look out for each other and will work extremely hard as a team to put on the best performance we can and shine once we get on stage.